Did loophole in new Minnesota law legalize recreational THC products?
The law allows products to contain no more than 5 mg of THC per serving, which is about half of the standard dose of recreational marijuana products.
A new law effective last Friday in Minnesota allows people ages 21 and older to buy edibles and beverages that contain a limited amount of THC.
The law governs the packaging, sale and makeup of cannabis products. The law also corrects a gap in the 2019 state law implementing the 2018 federal legalization of the cultivation of hemp plants, and permits the sale of intoxicating edibles using compounds derived from those plants.
According to the new law, those products may not contain more than 5 milligrams of THC per serving, and no more than 50 mg per package. Five milligrams of THC is about half of the standard dose that is found in recreational marijuana products in other states. The law says that THC products must be derived from legally certified hemp, but industry experts note that 5 milligrams will produce the same effect whether it’s derived from hemp or marijuana.
The bill first stood alone as House File 3595 but then was incorporated into a large health policy and finance bill — House File 4065, which was signed by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, on June 2 and became effective on July 1, 2022.
The issue began with a state Supreme Court case in December that pointed out a gap in Minnesota law between THC in nonliquid form derived from industrial hemp. In the case Minnesota v. Loveless, the Minnesota Supreme Court reversed the conviction of possession of leaf material containing THC because the state failed to show that it wasn’t hemp. Similar charges were upheld involving vaping liquid.
The Loveless case pointed out a loophole that the legislature aimed to fix, but even after the passage of the bill, there was little explanation of the sweep of the legislation. It did not become clear until after the bill became effective, on July 1, that Minnesota had legalized a recreational marijuana product that is derived from hemp, rather than the related marijuana plant.
While the new law is an improvement over what was in place before, basically no regulation, no age limits, no bans on enticing children via colorful packing and edible shapes, regulation of products according to the new law has so far been inconsistent. No licensing is required. By oversight, the law apparently allows delta-8 THC to be extracted from CBD and processed to increase its potency.
The Star Tribune has reported that one senator didn’t realize that the new law would legalize edibles. The law is currently an outlier, allowing for recreational use of cannabis while stopping just short of full marijuana legalization. Minnesota is currently the only state in the country that allows edible-only recreational cannabis use.
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