The stars seem to have aligned for the passage of a bill in the Minnesota Legislature legalizing marijuana for recreational use by adults in 2023.
However, nothing at the Legislature is a sure thing even with one party in control of all major levers of government.
“Some form of legalization will occur,” predicts Carleton College political analyst Steven Schier.
However, what the final bill will look like is an open question.
“One question is how far do you go with legalization? Do you legalize it completely? Do you allow it to be private sector? Do you have it be run through the state government?” Schier said. “A whole bunch of specific questions here that have to be sorted out. And I think some of them will be pretty sticky questions for the Democrats.”
This file photo shows cannabis stored in a mason jar. (KSTP/file)
That’s because Democrats now control the Minnesota House, Senate and Governor’s Office, and most Democrats generally favor some form of legalizing recreational marijuana use.
The DFL-controlled Minnesota House passed legislation to legalize recreational marijuana in 2021. However, Republicans controlled the Senate at the time and didn’t even give the legislation a hearing.
Now, with Democrats controlling the House and Senate, they also have a marijuana supporter in Gov. Tim Walz.
“It just make sense. Prohibition didn’t work. We have better regulation. We know what’s in these things —you know it’s adult use,” he said in a…
