ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Legislation to legalize recreational marijuana for adults in Minnesota underwent a major rewrite Tuesday with the addition of new language to regulate and protect the state’s burgeoning industry in low-potency edibles and drinkables.
Low-potency products containing THC derived from industrial hemp instead of full-strength cannabis have been legal in Minnesota since last year. But the law that legalized them, which quietly slipped through with many lawmakers apparently unaware of what it did, lacks much of a framework for regulating products such as gummies and seltzers with dosages capped at 5 milligrams of THC.
The hemp provisions were added to the version traveling through the Senate when it stopped in the State and Local Government Committee on Tuesday. A similar amendment will be added to the House version of the bill next week when it returns to the Commerce Committee, said the lead House author and committee chairman, Democratic Rep. Zack Stephenson, of Coon Rapids.
“The prohibition of cannabis is a failed system that has not achieved the desired goals,” the other lead author, Democratic Sen. Lindsey Port, of Burnsville, told the state and local government panel. “It has had incredible costs for our communities, especially for communities of color.”
The 142-page amendment adopted Tuesday deals extensively…