They sold residents legalization. They delivered a corporate takeover dressed up as progress.
Cannabis legalization in Minnesota was built on a promise — economic opportunity for residents, closure for communities that bore the cost of criminalization, and a tax base that worked for the public good. That promise was broken in the implementation. The licensing structure, the capital requirements, the regulatory burden — all of it was calibrated for large operators with deep pockets and connections. This directive recalibrates the entire system for Minnesota residents and the small operators who live here.
Right now — while most people are not paying attention — the Minnesota legislature has bills on the floor that will decide who actually owns the cannabis market. Two of them are threats to residents and small operators. One of them is a tactical bridge this administration will support while we build the infrastructure to make it unnecessary. Here is where this Governor stands on each one.
HF 4397 introduces a new "Cannabis Macrobusiness" license. On paper it replaces the medical combination business framework. In practice it clears the runway for the large medical entities that already control the top of the market to pivot instantly into adult-use — with infrastructure, capital, and regulatory relationships that no startup microbusiness can match. The "Macro" license is not a licensing category. It is a consolidation vehicle. It allows established corporate players to absorb market share before resident-owned microbusinesses are even established. Once that consolidation happens, it does not reverse.
This bill clears the runway for corporate consolidation before local owners can plant roots. It creates a Macrobusiness advantage that squeezes out veteran-owned, minority-owned, and resident-owned microbusinesses before they have a chance to grow. This Governor will veto the Macrobusiness Monopoly. We maintain the decoupled supply chain. No Macros until the Micros are established.
Position: Will Veto · Reason: Protects Out-of-State Corporate ConsolidationHF 4398 expands civil penalties for individuals found in possession with an "intent to sell" without a license. This is prohibition-era policing with a new label. The bill targets the small-scale resident grower — the person growing a few plants in their garage — while the state's own licensing portal remains a bottleneck that makes going legal nearly impossible for that same person. It is not about public safety. It is about revenue capture and maintaining enforcement pressure on the residents that legalization was supposed to free. The criminal exposure does not go away. It just gets reclassified as "civil."
This bill brings back Civil Prohibition. It targets the individual resident while the licensing system remains inaccessible. We do not expand "intent-to-sell" penalties that bypass due process or return us to failed war-on-drugs tactics. We focus on license accessibility, not penalty escalation. This Governor will veto the Intent-to-Sell Trap.
Position: Will Veto · Reason: Returns Criminal Exposure to Legalized ResidentsHF 3615 extends the authorization for out-of-state cannabis testing through March 2027. This bill exists because the current administration failed to build Minnesota's own testing infrastructure before the market launched. That failure created a bottleneck — resident microbusiness operators cannot move product because there are not enough in-state labs to test it. HF 3615 is not a permanent solution. It is a holding measure that keeps small shops open while we build what should have been built before legalization launched.
This Governor will honor the March 2027 out-of-state testing extension — specifically to protect the Resident Microbusiness from being choked out by lab backlogs the current administration created. The extension is a bridge, not a destination. Directive 07 builds the Minnesota Lab Infrastructure that makes this extension unnecessary before it expires. Local testing. Local accountability. Local ownership of the supply chain.
Position: Support as Bridge · Timeline: March 2027 · Next Step: MN Lab Infrastructure BuildThe people who voted for legalization. The people who were told this market would be for them. The people who are sitting on the outside of a market that was built with their tax dollars and sold to them as a new beginning.
The communities most harmed by cannabis criminalization — Black, Native, and low-income Minnesotans — are the least represented in the licensed market. That is not a coincidence. That is the result of licensing costs, capital requirements, and regulatory burdens specifically calibrated to exclude them. Social equity in cannabis licensing is not a political program. It is a debt. A market built on their criminalization owes them a seat at the table.
A $430 million market is being built in Minnesota. These numbers show who is positioned to own it under the current structure — and what this directive changes.
Every step in this directive is tied to existing authority. None of it requires the legislature to act first. The Governor supervises the Office of Cannabis Management. That supervision starts the moment this order is signed.
The people who benefit from the current market structure will push back. Some of them will do it with legitimate-sounding arguments. Here is what they will say and the truth behind it.
Most directives draw from the Resident Solution Fund. This one feeds it. The 15% cannabis excise tax is one of the largest recurring revenue sources this campaign controls. For the first time, residents will see exactly where every dollar of that tax goes — and why.
Minnesota collected $27 million in cannabis tax revenue in 2025. As the market matures toward its $430 million projection, that figure grows significantly. This directive hard-codes a transparent allocation framework so that growth benefits residents, not just the general fund ledger.
The Director of the Office of Cannabis Management is directed to conduct a comprehensive review of all cannabis licensing fee structures, capital requirements, financial sufficiency standards, and administrative compliance burdens within 90 days of the effective date of this order. The review shall specifically identify every element that disproportionately excludes small Minnesota operators and individuals without access to significant outside capital, and shall produce binding administrative rule changes that reduce or remove such barriers. A public report of findings and adopted rule changes shall be published within 120 days. The 65% local ownership requirement under Minnesota Statutes section 342.22 shall be enforced without exception and strengthened through rulemaking where administrative interpretation has eroded its application.
OCM is directed to establish and enforce a social equity licensing track that provides priority processing, reduced application fees, technical assistance, and access to capital connection services for applicants from communities disproportionately impacted by cannabis criminalization, as defined pursuant to Minnesota Statutes section 342.25. This track shall include:
Vague social equity commitments without measurable outcomes are not compliance with this order. OCM shall report to the Governor's office quarterly on progress against defined targets.
All current cannabis license holders shall submit complete ownership disclosure to OCM within 60 days of the effective date of this order. All prospective license holders shall submit ownership disclosure as a condition of licensure. Disclosure shall include complete ownership structure, beneficial ownership, parent and affiliated company relationships, and the percentage breakdown of Minnesota-resident versus out-of-state ownership. OCM shall publish this data in a free, publicly searchable database updated on a quarterly basis. Any license holder that fails to provide accurate and timely disclosure, or that materially misrepresents ownership structure, shall be subject to license suspension and referral to the Attorney General.
The Commissioner of Revenue and the Commissioner of Finance are directed to implement a transparent allocation framework for cannabis excise tax revenue collected pursuant to Minnesota Statutes section 297D. Beginning with the first full fiscal quarter following the effective date of this order, cannabis excise tax revenue shall be allocated across three defined channels:
The specific percentage allocation between channels shall be established by the Commissioners of Revenue and Finance in consultation with the Governor's Office, based on fiscal analysis of actual program costs across the receiving directives, and published for public comment prior to implementation. The Departments of Revenue and Finance shall publish quarterly disbursement reports showing actual dollar amounts received, allocated, and disbursed to each channel within 30 days of each quarter's close. This allocation framework supersedes general fund routing until modified by statute.
The Governor's Office is directed to monitor all pending and introduced cannabis-related legislation during each legislative session and to issue public statements within 14 days of introduction on any bill that would: harm small or resident-owned cannabis operators; reduce or weaken social equity licensing provisions; expand criminal or civil penalties for cannabis conduct that is legal or should be legal under existing law; or reduce the transparency and accountability requirements established by this order. Public statements shall identify the bill by number, describe its effect on residents and small operators in plain language, and state the Governor's position. Minnesota residents have a right to know what is moving in the legislature and where this Governor stands on it before it becomes law.
OCM is directed to establish a preferential licensing track for cannabis businesses that are majority-owned by Minnesota residents, with an additional scoring preference for business owners residing in the community where the licensed operation will be located. Where two or more otherwise qualified applications compete for a limited license, Minnesota-resident ownership shall be a determinative scoring factor. OCM shall adopt administrative rules implementing this track within 90 days. This preference operates in addition to — and does not replace — the social equity licensing track established elsewhere in this order.
This administration shall honor the out-of-state cannabis testing extension established by HF 3615 through March 2027 as a tactical operational measure to protect resident microbusiness operators from laboratory backlogs created by the failure to build in-state testing infrastructure prior to market launch. Simultaneously, the Department of Agriculture and OCM are directed to produce a Minnesota Cannabis Testing Infrastructure Plan within 120 days, identifying: candidate facility sites and counties; funding mechanisms including grants, bonding, and public-private partnership structures; state certification pathways for Minnesota testing laboratories; and a build and certification timeline designed to make the HF 3615 extension unnecessary before its March 2027 expiration. The extension is a bridge. This order builds the road.
The 2023 Cannabis Act required automatic expungement of qualifying convictions. That process was ordered but not completed. This administration finishes it through three tiers:
The OCM/BCA Expungement Self-Identification Portal is hereby established. Any individual who believes they qualify for Tier 1 expungement but whose record has not been cleared may submit their conviction documentation through the portal. The portal conducts a preliminary eligibility screen and routes qualifying submissions to a BCA reviewer with a mandatory 30-day response requirement. Submissions that do not qualify for Tier 1 are automatically flagged for Tier 2 review with notification to the applicant. No lawyer is required to submit. No fees are charged.
Licensing bridge: Any individual whose Tier 1 expungement is identified as qualifying but not yet processed due to BCA backlog is eligible for the social equity licensing track immediately — pending status is sufficient. Residents do not wait for bureaucratic processing to access the market that was built partly as remedy for the harm they experienced.
Consumption lounges are authorized under Minnesota law. In practice, the licensing pathway has been slow-walked by OCM and blocked by local moratoriums that contradict state law. This administration corrects both failures:
The consumption lounge market is the most underdeveloped segment of Minnesota's legal cannabis framework. It is also the segment most accessible to small resident operators — a lounge requires a venue and a license, not an industrial grow operation or a multi-million dollar dispensary buildout. This directive opens that door. The residents who identified this gap first should be the ones who walk through it.
This Executive Order is effective immediately upon signing and shall remain in effect for the duration of this administration, or until superseded by statute establishing equivalent or greater protections for resident operators, social equity applicants, and the accountability mechanisms established herein. Agency heads shall submit implementation plans to the Governor's Office within 30 days of signing. Nothing in this order shall be construed to weaken consumer safety standards, product testing requirements, or age-verification requirements applicable to licensed cannabis operators.
They told you legalization was for you. Then they built a market for everyone else. The receipts are public. The bills have numbers. This directive names them, vetoes the ones that hurt you, and builds the market that was promised. Day one.
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