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IPR News
MINNESOTA IS IOWA'S LATEST NEIGHBOR WITH LEGAL RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA
Iowa Public Radio | By Josie Fischels,
Samantha McIntosh, Ben Kieffer
Published August 28, 2023 at 9:05 AM CDT
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Illustration by Josie Fischels
/
IPR News
Iowa is now surrounded on three sides by states with legal marijuana.
Minnesota became the 23rd state in the U.S. to legalize recreational marijuana
on Aug. 1.
It's the third of Iowa's neighboring states to allow residents to possess and
grow marijuana. Missouri voters passed a constitutional amendment in November
2022 and the Illinois General Assembly passed legislation in 2019 to do the
same.
Recreational marijuana is not legal in Iowa, and while Minnesota's the most
recent state to pass legislation, not all of Iowa's neighbors are rushing to
support legalization, either. Wisconsin has yet to consider medical marijuana,
though a legislative committee may consider it later this year.
Nebraska lawmakers also proposed bills this year to allow for the commercial
sale of recreational cannabis and to decriminalize some possessions of cannabis.
A group led by lawmakers, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, are making their
third attempt to put the question of legalizing medical marijuana on voter's
ballots in November 2024. And in South Dakota, medical marijuana has been legal
for a few years, and polling has shown there's a chance recreational marijuana
could be legalized next year.
In the meantime, some states where marijuana is illegal, including Iowa, are
still getting their high through other methods, like consumable hemp.
MINNESOTA EASING INTO RECENT LEGALIZATION
According to Minnesota Public Radio politics reporter Brian Bakst, the state
“tiptoed” into the legal cannabis market.
“The THC and hemp-derived market was the first step, as maybe will be the case
in Iowa,” Bakst said on IPR’sRiver to River. “They've been legal for about a
year now — these gummies and beverages seltzers — those types of things. You can
get them in a lot of places around the state, but this month was the first time
that you could legally possess cannabis.”
He said it will likely be a bit longer before customers can buy cannabis in a
retail setting.
The change, Bakst said, came with a shift in Minnesota’s political environment.
When Democrats took control of the state legislature and the governor’s office,
they prioritized marijuana legalization.
“They [said] that people are essentially using this drug anyways. They're
getting it. Sometimes they're not getting a safe drug. They might get it laced
with something that they weren't intending to buy -- maybe fentanyl,” Bakst
said. “So they hope that this legalized regulated market will add some safety
measures to the cannabis that people purchase and use that there's been a black
market for a while.”
Illustration by Josie Fischels
/
IPR News
Source: Minnesota Public Radio
MISSOURI LEARNED FROM OTHER STATES
In Missouri, the state benefited from legalizing marijuana only after a number
of other states had done it, according to politics reporter Jason Rosenbaum at
St. Louis Public Radio.
Recreational marijuana was passed by a ballot measure in November 2022. It
needed a simple majority vote.
“I think that we have been able to avoid some of the pitfalls of states like
Illinois and others that legalized earlier, but had some issues with how the
program was administered" Rosenbaum said on River to River.
Since Missouri had already legalized medical marijuana prior to legalizing it
for recreational use, Rosenbaum said the transition was easy.
“I think that Missouri… already had an infrastructure in place. They already had
dispensaries, they already had entities that were cultivating and manufacturing
marijuana products," Rosenbaum said. "So, because of that, it was almost a
little more seamless than a state that was starting from scratch.”
He says the state is still limited.
“Even though there are probably more licenses to give out than states that are
more restrictive, it's still a limited market, and there are still winners and
losers,” Rosenbaum said. “There's still animosity between entities that get
marijuana licenses and ones that don't, because… this is a very lucrative
industry.”
Illustration by Josie Fischels
/
IPR News
Source: St. Louis Public Radio
ILLINOIS, HOME OF THE 'SILICON VALLEY OF CANNABIS,' HAS PROFITED MAJORLY — BUT
TAXES ARE SKY-HIGH
In Illinois, marijuana sales bring in over $1 billion in annual revenue,
according to cannabis reporter Robert McCoppin with the Chicago Tribune.
Cannabis taxes in the state are the highest in the nation — up to 25%.
Faced with little competition, three of the biggest marijuana-producing
companies in the country have established themselves in Chicago and expanded
into other states. Illinois' sales from out-of-state customers — which total a
third of all marijuana sales — have taken a slight hit since Missouri legalized
recreational marijuana, with lower taxes.
Smoking remains illegal in public and is only allowed for those 21 and older.
Illustration by Josie Fischels
/
IPR News
Source: WBEZ
OTHER STATES TURNING TO CONSUMABLE HEMP
Iowa’s consumable hemp program, regulated by Iowa Department of Health and Human
Services, has allowed registered retailers and producers to sell non-inhalable
products that contain 0.3% or less total THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the
principal psychoactive component of cannabis. It was created after hemp was
legalized in the 2018 Farm Bill, which has opened doors in other states where
recreational marijuana is illegal as well, such as Iowa's neighbor South Dakota.
River Bluff, an east Dubuque company which also owns a cannabis dispensary in
Roselle, a suburb of Chicago, is one of the businesses profiting off the
program.
Co-owner Ali Gansemer says the company seeks to reduce the stigma around
cannabis use.
She says hemp impacts the body in a similar way to THC as it's a different
species of cannabis plant. The company works with local hemp farmers to secure
hemp oil to make their products in compliance with Iowa law.
She said she finds Iowa’s hemp program very well outlined, so businesses can
easily interpret the law and how to produce their products legally.
“So for example, they've been very clear there's no hemp consumable inhalable
product,” she said on River to River. “We're on the flip side of that, when it
comes to edibles and things like drinks or topicals. They're just very clear on
what type of dosage you can have, and even what the labels should look like and
what needs to be on those labels.”
She says low-dose cannabis drinks are going to be “the next biggest thing” on
the market.
“For those individuals that feel like to be social, but maybe want to move away
from alcohol, there should be a new product line that can help them,” she said.
“So again, we've taken the laws of Iowa, because these are some of the strictest
we've seen, but some of the most clear that we've seen, and we've arranged our
product categories to fit within that scope. So it's actually helped us as a
business to move forward in a much more clear path.”
She says she sees more support from Iowans being the key to change.
“The more groups that are advocating for how cannabis is truly changing
individuals’ lives, the more support we should be receiving, and we can expect
to receive as others go out and advocate on behalf of the products as well.”
Tags
IPR News marijuanamedical marijuanaIowa Legislature
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Josie Fischels
Josie Fischels is a Digital News producer at Iowa Public Radio. She is a 2022
graduate of the University of Iowa’s school of journalism where she also majored
in theater arts (and, arguably, minored in the student newspaper, The Daily
Iowan). Previously, she interned with the Denver Post in Denver, Colorado, and
NPR in Washington, D.C.
See stories by Josie Fischels
Samantha McIntosh
Samantha McIntosh is a talk show producer at Iowa Public Radio. Prior to IPR,
Samantha worked as a reporter for radio stations in southeast and west central
Iowa under M&H Broadcasting, and before that she was a weekend music host for GO
96.3 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
See stories by Samantha McIntosh
Ben Kieffer
Ben Kieffer is the host of IPR's River to River
See stories by Ben Kieffer
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