Lake County Administrator Matthew Huddleston shared information from the Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) with the Board of Commissioners at last week’s meeting. Local officials face a pretty big learning curve as legislators in St. Paul and staff from OCM work to iron out details on how cannabis dispensaries will be established, licensed, registered and regulated in the state. The projection from St. Paul is that businesses that sell cannabis products will be able to begin operation in 2025. While this is welcome news for many residents across Minnesota, there are many details that local units of government will need to work out.
For example, county officials will be required to register retailers and perform compliance checks on retail outlets. County and city officials will need to adopt ordinances addressing where dispensaries can be located and when they can operate. They will have to determine where cannabis products can or can’t be consumed in public spaces and how products will be taxed. They will need to perform inspections of retail businesses, conduct age verification checks and provide training for law enforcement officers. Additionally, decisions will need to be made as to whether or not cities will establish their own municipal cannabis stores and law enforcement and the courts will need to prepare an expungement process.
One could say that America has a history of a failed approach to law enforcement around the use of cannabis products. Prohibition has clearly not worked and, it can be argued, has cost U.S. taxpayers enormous amounts of money. Idaho and Nebraska are the only states in the Union that continue to prohibit the use of cannabis while all other states have legalized marijuana use either for medical or recreational purposes.
Lake County Attorney Russell Conrow, will be retiring as of May 31st. The Board of Commissioners thanked him for his service to the county and wished him well in retirement.
In other business, the Board approved two resolutions in support of providing much needed housing in Lake County. One resolution authorized the transfer of $2,000,000 to the Lake County Housing Trust Fund from one-time federal funding sources including the Local Aid and Tribal Consistency Fund and the American Rescue Plan. The other resolution supports the Lake County Housing and Redevelopment Authority’s use of $1.2 million from the overall Housing Trust Fund account to go toward the Silverpoint II apartment project in Silver Bay.
The next County Commissioners meeting is scheduled for April 23rd at 2:00.
