ST. PAUL — Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan have announced Monday, Jan. 6, that Charlene Briner will step down as director of the Office of Cannabis Management, and general counsel Eric Taubel will serve as director for the time being.

Briner’s resignation comes after
repeated halts to the cannabis industry’s launch,
which was intended for this month but is now slated for early summer. The office was created in August 2023 following the Minnesota Legislature legalizing marijuana and is responsible for overseeing Minnesota’s new regulated cannabis market.

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“Charlene Briner has gotten Minnesota’s emerging cannabis industry off the ground in a safe and responsible way,” Walz said in the release. “It’s no easy task to build a regulatory framework around an entirely new industry from scratch, but under Charlene’s leadership, Minnesota laid the foundation for a successful marketplace for years to come.”

Taubel served as the Office of Cannabis Management’s general counsel for the last year and oversaw the drafting of cannabis regulations and tribal compact negotiations, according to the release. Taubel will assume the interim director role after Briner’s last day on Jan. 17.

“I am incredibly proud of the team we’ve built and the milestones met in our ongoing work to stand up this new office and implement Minnesota’s cannabis law,” Briner said in the release. “I am confident the talented public servants continuing their important work will do so in a way that exemplifies OCM’s commitment to launch a safe, accessible, and equitable cannabis industry.”