The Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management held a listening session in Duluth. State officials are informing residents about the cannabis industry and the recently signed 2026 Cannabis Omnibus Bill. Residents across Minnesota are being invited to this listening sessions throughout the summer and in the fall.

Eric Tauble, the Executive Director, said the new law supports small businesses and medical cannabis patients.

“This last legislative session that just wrapped up in St. Paul,” Tauble said. “We made some pretty big changes to the program to make it easier for medical cannabis patients. Unlike most states that legalize adult use cannabis, we already had kind of a thriving hemp market with the hemp beverages and the hemp edibles.”

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By November of 2026, federal rules will restrict businesses to selling THC/CBD products containing .04 milligrams per container. Businesses and state officials say this will harm the cannabis industry.

“We’re going to be watching for over the next couple months is what’s happening at the federal level. Both with hemp, which may face a ban in November, and also with cannabis. Medical cannabis recently was rescheduled to make it not a schedule one narcotic, but a schedule three,” Tauble said. “The same may happen for adult use. Certainly we’re working with our license holders to kind of figure out what that means for them. Then make any changes that we can before the legislature is back in session.”

Officials with the Office of Cannabis Management said the recreational cannabis market has affected medical patients. The changes are with adding more options in the number of products available to purchase. The University of Minnesota Medical School’s Duluth campus is conducting a survey on cannabis use. They are studying its effects on stress and chronic pain.

Dr. Mustafa al’Abisi, is the Director of the Duluth Global Health Research Institute. He said having a wide variety of cannabis products on the market provides more options for participants in their medical research of CBD.

“So the hope is that our data or research that’s conducted by our team and teams around the country will provide us clear answers as to the benefits or lack thereof of CBD,” Dr. al’Abisi said.

The U.S. Department of Justice reclassified marijuana as a schedule 3 drug under the Controlled Substances Act, but this only applies to FDA-approved cannabis drugs and state-licensed medical marijuana. Recreational cannabis remains a schedule 1 controlled substance and is not federally recognized.

“There’s so much in the air about CBD. In the last few years, in particular the last, I would say, five to ten years, it became like a panacea and a whole industry was built around it,” Dr. al’Abisi said. “The reason why people use CBD has been to supposedly sleep better, feel more relaxed, and tolerate stress more. But we really don’t have hard evidence to support that and that’s why we are doing the studies that we are doing currently here and in our collaborating university in Baltimore, John Hopkins.”

The Office of Cannabis Management extended the CanGrow application deadline to July 13, 2026. This is to give more time for eligible applications and ensure available funding can be fully awarded. The goal is to support farmers, organizations and technical assistance providers entering Minnesota’s cannabis industry.