ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) – Cannabis is coming to Minnesota in a much bigger way, but the industry is still changing before it really begins.

Cannabis is coming

Small changes, big questions:

The Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) is asking for small changes, but they’re answering big questions about unfair competition and even a possible collapse of the medical cannabis industry.

Minnesota is just a few months away from issuing retail licenses, but it’s nowhere near ready to launch a self-contained cannabis market.

“Our demand study anticipates that we need about 1.5 to 2 million square feet of canopy to satisfy the Minnesota demand for cannabis products,” said OCM interim director Eric Taubel. “At present, the state has somewhere in the neighborhood of 60,000 square feet.”

Supply shortage?

Joint effort:

That means growers in the state can provide about 3% of the demand. And it means the state needs to issue a lot of licenses for cultivation, probably more than 100 of them.

But the OCM also expects tribal growers to fill some of that need.

That could happen through compacts the governor’s office is negotiating that would allow tribes to open cannabis businesses off reservation.

The only problem is, lawmakers don’t know what’s happening in those negotiations.

“It’s hard for us to sit here today with a little more than two months left in this legislative session, to know what laws and what rules to put in place, unless this process is more transparent,” said Rep. Tom O’Driscoll, (R-Sartell).

Medical malfunction?

Sourcing stuff:

Medical cannabis cultivators can’t help much, either.

Patients are concerned that growers will opt out of the medical market because of limits to how much they can grow and because the medical market will only shrink as recreational use increases.

But even as the OCM oversees the country’s third-slowest rollout from legalization to licensed retail sales, leaders are confident it’ll shake out fine: Tribal businesses won’t have an unfair advantage and the medical industry will survive.

“I think that we’re going to be in a place where all of these different constituencies are entering the market at relatively similar times and positions, and each of them will have a fair and real opportunity to build their business,” said Taubel.

Fine-tuning

Bills in bunches:

The fine-tuning includes things like letting municipal liquor stores continue to sell hemp-derived beverages even if they get into the recreational cannabis business.

There’s a bill reducing the stake a social equity partner needs to have in a business, and they’re working on another one to have reciprocity in other states, at least for people with medical marijuana cards.