Bipartisan Bill Sets Its Sights On Legal Pot As Soon As 2022

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A bipartisan bill introduced at the Minnesota State Capitol today would legalize recreational marijuana.

The bill would legalize sales in 2022, and it would also allow past convictions of non-violent marijuana offenses to be expunged from a person's criminal record.

While the proposal has bipartisan support, it also has a powerful opponent: Republican Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka.

The recreational marijuana bill would bar sale of pot to those under 21 and create a misdemeanor offense for driving while high.

The bill treats pot much like cigarettes, barring smoking any place cigarette smoking is prohibited.

Democratic Sen. Melisa Franzen of Edina says now is the time.

"Rarely as a state legislature do you have the ability for a win-win scenario, to tax a product that consumers agree should be taxed and regulated. By doing so, we are making it safer by removing the need for the black markets to exist, while eliminating the harm it has done to society," Franzen said.

Republican Sen. Scott Jensen of Carver County is also a physician. He says with the expansion of medical marijuana, and with more states legalizing recreational use, legalization here is inevitable.

"We have to be in front of this. So, responsible age of 21, addressing things like gateway considerations, addressing impaired safety on the roads, public safety issues. Those are critical issues now, so we have to have the discussion," Jensen said.

Sen. Jensen said 90 percent of those attending a recent town hall meeting in his conservative district say they support beginning a discussion on legalizing pot.
But the bill has a powerful opponent in Republican Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka.

"We are working and likely to pass resources for opioid abuse and it seems counterproductive, that at the same time, we would recreationalize marijuana," Gazelka said. "That they can use it anyplace they want, it seems to me heading in the opposite direction."

Sen. Gazelka, despite his opposition, says he would not block the bill from going before a Senate committee.

Supporters of legalizing recreational pot have a powerful ally in Gov. Tim Walz. Now, the backers of this recreational bill admit this may not be the year this passes at the legislature, but they say they believe its a matter of time before it eventually does become law in Minnesota.

"I don't know that legalizing recreational marijuana can get done in 2019, but 2020 is a possibility," Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman said.

There is a separate bill at the legislature that would put the issue before Minnesota voters in the form of a constitutional amendment.