Brooks: Will legalization of pot in S.D. waft to Minnesota?

While we were watching other elections, voters in South Dakota legalized marijuana.

What will that mean for Minnesota?

In Rock County, Minn., close to the South Dakota border, bemused officials took in the news.

"It was a shocker," said Rock County Sheriff Evan Verbrugge. "I think everybody in this area was really surprised that South Dakota voted this way before Minnesota."

That's pot politics. Lots of issues split along partisan lines — blue against red, liberal against conservative, us against them — but not marijuana. Never marijuana.

President Donald Trump won 61% of the vote in South Dakota, while 54% of South Dakotans voted for full legalization of recreational and medical marijuana. Montana, Arizona and New Jersey legalized last week, bringing the number of full legalization states to 15. Voters in Mississippi legalized medical marijuana. There are Republicans who support full legalization; there are Democrats who staunchly oppose it.

South Dakota voters made their choice. What does it mean for Minnesota? Not a lot. Not right away.

Verbrugge isn't expecting much trouble. "It's still illegal in the state of Minnesota," he said. "We might end up picking up a few more people, but it's not going to be any more than what we're currently doing."

If Minnesota's marijuana laws are going to change, that change is going to have to come out of St. Paul. The last big change lawmakers made was in 2014, when they legalized medical cannabis and crafted the nation's most restrictive, least accessible, most expensive, least profitable cannabis business.

Over the years, some restrictions have eased. Getting into the program is easier now; the number of clinics in the state has expanded from eight, and each year the Health Department adds new qualifying conditions. By December, the state will decide whether anxiety should be a new qualifying condition.

"Everyone is just completely overwhelmed, between the pandemic and the election," said Maren Schroeder, policy director and co-founder of Sensible Change Minnesota, an advocacy group that helped push medical cannabis into law in this state. "Adding to the noise is just not our style."

But advocates hope lawmakers are open to tweaks in existing law, such as allowing patients legal access to cannabis in its plant form, not just processed into more expensive pills, pastes and oils.

That raises a cautionary point for anyone planning a run for the border once South Dakota opens for cannabis business. Minnesota has decriminalized possession of small quantities of the raw plant, but penalties for concentrated cannabis can be much more severe.

"Our criminal laws don't match our medical laws," Schroeder said. "Medical laws say, 'You can't have flower, it's bad.' But our criminal laws are the opposite. 'Oh, flower? We're not worried about that, but those concentrates, those are going to get you locked up.' "

If Minnesota did want to follow South Dakota's lead, House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley, has had a bipartisan legalization bill ready to go for years.

jennifer.brooks@startribune.com 612-673-4008

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