Dozens lined up outside stores July 1, the first day delta-9 THC could be obtained legally for recreational use in Minnesota. Over the weekend, retailers posted notices online for shoppers to expect delays as excitement for hemp THC edibles and drinks outpaced supplies.
If by chance you haven't heard, adults 21 and up can now buy THC products with up to 5 milligrams per serving and 50 mg per package in food and beverages — enough to notice mild to moderate psychotropic effects, especially for first-time or occasional users. Minnesota is reportedly the first state to legalize recreational THC in food and drink while keeping smokable forms of THC illegal.
According to Minnesota Public Radio, a line a quarter of a block long formed outside Nothing But Hemp’s St. Paul location on Friday afternoon. Here's a video posted by MPR reporter Grace Birnstengel:
The Star Tribune reported that Nothing But Hemp was prepared for the law change, having stocked the inventory at its six Minnesota locations with a dozen new THC products. They have plans to release even more over the next month.
“In some ways, we legalized cannabis,” Steven Brown, co-founder of the Minnesota Cannabis Association and CEO of Nothing But Hemp, told the Tribune in coverage that was subsequently amplified by the Associated Press and Leafly.
Leafly, a cannabis education site, also noted that a pop-up appeared on the Nothing But Hemp website over the weekend illustrating the excitement for legalization. “Shipping, delivery times and lines may be longer than usual on July 1 and July 2,” the pop-up read. “We may run out of Delta-9 products due to the demand.”
Although there's a lot of hype around Minnesota's legalization of THC, Brown told MPR the law does more than that, establishing important limits and safety standards he believes reflect the state’s conservative stance on THC. He pointed out that over the last year products with much larger amounts of hemp-derived THC could be found in smoke shops and CBD stores throughout the state, without mandates for testing or child-safe packaging.
Brown added that the new law doesn’t regulate which retailers can sell edibles, a measure he would support based on his experience with Nothing But Hemp locations in Florida.
“In Florida, we actually have to have a retail license, a wholesale license, a processor license and a growing license,” he told MPR. “So if you want to sell hemp, you have to have a specific type of license. Either it's going to be retail or wholesale. And I think we need to do the same thing in Minnesota for this upcoming session.”
