DULUTH, Minn. (Northern News Now) – The Duluth City Council discussed how marijuana will be zoned and regulated at their agenda session Thursday.
Recreational cannabis sales are expected to begin next year in Minnesota and the city is addressing where those sales can legally take place in Duluth.
The Planning Commission intends to zone cannabis businesses similarly to how many other businesses are zoned. This means retail cannabis shops can be near other retail stores, and production facilities must be near other production facilities.
A moratorium on the licensing of retail cannabis businesses in St. Louis County expires at the end of the year.
Related: St. Louis County moratorium in place to help agencies prepare for cannabis businesses.
“We want to make sure that our zoning regulations are up to date with state laws and that when businesses come forward we have regulations in place for where they can be allowed, said Jenn Moses, Manager of the city’s planning commission.
Duluth City attorney Terri Lehr said the city intends to treat regulatory violations related to weed similarly to how alcohol violations are treated.
“Ours is a violation and the penalty is going to be under chapter 12 so it’s whatever is going to be said on the annual fine schedule, very similar to how we alcohol violations,” explained Attorney Lehr.
For example, under the proposed ordinance if a cannabis retail business doesn’t have valid registration and is caught selling, they will be fined $2,000.
That is unless they are lower potency hemp edibles, which have been legal for sale in the state since 2022.
Both ordinances will be voted on by the City Council at Monday’s meeting.
Click here to download the Northern News Now app or our Northern News Now First Alert weather app.
Copyright 2024 Northern News Now. All rights reserved.
