Episode 21 – Legal Cannabis in Minnesota THIS WEEK – Transcript
[00:00:00] First of all, nobody’s gonna be carrying around two ounces of public, but if they do, great. You get two ounces, you get two ounces, your buddy gets two ounces, you have a team of four you got a half for a quarter pound God math. God math. God math.
Welcome to the Purple Noodle Podcast, helping cannabis businesses grow organically. I am your host, ed Higgins, and we are here to talk about Minnesota. Minnesota is ready legalizing cannabis in Minnesota this week. So gonna back up a little, go back, way back, way back in time. Give you a little bit of personal information about me.
I think I tried cannabis my first time when I was around 13, 14, maybe 12. I don’t know. I didn’t get high. Like most people don’t know how to smoke it actually. [00:01:00] I’m gonna tell you this cuz I’m humble. I actually didn’t learn how to smoke a joint correctly until I was at my cousin’s wedding in Massachusetts.
And while I was going around the circles, somebody finally showed me to not suck on the joint, but to actually put it in between your finger and your thumb and puff. I never understood apparently how to do that. And I apparently was always the guy who got the blunt joint wet. So if I was ever in a circle with you and you are hearing this, I apologize, but regardless, I was I smoked it and then I started to smoke it for real.
I started to get high. And then I started selling pot in high school, for lunch money, and all that. And nobody was really paying attention to [00:02:00] my upbringing. So I was doing what I wanted and that was what I wanted. I had been into sales capitalism/ Free market since I was a kid since I was very young.
I started door-to-door sales and I actually write about this in my book Purple Noodle Marketing, helping Cannabis Businesses Grow Organically, A D I Y Guide to Cannabis Entrepreneurs and Business Owners, and how to do marketing for your dispenser, how to open up your business, and then how to do marketing for your dispensary.
Right? So a high-level overview, but I talk about this in my book. I. I started sales and then I realized that the legal part of it I wasn’t gonna get away with it for that long. Like most people, there is a prison sentence or a jail sentence at the end of that. Thankfully, that is changing all across the United States.
There are only four states left that are not legal for cannabis. But back then, You had a very [00:03:00] short lifespan when it came to selling cannabis. So I got away with it for a long time and then I decided this isn’t, the stress level alone isn’t for me. If you see me now, I am mostly gray, but back then I was starting to be gray cause I just always had stress and I lived in stress because of the trauma that I experienced early in life.
So that’s another story for another day, but, So started selling in Massachusetts, and went in the Marine Corps under a drug waiver because I hold them. I was like, listen, I smoke a ridiculous amount of pot. There’s no way I’m gonna pass these exams. So the recruiter tried to gimme Golden Seal. I didn’t know anything about Gold Seal, tried to gimme Gold Seal.
I took it that night, but maybe I didn’t do so well. I popped I couldn’t go back in and I was so mad at the Army recruiter that I went in the Marine Corps. Because I was like, f these guys, they don’t know what they’re talking about. Marine Corps’s the toughest. Anyway, I’ll just go on the Marine [00:04:00] Corps and I went in under a drug waiver.
Fast forward to Las Vegas. I’m living in Las Vegas. After I get outta the Marine Corps, I go to Las Vegas. I start a career and I’m still smoking pot here and there cuz in Vegas, even though it might have been illegal at the time, nobody cared. He could pretty much do anything anywhere in Vegas.
So, flash forward another seven years. I moved to California. I’m in my adult quote-unquote adult years trying to be an up and rising capitalist. And I’m not trying to get drug tested cause they only drug test poor people in this country, right? So I’m not trying to get drug tested. I do I smoke pot.
I like parties and stuff, but I don’t do it on a regular basis, and honestly, I get too high, too quick. So I am a low dose microdose maniac. I do not try to do large quantities of cannabis now, so that is my style. Fast forward another year, [00:05:00] I moved to Arizona and you got Sheriff Joe Apa with his fascist.
Hating on cannabis crap. You’d go to jail, to the prison camp where they make you wear pink panties, whatever. I like pink. I don’t understand why he thought that these people in their thought process, a fascist thought process, they think about. Pink is associated with women because according to I think it was Barbies or something, they changed the colors.
Pink used to be associated with men. Now it’s associated with women. Regardless, it’s all low-level. Ignorant thinking, right? So, you got the pink panty thing going on at the prison. I was like, you know what? I don’t care about the pink panties, but I don’t want to go to a prison camp and lose everything just because I’m smoking pot.
So I rarely smoked it. I think I smoked it twice at two parties and the whole time I’m in Arizona, right? It’s illegal. [00:06:00] I move outta Arizona. And I go on the road for a bit and I end up in Washington where it’s legal. And I’m like, all right, this is pretty cool. I can get edibles here and there I’m not really, I’m on my independent marketing journey, propaganda journey.
So I’m like, all right I gotta get my head straight. I can’t do too much. I’ll just do a little bit to go to sleep. Fast forward, a couple more years. I end up in Minnesota. And in this time, Massachusetts has gone legal, and Arizona has gone legal. Washington is legal, but I’m not really, I don’t really have the funds to be partaking as much as I, I like to take a little edibles to go to sleep I just didn’t have the cash flow.
I get to Minnesota and in 2018 the farm bill passed. So basically cannabis is legal all across the United [00:07:00] States, but they don’t have testing kits that still harass you. Still harass you. It’s not, the laws haven’t been fleshed out enough. So fast forward five years, and now I’m finally in a. State that’s going to go legal when it goes legal.
And I’m living here, I’m getting to be on the ground floor of it going legal, and I am very excited. If you go back to the 2022 election season. Hey, Scooby, my puppy’s, Scooby. If you get the chance to love a dog, please do. They love you back and every day of your life is a week of theirs. And so they cherish everything that you do for them, and they love you incredibly. But let’s go back. Okay. Scooby, you’re gonna listen to the story. Okay. And you gotta gimme some time here. Okay? Where was I? Yes, going back to [00:08:00] the fall of last year, the election cycle.
They win the trifecta, right? The Democrats dFf wins the trifecta. They have the governorship, they have the house, and they have the Senate. It’s by a small margin, but they still have it. It’s still democratically controlled. Governor House Senate, bam, trifecta. One of the first things that we’re talking about when we’re celebrating is that we’re gonna pass legal cannabis.
And when you hear things from politicians, you’re like, okay, yeah you promised that, but school loans, but you didn’t deliver. So I’m not gonna hold my breath, but. I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention to Minnesota, but the last five months have been amazing.
There have been so many great, amazing [00:09:00] bills that help all humans in Minnesota in this legislature. And the last one, the one that Governor Waltz said would pass by May 26th. Is gonna pass this week by May 36th. It’s amazing the timing. I have to give the slow clap to the Democrats, Minnesota
because they did exactly what they said they were gonna do, and they are taking every chance they can to get it done. And I am honored, excited to be a part of this journey in Minnesota to be ready, cuz Minnesota is ready. I’m ready. An interesting point that was brought up is we had this Minnesota marijuana party, right?
So there’s a marijuana party in Minnesota, and it was propped up by the Republicans. It was basically a spoiler party. You didn’t [00:10:00] hear a peep out of them this whole last five months when we were getting ready to legalize. Not a pee, nothing. And it just goes to show that they were exactly what they appeared to be, which was a spoiler party to muddy the waters.
And honestly, there probably should be an investigation into that. Cause that’s freaking ridiculous. It took this long. When I got here to Minnesota, I was wondering myself, why did it take so long to go legal in Minnesota? That’s one of the reasons why you had spoiler parties, there are all types of tricks and techniques that can be utilized in order to get a vote, not get a vote, block a vote, block a candidate.
The Democrats are spending a lot of time, the moderate Democrats are spending a ridiculous amount of time blocking progressives. And progressives are the ones saving the party. Minnesota is the most progressive. Passing laws in this session than all the states and showing the way on [00:11:00] how to do it, on how to get things done progressively, which just means focusing forward instead of focusing on the past so much, instead of trying to go back to a pass that didn’t suit everyone who sat at the table, I could go on and on about this. And you’re not here for the politics, even though politics is here for you and politics is doing you, even though you’re not doing politics is always doing you, but regardless, you’re not here for the politics. Let’s talk about a little bit about legal cannabis.
Let’s switch it up a little. Talk little bit about legal cannabis in Minnesota. Okay, so under the measure, it would become legal by August 1st to possess, use and grow marijuana at home. Retail sales dispensaries would probably be about a year away. It’ll probably go in effect maybe as far as like January 1st, 2024. Yeah, 25 [00:12:00] probably that far because they just came up with MocM, which is the Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management Mock. Not the greatest marketing guys. But that’s the department that’s gonna be managing it. And they’re coming up with all the rules and laws and they also it include a 10% tax on cannabis products on top of existing sales, taxes, and limits, possession to, of cannabis flour, to two pounds at home, and two ounces of the public.
First of all, nobody’s gonna be carrying around two ounces of public, but if they do, great. You get two ounces, you get two ounces, your buddy gets two ounces, you have a team of four you got a half for a quarter pound God math. But regardless, two pounds at home is great. The other possession caps include 800 milligrams of THC in gummies.
And other edibles and eight grams of cannabis concentrate. [00:13:00] We are going to be launching a brand called “nood”. It is going to be a Minnesota Microdosing Cannabis. We are going for the micro-dosing market where you can still take an edible and still operate effectively throughout the day.
And it just helps you focus, helps you stay alert, helps you get your job done. Whatever you need to do. So that’s what we’re focusing on. So 800 milligrams is a lot and eight grams of cannabis concentrate is a lot. So that is a good cap, I believe. Minnesotans ha Who ha Oh, this is great.
The legalization part of it, right? So Minnesotans who have been convicted of misdemeanor or petty misdemeanor possession would get their records automatically expunged. Through the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. It has been estimated that it’ll take until August of next year to process small because there’s been a lot [00:14:00] of harassment of people of color for cannabis offenses in the United States, and that doesn’t, that, that still takes place in Minnesota.
You have unfortunately you have racism everywhere. People convicted of selling marijuana and other more serious, but non-violent populated offenses would, that would no longer be crimes or would become lesser offenses, could apply to have their records cleared and sentences reduced. Amazing. And another thing that’s good for local governments is you have some governments that are concerned.
You have some governments that are low population, they don’t wanna have cannabis stores popping up in every corner. Like gas stations. Which gas stations are worse for humans and cannabis, but whatever. I’m not gonna talk about that. Local governments would get more negotiating authority on limiting the number of dispensaries and keeping them away from schools.
Which is good, but may not ban them altogether. So you [00:15:00] can’t ban ’em altogether. But you can limit the amount and you can limit the limit it being away from schools. So as far as the school’s part in every legal state, which is only four states that aren’t legal in some way in the United States, now, they might as well pass it federally.
Maybe they’ll do it in 2024, dangling carrot presidential election. But in In most states, legal states, you have to have an id. You have to have a check-in ID system. You have to have an id. We have the only legal dispensary here in Columbia Heights. They have an ID-checking system. You have to check the ID against the system in order to make sure that they’re at least 21 and there have been no violations.
So it, as far as the ID part, it’s going to be successful. The fake IDs cannot pass the system. It has to be scanned, has to be a scannable [00:16:00] id. There are all types of different regulations that they put in place because everybody wants this to work. Everybody wants this to pass. You have some people that are like, oh no, I don’t want it to pass, because I talked to somebody who was a farmer here, but they went down to Louisiana and there was gunfire and that means drugs event.
Yes. That was an actual story in opposition to this bill. Believe it or not, look it up. And I won’t even tell you what party came up with that one. You can guess, I’m sure if you’re here, you’ll listen to Canvas Marketing. You listen to Canvas, you’re a pretty smart individual. You can figure out who did that stupid bull crap.
But anyway it all looks like it’s shaping up to be a great bill. It has passed the House, it has passed the Senate and it is. On the way to the desk of the Governor of Minnesota. Folks, we are going legal in [00:17:00] Minnesota. It is going to be a great day. We are on our way. On our way, folks, right on our way.
We’re gonna get it done. I do wanna let you know about a new sponsor. We have Retro Bakery. Retro Bakery is a father-son duo that set out to be Minnesota’s first legal THC, chocolate, bringing you recipes, and flavors that send you back to the good old days bite in one of life’s.
Greatest experiences. Call some friends over and set up a classic board game. Write a note to your best friend. Break out in a disco. Laugh and get retro. They are here. You can find them at many different places. Let’s see. Find near you. 56 Brewing Allstar, Tobago, and VA vape. Austin tobacco. You have bent pedal Brewing, big Dream Organics, Big Lake.
[00:18:00] There’s a whole bunch of different places that you can check out. Retro Bakery, they are all over Minnesota. Check ’em out. I’ve had their products. They’re really good. I’ve had their edibles, I’ve had their chocolate. Really good products. I know the owner, really good people, and just a classy experience overall.
So check them out in your local dispensary vape shop, tobacco store, or wherever this is sold in the state of Minnesota. And check out our new app. We have a new app for Android. It is advertising AI or ad ai. It is your personal marketing assistant using artificial intelligence. So it is now in the Android operating system.
We are going to do it for the Apple operating system as soon as we have some time and folks, We are on the ground floor of getting a lot of work done. We have our first local client here in Minnesota, [00:19:00] so we’re working on that. There’s a lot going on, so thank you for bearing with us. Hopefully, you listen to this.
Look forward to more cannabis marketing information and Minnesota’s ready. Stay tuned.
