Marijuana open for business?
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(ABC 6 News) – At Hempire in Rochester, a man was at the door when the store opened at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning ready to buy marijuana seeds. Up until Tuesday that was illegal. But seeds are the only thing that can be sold right now.
The state is still in the process of setting up the Office of Cannabis Management to regulate sales of marijuana itself. They expect to be ready for business to sell in 2025. That’s around the same time the City of Rochester is allowing sales to start under a recently passed city ordinance.
The news laws also mean added work for business owners. They’re now required to register to sell products that contain less than 0.3% THC — products that were already legal.
Besides that, it is selling seeds and waiting to sell the real stuff.
“Yeah, they got to get a whole committee together to make the regulations and stuff too and the other thing is we have to be able to apply. We can’t even apply yet. So, the only thing you can really do today is smoke marijuana at home, you can have possession of it, and you can have plants,” said Shelly Buchanan the owner of Hempire.
The state is still in the process of setting up the Office of Cannabis Management to regulate sales of marijuana itself. They expect to be ready for business to sell in 2025.
She hopes legalization burns out the stigma surrounding marijuana.
“I think our biggest thing is education. We want to explain to be people what this might do for you, how this might help you, or whatever,” said Buchanan.
She says the entire process has been confusing and frustrating, even customers too. Under the new law even though she owns multiple stores – she will only be able to sell marijuana legally at one of them.
Olmsted County is also considering an ordinance similar to the one passed by the City of Rochester where sales wouldn’t be allowed until 2025, but that was tabled at the commissioner meeting on Tuesday.