Minnesota legalized adult-use cannabis in 2023. If you listened to the debate since, you'd think the only questions left are whether to legalize more, faster, or whether the botched rollout means we should slow down and crack down. Both of those miss the thing I found when I dug into the numbers earlier in this series — the thing that should be the whole conversation.
The stop that survived legalization
Buried in Minnesota's traffic code — not the cannabis chapter, not anything the Office of Cannabis Management tells consumers about — is Minn. Stat. § 169A.36, which makes it an offense to have cannabis open or accessible in a motor vehicle. It predates legalization. It survived legalization. And since legalization, Minnesota has brought thousands of charges and well over a thousand convictions under it — for something that is now legal to possess.
Then look at who gets charged. In Hennepin County, roughly 42 percent of those charged were Black, in a county that's about 13 percent Black. Edina — Edina — charged more people than Minneapolis. That's not a cannabis policy. That's the same racially lopsided traffic stop that legalization was supposed to end, running on a statute nobody noticed was still loaded.
So my first position isn't about the market at all. It's this: a state that legalizes a substance and then keeps prosecuting people for it under a traffic provision — disproportionately Black people — has not finished legalizing. Close the gap. Amend § 169A.36 so an adult lawfully possessing cannabis in a sealed container in a vehicle isn't a crime, treat impaired driving as impaired driving (which is a real thing and should be enforced), and end the pretextual stop that legalization was meant to retire.
The market that isn't working
Second, the rollout. It's true the legal market has been a mess — as of last count, only a handful of licensed retailers statewide against a cap of 150, and a dozen social-equity licenses out of more than 500 applicants, while thousands of hemp-edible sellers operate under an easier regime. That failure has real consequences: the illegal market thrives, the tax revenue doesn't materialize, and the people legalization was supposed to lift — communities hit hardest by the old enforcement — are still waiting for the licenses they were promised.
But the answer to a stalled market isn't to crack down on the thing we legalized. It's to make the legal market work: fast-track the stalled social-equity licenses, clear the litigation logjam, and lean into the tribal partnerships that, as this series documented, put the first legal dispensaries in Minnesota two years ahead of the state. The tribal nations proved the model works. The state should be partnering with them, not lapping them.
The honest concession
To the legalize-faster side: cannabis-impaired driving is real, and roadside enforcement of impairment has to stay strong — my objection is to charging possession under a traffic law, not to policing dangerous driving. To the crack-down side: the rollout really has been badly managed, and a state that can't stand up a licensed market in three years owes taxpayers an explanation. And to everyone: the § 169A.36 disparity is a fact from the state's own charging data, not an interpretation, and it deserves a straight answer from every county attorney in Minnesota.
What I'd actually do
Amend § 169A.36 so lawful adult possession in a vehicle isn't a crime, while keeping impaired-driving enforcement fully intact.
Audit and publish cannabis-in-a-vehicle charging by race and by county, and require county attorneys to account for disparities.
Fast-track social-equity licensing and clear the legal logjam so the licensed market actually opens.
Partner with the tribal nations that built the working model first.
We legalized it and kept making the same stops. Fix the enforcement, not just the law — and then make the legal market we promised actually exist.
First the facts. Then the fix.
Sources
Minn. Stat. § 169A.36 (open-package cannabis in a motor vehicle) and Minn. Stat. ch. 342 (adult-use cannabis, 2023), as documented in this series' earlier cannabis article; charging and conviction figures and the Hennepin County racial breakdown (approximately 42 percent Black among those charged, in a county roughly 13 percent Black; Edina charging more than Minneapolis) from Minnesota Reformer's analysis of state court data (Dec. 9, 2025), cited there. Licensing figures (licensed retailers against a 150 cap; social-equity licenses out of more than 500 applicants; hemp-edible license counts) as reported in the same article as of August 2026. Tribal cannabis sovereignty and first-mover dispensaries: Minn. Stat. § 3.9224 and this series' tribal-sovereignty article.
Charging and licensing figures are as compiled in this series' sourced cannabis article and should be refreshed against current court and OCM data before citing as current. Corrections: campaign@madgettformn.com.