Bill to legalize marijuana clears 11th House committee

By: Rilyn Eischens - May 5, 2021 2:27 pm

Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images.

A bill to legalize recreational marijuana cleared another House committee Wednesday.

The House Tax Committee is the 11th committee to approve the bill, sponsored by Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley, but the GOP-led Senate so far isn’t on board. Next, it will be heard in the House Ways and Means Committee.

Seventeen states and Washington D.C. have legalized the recreational use of marijuana for adults. Minnesota is one of 36 states with a medical cannabis program.

The bill would create a marketplace for selling marijuana, automatically expunge the records of people with misdemeanor cannabis convictions and allow people with higher-level convictions to ask a review board for expungement.

Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, offered an amendment to funnel tax revenue from marijuana sales to a tax relief account. The amendment passed with bipartisan support, according to a news release from Garofalo.

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Rilyn Eischens

Rilyn Eischens is a former data reporter for the Minnesota Reformer. Rilyn was born and raised in Minnesota and has worked in newsrooms in the Twin Cities, Iowa, Texas and most recently Virginia, where she covered education for The Staunton News Leader. She's an alumna of the Dow Jones News Fund data journalism program and the Minnesota Daily. When Rilyn isn't in the newsroom, she likes to read, add to her plant collection and try new recipes.