Grace Grinager, Public Health Supervisor (left), and Molly Hicken, County Attorney (right). Photos provided. 

From Cook County, Minnesota - August 9, 2024

By: Molly Hicken, County Attorney, and Grace Grinager, Public Health Supervisor

Cook County, through a committee established in January, called the Cannabis Regulation Committee, has recently been exploring whether and how to impose local controls on the use, possession, and sales of cannabis. State law made effective in August 2023 recently legalized Adult (21 and over) use of cannabis and established the Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management which will begin licensing cannabis businesses in 2025. While local governments may not prohibit sales or use of cannabis that the State allows, the City of Grand Marais and Cook County may pass laws that regulate the “time, place, and manner” of cannabis use and sales within their jurisdictions. This article describes the work of the committee, summarizes the content of the proposed ordinance, and lays out the public’s opportunities to give feedback on the subject of cannabis use and sales in Cook County.

The Cannabis Regulation Committee is co-chaired by the County Attorney and the County Sheriff and includes two county commissioners (David Mills and Ginny Storlie), two city council representatives (Tracy Benson and Michael Garry), two Grand Portage Tribal representatives (Bobby Deschampe and Jacki Koslowski), one representative each from Public Health (Grace Grinager, PHHS), the schools (Superintendent Chris Lindholm), and the Cook County Chamber (Linda Jurek), and one citizen representative (Chris Homyak).

The Committee’s mission is to explore the potential impacts of introducing legal cannabis use and sales to the community, to provide recommendations on how to regulate it in a way that would reduce negative impacts, and to educate the community on its findings and the current state of the law. The committee’s works have culminated so far in the presentation of a draft ordinance to the Cook County Board of Commissioners which lays out some recommended local controls of cannabis use and sales, including requiring a county registration in addition to state licensure for all retail cannabis businesses in the county and limiting the number of those registrations available in the county. The ordinance also imposes additional rules over what state law requires for the advertisement and marketing of low-potency hemp-derived edible products and beverages and imposes penalties for juveniles who are in possession of cannabis.

Cook County Ordinance #66 (proposed), preliminarily titled “An Ordinance to Regulate Cannabis Business and Underate Cannabis Possession,” would establish the following rules above and beyond those already established in state law:

• In order to operate a state-licensed cannabis retail business within the County, the operator must first register with the Cook County Auditor. There is an initial $500 registration fee, and the operator must prove that they have adequate commercial liability coverage, identify the location for the business, be current on all property taxes for that location, and certify compliance with all other county ordinances. Because the County is registering businesses, it also has the responsibility and authority to conduct compliance checks of registered businesses and suspend registrations. The Grand Portage sovereign nation has exclusive jurisdiction over business regulation on the reservation, so the registration requirement does not impact business operations in Grand Portage.
  
  
• The number of registrations the county issues is limited to 14. This effectively limits the number of cannabis retailer businesses that may operate in the county’s jurisdiction. Should the City of Grand Marais choose to separately register businesses, the City may choose the number of businesses registered in city limits without regard to the County’s limit.
  
  
• The fourteen registrations are disbursed throughout the county, allowing for only two in each of seven geographic areas: the City, the organized townships (3), and each of three unorganized territories identified specifically in the ordinance (Hovland/Grand Portage area, Lutsen area, and Tofte/Schroeder area). The Committee made this recommendation in part to model registrations after the county-licensed off-sale liquor stores, which allows a maximum of one license in each of these seven areas.
  
  
• Registrations will not be issued for businesses located within buffer zones around schools, daycares, parks with playgrounds, and athletic fields. The state law does not require buffer zones but enables local governments to do so.
  
  
• A penalty is established for use, possession, and transportation of cannabis by underage persons; and for using a false ID to attempt to purchase. The first two violations of this section would constitute a petty misdemeanor violation, and the third violation would be a misdemeanor.
  
  
• The City of Grand Marais and Cook County are each enabled to establish a government-run cannabis retail business. This would allow either municipality to establish a business in the future, should they wish to dedicate staff and resources to that project.

The County would like to help provide information on which issues surrounding the legalization of cannabis in Minnesota fall under state authority, and where we locally can regulate where, when, and how cannabis is sold. Your county officials also want to hear your concerns and questions surrounding the legalization of adult-use and sales of cannabis. What steps you would like your local government to take in regulating cannabis, if any? Is the current draft ordinance in line with your vision for how the sale of adult-use cannabis occurs in Cook County, or are there things you’d like to see differently? What do you believe should be the county’s priorities in tracking the effects or impacts of adult-use cannabis, in youth prevention, in enforcement, and in business development and regulation of cannabis retail businesses?

The County is attempting to accommodate any member of the public who wishes to provide feedback on these proposed regulations through the following opportunities:

• Townhall meeting at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts, Monday, August 12 at 4:30 p.m. (watch the co.cook.mn.us for a virtual option to participate).
• Leave a comment at www.co.cook.mn.us/cannabisregulation.
• Leave a voicemail comment at 218-264-1094.

The proposed ordinance will be addressed at the Cook County Board Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, August 13 at 8:30 a.m.

Contact your commissioner or any of the committee members to personally share your thoughts on the County’s proposed cannabis ordinance: David Mills, Ginny Storlie, Tracy Benson, Michael Garry, Bobby Deschampe, Jacki Koslowski, Grace Grinager, Chris Lindholm, Linda Jurek, or Chris Homyak.

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