Nathan Ratner:<\/strong> Yeah, absolutely. I think what a lot of people don’t know about Minnesota is how unequal it is. Racially, we have the third worst wealth gap of any state in the nation. The difference between urban wealth and rural poverty is extreme and growing all the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSo as much as Minnesota loves to view itself as a bastion of equity and sort of enlightened thinking, the reality is far from that. As Angela mentioned, cannabis presents tremendous opportunities in a bunch of different directions. For us, it was especially around how do we pursue economic justice and our firm belief with this campaign is that cannabis can be a catalyst for that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This brings us to where we are in Minnesota with regards to cannabis law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state legalized edibles up to five milligrams per edible, and 50 milligrams per bag and nothing else. So no smoke, no flower, nothing else. Just edible. But we did it in a way that’s extremely liberal where any place that cards can sell edibles, such as gas stations, liquor stores. There are no dispensaries, there’s no special regulation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So how did this policy get passed? The state isn’t making any extra tax money. It’s a little bit ramshackle. It was not so accidental that we passed it. There were some people who shaped the legislation who knew what they were doing. They understood that this is what they could get done right now. The goal is full legalization. So what they wanted to do was at least legalize the selling of some kind, and then build on that to get to full legalization because now the only way that they can go back to a place where THC is not legal at all, is to take money out of people’s pockets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think that in this next legislative session, which will be this coming spring, we’re gonna get to full legalization in Minnesota. And with the partnerships that we’ve already been able to forge, we think Minnesota can be best in the nation and actually ensure equity within the cannabis economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n40 Acre Co Op farm (Photo Credit: 40 Acre Co Op)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nCashColorCannabis:<\/strong> Right now you have people who are ready to pack up and move based on the new laws surrounding edibles? What would you tell them before they pack up and headout to strike gold in Minnesota?<\/p>\n\n\n\nAndrea Dawson:<\/strong> I was speaking with Minnesota Public Radio about this recently. I was asked what have you seen in terms of trends and supply and demand with the edibles since the new law? What I’m hearing in the marketplace right now is that demand is surpassing supply right now. My main concern about that is that we don’t want people buying hemp from weird places, just to make a quick buck because demand is up. We still need to honor the supply chain to make sure that farmers finally are getting their fair share of production. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWe also cannot forget about social equity and how important that is when we’re starting to dole out licenses or when we’re starting to think about who’s making the money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nathan Ratner<\/strong>: I would just say in terms of the policy, it’s a fair to say that it is the wild west out there right now. You don’t need a special license to produce edibles or sell them. For that exact reason, my only note of caution is that the legislation will not stay the way it is right now. We believe that this next legislative session is where full legalization is going to happen, which was the intent of the legislators and the governor. When they settled on this, they wanted full legalization this term, but it’s a split legislature. So the Democrats control the House and Republicans control the Senate. So this was the only thing they were going to be able to get done. It’s just a wait to see moment now when it comes to what the regulatory environment ends up looking like. <\/p>\n\n\n\nFor all the reasons that we think that it’s going to be an amazing state to prepare the amazing opportunity to produce economic justice and equity. Minnesota is going to be an amazing market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
CashColorCannabis:<\/strong> If people wanted to learn more about everything that you do from 40 acre Co Op to, to the great rise, if they’re in Minnesota, and how they can actually get involved with anything that you’re doing. How could they do that?<\/p>\n\n\n\nAndrea Dawson:<\/strong> So luckily, we Yes, we have very active websites on both sides. To learn more about 40 Acre Co-Op you can go to fortyacre.coop <\/a>You can find The Great Rise here <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nWe have a team of people that are ready to respond to inquiries, we get lots of inquiries every week. And no doubt from this show. We’ll probably hear more. But also the great rise has a really important engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Has Minnesota become the land of milk and honey for edible brands? We discussed that, along with local sourcing, social equity, The Great Rise, 40 Acre Co Op.\u00a0and more with Nathan Rather and Angela Dawson. Read our full interview below. CashColorCannabis: I\u2019m honored to be able to speak with both of you today about Minnesota […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[312,6],"tags":[5933,5930,5931,5932],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cashcolorcannabis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24084"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cashcolorcannabis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cashcolorcannabis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cashcolorcannabis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cashcolorcannabis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24084"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cashcolorcannabis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24091,"href":"https:\/\/www.cashcolorcannabis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24084\/revisions\/24091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cashcolorcannabis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cashcolorcannabis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cashcolorcannabis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cashcolorcannabis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}