Is weed legal in Minnesota?

Recreational status

Recreational cannabis is legal in Minnesota. (Minn. Stat. § 342.09: Personal Adult Use of Cannabis)

Minnesota keeps the whole of personal use in one section, so what you may hold and what you may grow are protected by the same words. The conditions that come with that protection are mostly about place, and they turn up in the sections below.

Medical status

A full medical cannabis program runs in Minnesota, serving patients the program registers. (Minn. Stat. § 342.52: Patient Registry Program)

A patient receives full-plant medical cannabis flower, not a low-THC-only preparation. The same section refers to a health care practitioner certifying a veteran's diagnosis with 'a qualifying medical condition listed in section 342.01, subdivision 63, clauses (1) to (19)' -- nineteen distinct qualifying conditions rather than a single narrow indication.

Not every licensed shop can serve a patient, because the medical side runs through a business the state has endorsed for it. Enrolling is also what lifts the figures below, as long as the label on the package still ties the product to you.

Hemp-derived products

Minnesota permits the sale of hemp-derived products and limits which ones. (Minn. Stat. § 342.01: Definitions)

A 'lower-potency hemp edible' is capped, among other conditions, at no more than five milligrams of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol per serving for a non-beverage product or ten milligrams per container for a beverage, under subdivision 50(b)(1). A 'hemp-derived consumer product' (subdivision 37) is a separate, non-edible category. Minn. Stat. 342.46, subdivision 1(a)(2) requires a licensed lower-potency hemp edible retailer to sell only to customers 'who are at least 21 years of age.'

Minnesota put these products in the same chapter of law as cannabis and licensed the shops that sell them, so this is a watched category rather than an open one. A beverage is counted by the container and a food by the serving, so two products showing the same milligram figure are not measured the same way.

Home cultivation

Minnesota allows an adult to grow up to 8 plants at home. (Minn. Stat. § 342.09: Personal Adult Use of Cannabis)

No more than four of the eight may be mature, flowering plants, and cultivation must be at the primary residence of an individual 21 or older, in an enclosed, locked space out of public view. A registered designated caregiver may instead grow up to eight plants for one patient household plus eight more for the caregiver's own personal use -- 16 total, no more than eight mature -- under Minn. Stat. 342.52, subdivision 9(d).

Only your primary residence qualifies, so a cabin is not a second place to put four more plants. The lock and the enclosure are conditions of the allowance itself, which means a garden anyone can see is outside it however few plants it holds.

Possession and purchase limits

The possession limit, as Minnesota states it: Two ounces or less of adult-use cannabis flower in a public place; two pounds or less in the individual's private residence; eight grams or less of cannabis concentrate; or edible cannabis products or lower-potency hemp edibles infused with a combined total of 800 milligrams or less of tetrahydrocannabinol. (Minn. Stat. § 342.09: Personal Adult Use of Cannabis)

These limits do not apply to a person enrolled in the medical cannabis patient registry program under section 342.52 who possesses cannabis flower or cannabinoid products bearing patient-specific labeling.

On buying, Minnesota states: A licensed retailer may sell up to two ounces of adult-use cannabis flower, up to eight grams of adult-use cannabis concentrate, and edible cannabis products or lower-potency hemp edibles infused with up to 800 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol, during a single transaction to a customer. (Minn. Stat. § 342.27: Retail Sale of Cannabis Flower and Products; General Requirements)

An edible product intended to be eaten may not exceed ten milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol per serving or 200 milligrams per package, and a beverage may not exceed ten milligrams per serving or two servings per container, under subdivision 2(d)-(e).

The two ounces allowed in public and the two pounds allowed at home are one rule asking where you are, so the figure that binds you changes as you walk out the door. Cannabis edibles and hemp edibles share a single milligram total, which catches people who bought the two at different shops.

Minimum age

You must be 21 or over to buy without a medical card. (Minn. Stat. § 342.09: Personal Adult Use of Cannabis)

Minn. Stat. 342.27, subdivision 4(a) separately requires a retailer to verify, before a sale, 'that the customer is at least 21 years of age.'

Minnesota sets no minimum age for a patient. (Minn. Stat. § 342.52: Patient Registry Program)

No provision sets a minimum age for a patient. An application must give the caregiver information for 'the patient's registered designated caregiver, if any, or the patient's parent, legal guardian, or spouse if the parent, legal guardian, or spouse will be acting as the patient's caregiver,' under subdivision 2(a)(3), which does not qualify 'patient' by age.

The registry sets no number of its own, which leaves who may enroll to the program's paperwork rather than to a birthday. Nothing in that silence reaches the recreational counter, which asks for 21 regardless of what else you are carrying.

Where you can buy

You can buy lawfully from a licensed recreational dispensary, a licensed medical dispensary, a retailer of hemp-derived or CBD products and a licensed delivery service. (Minn. Stat. § 342.01: Definitions)

Subdivision 14 defines 'cannabis business' to include, among others, cannabis retailer, cannabis delivery service, and medical cannabis combination business; subdivision 34 separately defines 'hemp business' to include lower-potency hemp edible retailer. Minn. Stat. 342.32, subdivision 1(3) confirms a cannabis retailer sells only adult-use product (adult-use-dispensary), while a medical cannabis combination business serves patients under a 'medical cannabis retail endorsement' per section 342.52, subdivision 5 (medical-dispensary). Section 342.32, subdivision 4(a) lets a retailer also hold a cannabis delivery service license (licensed-delivery). Minn. Stat. 342.46 licenses the lower-potency hemp edible retailer (hemp-cbd-retailer), selling only to customers 21 or older.

The Office of Cannabis Management issues all four of those licenses and publishes who holds them, so checking a seller is one list rather than four. A retailer that also holds the delivery license is the same business either way, so the person at your door works for a shop you could have walked into.

The Minnesota store list names every licensed location this site holds a record for.

Federal law applies here too, and it is not the same. Read what federal law says about weed.