A Republican senator tried Thursday to open up ongoing negotiations between Gov. Tim Walz (DFL) and 10 of the state's tribal nations that are expected to give the tribes broad access to the new recreational cannabis market. He failed.
But Sen. Mark Koran's two amendments to a mostly unrelated bill are the first moves to slow down, or at least require public input into, closed-door negotiations over tribal cannabis compacts. Leaked drafts of one compact show that tribal owner enterprises could open stores off-reservation under tribal, not state, regulation and would give the tribes broad access to other cannabis businesses.
State officials have said they expect negotiations, authorized by the 2023 recreational cannabis law, to be completed this month. They are to be posted on a government website once completed, and once they are signed by Walz and tribal leaders they cannot be changed.
The bill in question Thursday calls for a small change to an existing law that requires state agencies to meet regularly with tribal nations, to attend training in state-tribal relations and meet separately on any agency actions that impact tribes directly. Because the Office of Cannabis Management didn't exist when the law was passed, the change would simply add the agency.
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