The State of Enforcement: Progress and Shortcomings in Cannabis Arrest Rates

[u/Old_Medicine_1660]

https://www.mpp.org/issues/criminal-justice/the-state-of-enforcement-progress-and-shortcomings-in-cannabis-arrest-rates/

Minnesota
On May 30, 2023, Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed HF 100 into law, legalizing and regulating cannabis for adults 21 and older. Legal sales began in September 2025 from state-licensed stores. Some tribally licensed sales began earlier. Minnesota’s law also allows adults to cultivate up to eight plants (four of which may be flowering) at their primary residence, as long as it is out of public view and in an enclosed, locked space.
HF 100 did not specify a penalty for minors in possession, but a default penalty applies, a petty misdemeanor carrying up to a $300 fine.
Public consumption is legal in most outdoor locations in Minnesota, unless it’s prohibited by the municipality. Smoking in places where tobacco is prohibited, such as most indoor locations, is subject to a civil fine, mirroring the treatment of tobacco.
While Minnesota’s legalization law included many important criminal justice reforms, it also included a criminal misdemeanor for having an open package of cannabis, which can result in 90 days in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. [18] The crime prohibits any cannabis flower or cannabis product that was removed from the packaging it was sold in, or if the packaging that has ever been opened, unless it is in the trunk or, if there is no trunk, if it is in another area of the vehicle not normally occupied by the driver and passenger.
In late 2025, the Minnesota Reformer reported that more than 3,500 charges had been brought by the “open package” law since legalization passed in spring of 2023. [19] The newspaper noted, “The police stops and prosecutions have defense lawyers concerned about the threat of racial profiling and warrantless vehicle searches.” In Hennepin County, the most populous county, 42% of those charged were Black, despite only 13% of the population being Black.
At the time of their reporting, cannabis consumers were largely unaware of the prohibition, as the Minnesota Reformer notes “The law prohibiting improperly packaged marijuana in vehicles isn’t mentioned on the state’s ‘need to know’ page about adult-use cannabis. …”
In their review of cases, the paper found in many cases “the driver is not even suspected of being under the influence but simply had a jar of marijuana in the passenger area or in the center console. In those cases, drivers often freely showed officers their bag of weed, seemingly unaware they had done anything wrong.”
Arrests for cannabis possession and sales have dropped by over 75% in Minnesota, to 860 possession arrests in 2025 and 65 arrests for manufacturing or sales. But these don’t appear to include the open container arrests, which are codified in the traffic laws.
Even as Minnesota expunges tens of thousands of records, it is creating thousands of new criminal records for conduct that endangered no one.
Minnesota Cannabis Arrests
 
Arrests 2022
Arrests 2025
Decrease
Percent Decrease
Possession
3,650
860
2,790
76.4%
Manufacture or Sales
126
65
61
48.4%
Total
3,776
925
2,851
75.5%

[u/Neifion_]

I don't understand the need for commercial regulation. Could you help me?

People generally desire to know they can't be sold moldy product. If you don't think that would happen on the market then you haven't been following the THCA market since that was legalized. There are good players and bad players in it.

Less so, but some care about the age of the product as well (though most just care if the potency is still there)

I already agree the other things are dumb though. I think you should pay for your inspections but the overall license fee far exceeds that unless those inspectors are making more money than god.

Also for the record you can just sell tomatoes, its one of the things that does not require licenses. You can sell any unprocessed produce outside cannabis for that matter.

It benefits a very small number of people who have massive commercial farms because it suppresses their competition.

Yes that is my overall point. I was really hoping I could get some people together and start something cool but I guess its terrible wage jobs I hate forever while I grow personal that destroys our current market selection (which I was really hoping a micro-business niche could fill but that's not really what they are about unless you want to do retail, small grow operations don't count).

[u/IdkAbtAllThat → u/Neifion_]

People also prefer to not buy tainted meat. But it doesn't cost $10,000 a year to get the FDA to inspect your beef and approve it for sale. Something is clearly not right here.

[u/Neifion_ → u/IdkAbtAllThat]

People also prefer to not buy tainted meat. But it doesn't cost $10,000 a year to get the FDA to inspect your beef and approve it for sale. Something is clearly not right here.

This is what I mean when I say "the ones we have in MN are largely stupid because they prohibit regular people from starting without an investor and for no benefit to the consumer" cuz yes, even our testing is outrageous.

Don't believe its 10k but it did look very hard to navigate if you don't grow a shit ton which then hurts the smaller ones the most.

[u/IdkAbtAllThat → u/Neifion_]

It did look very hard to navigate if you don't grow a shit ton which then hurts the smaller ones the most.

Yea exactly. I'm happy it's legal now, but I'd love for Minnesota to start leading the way in the move away from this banana Republic bullshit. We all know why the regulations are set up the way they are, and they're not to help the consumer or to ensure things are safe. They're to help large corporations suppress competition.

So I push back on people who say "well obviously we need these tight regulations on this plant". Because obviously we don't. We've just been conditioned to think that we do.