Thanks for joining us here at 5.
As we speak, work is underway
to put infrastructure in place
after Governor Walls signed the
recreational marijuana bill into law.
The ceremony took place just a
few hours ago at the Capitol.
After years and years of
effort to make it legal,
today's action makes Minnesota
the 23rd state in the country to
legalize recreational cannabis.
But you won't be able to buy itm
a retail store for a year or lo.
We have team coverage of
today's historic move.
Chief Political Reporter John Crowman
takes a closer look at the law itself,
while Kaya Edwards will share te
concerns of those who oppose it.
Let's begin tonight with John
here. We got 2 governors
for the price of 1 here
today at the Capitol Governor W,
who started campaigning on
this issue back in 2018.
And Governor Jesse Ventura,
Former Governor Ventura,
who started talking about
this more than 20 years ago.
He came back to the Capitol
this year to lobby for it.
For lobby for the medical
benefits of recreational marijua
after years of prohibition.
We didn't want any families
to go through what the first
lady and I went through,
former Governor Jesse Ventura s.
Cannabis was the only thing
that helped former First Lady
Terry Ventura with her seizures,
which is why he was standing rit
behind Governor Walls today as e
made Minnesota the 23rd state to
legalize recreational marijuana.
Starting August 1st,
Minnesotans can legally
possess 2 ounces of cannabis.
Outside of their home,
£2.00 at home and up to 8
plants without fear of arrest.
All drugs and all forms of thins
have an upside and a downside to them,
but cannabis is upside is so muh
much more and good. Than any downside.
For many, the central focus was expungement
of past low level marijuana cri.
We've got 50 years of folks that we've
been arresting and getting records on them.
It's not going to unwind immediately,
but we feel a sense of urgency around that.
We'll start that process this summer.
It's a possibilities. It's the possibility.
Army veteran Vaughn Larry has seizures,
but the VA can only give him
prescription drugs with side effects.
Day terrors, night terrors, swe.
Crying. All kind of stuff from the drugs,
from the drugs that they give y.
It was the issue that I was heag
about from my constituents moren
anything else when I was outdoor knocking.
People would say it's time,
let's do this. Our current laws
are doing more harm than good.
The lead authors of the bill say they
merely brought it across the finish line
after decades of work by otherst
has been a joint effort and yes,
because I love a good pun,
but also because this is.
This really is a community focused Bill.
Now we've told you before
and we'll say it again,
the prohibition starts
goes away on August 1st.
So that's when it becomes legal August 1st.
But the retail businesses won't
be up and running for at least a
year because they got to get the
licensing and product testing g.
And as you can guess and as you know,
there's also opposition to this.
That's why we'll switch to
my colleague Kaya Edwards.
Hi, John. Yeah, I reached out to
several individual Republican
lawmakers today for fresh react.
They were evil,
either unavailable or didn't respond.
But I did get a new written statement
from the executive director of
the Republican Party of Minnesoa
bashing the former governor's
participation in today's bill signing.
It's very wonderful to see a
dream of yours over 20 years ag.
Finally happened today,
and I'm still alive to see it.
Former Minnesota
Governor Jesse Ventura was frond
center as Governor Tim Walz signed the
recreational cannabis bill into.
And that's not sitting well with
Mike Lonergan, executive Directf
the Republican Party of Minneso.
He tells us quote,
it is sad and pathetic that Govr
Tim Walz and the Democrats prop
up extremists like Jesse Ventur,
who said that the government
caused 9/11 has touted dangerous
conspiracy theories about FEMA,
using Holocaust imagery and even
been paid by the Russian governt
to spread propaganda.
Turns out,
walls in the Democrats bluster
about civility and decency was
just campaign rhetoric and lies.
I don't believe that this bill
before us today is ready.
Before the bill made it to
the governor's desk,
in a final chance to speak out before a vote,
several Republican lawmakers
called the legislation convolutd
and expressed concerns over Rd.
safety, crime, addiction,
and other mental health issues.
Putting these. Dispensaries or whatever
you want to call them in low ine
areas is going to somehow bring justice.
I think it's. I think it's the t
horrible thing that you could dn
a lot of low end communities aly
have problems with substance ab.
Some Republicans also said they were not
reassured by the experiences of other
states that have already legalized it.
Julie. All right. Thank you, Ka.