Minnesotans can grow marijuana at home later this summer
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Well before Minnesotans can buy marijuana at a retail dispensary, they'll be able to grow up the plant at home.
That will begin Aug. 1, the same day it's legal for adults 21 and older to use weed and have up to 2 pounds of it at their residence.
Home growers will be limited to eight plants with only four of them flowering and mature. But before that can happen, they'll need seeds.
MORE: Gov. Tim Walz signs recreational cannabis bill into law
"There's often sort of a joke in new adult-use markets that it's the 'immaculate conception' that leads to all these plants," said Jason Tarasek, a cannabis attorney at Vicente LLP.
Tarasek said that's because of the cannabis contradiction: Marijuana is legal in now 23 states but is still considered a Schedule I controlled substance by its federal definition, making it illegal to cross state lines. That raises questions about if seed can be transported into states where it's newly legal.
His law firm did receive guidance from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration last year that said it doesn't consider seeds to fall under that prohibition because they have less than 0.3% THC, the psychoactive ingredient that produces a high, on a dry weight basis.
That means those marijuana seeds meet the definition of hemp, which is legal at the federal level as of 2018, according to the agency.
But guidance is just guidance -- not a law or an executive order.
"I wish that's something we could tighten up and make expressly legal because it's a bit silly that we've legalized marijuana here, but perhaps you can't legally import marijuana seed from elsewhere," he said.
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The Minnesota Department of Agriculture will regulate marijuana seed like it would any other, from hemp to tree seeds. They'll be subject to testing rules and labeling requirements under the state seed law.
"As a regulatory agency, we would not be preventing the sale of seed in Minnesota, whether it's produced here in Minnesota or whether it's produced somewhere else and comes into Minnesota," said Denise Thiede, who is the manager of the seed, weed, hemp and biotechnology programs at the department.
Next month, the agency will issue permits for companies to sell seed in the state. Online retailers are already selling them and that's likely where seeds will largely be purchased at the onset of legalization, she noted, and eventually they can be sold in places like Home Depot or Bachman's.
"Any place could carry it if they chose to do that," she said.
She added that a potential challenge is testing the seeds, as required, because some commercial labs are based in places like Wisconsin and South Dakota, where marijuana is illegal. That will be sorted out in the coming months, along with getting businesses up to speed about the seed regulations.
MORE: Read the full 321-page recreational cannabis bill here