The Minnesota Constitution, Article 13, Section 7, says No license necessary to peddle “Any person may sell or peddle the products of the farm or garden occupied and cultivated by him without obtaining a license therefor.”

In 1906, when this was adopted, cannabis was already a product of Minnesota’s farms and gardens. The Attorney General noted that this would allow farmers the right to sell their products “house to house.” Minnesota is the ONLY state that has this right. This was the genesis of Minnesota’s Farmers Market.

A corporation cannot be considered “Any person” if the Constitution also says “cultivated by him,” because a corporation cannot be a “him [or her],” corporations don’t possess gender. Therefore, a corporation can be licensed, but not living human being.

To jail farmers, Farmer-Labor Governor Floyd Olson, and the legislature of 1935, defrauded Minnesotans of this right by requiring an illegal pharmacy license for cannabis hemp, meaning “marijuana.” This historic injustice usurped and defrauded us of our freedom to cultivate without a license. They broke the law, perjured their oath of office, destroyed public safety; solicited & monetized crime; caused murder; false imprisonment; racial unfairness; trigger-happy police; and then they had the nerve to call us ‘criminals?’

Today, the Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL) wants us to reward their criminality by giving them police power to defraud us again? The DFL wants to legalize cannabis by fraud, but the GOP demands criminalization by fraud. It’s hard to imagine farmers voting overwhelmingly for Republicans who want to jail them for cultivation. Neither of the ruling parties want to obey the law?

Of the 15 town hall meetings held across Minnesota called “Be Heard on Cannabis” sponsored by House majority leader, Rep. Ryan Winkler, I spoke at 14. I addressed the locals, “All in favor of growing as much cannabis as you want in your backyard garden, as guaranteed in Article 13, Section 7, of the Minnesota Constitution, raise your hands?” Almost every hand in every location across the state raised their hand in favor, while the “All opposed” were virtually non-existent. Rep. Winkler never allowed us to “Be Heard on Cannabis” in HF600, Adult Use of Cannabis, that passed the House in 2021. I have re-written the “Adult Use of Cannabis” bill  (AUC) to restore our Constitutional rights. See  2021_03_14 HF 600 amendments offered Chris Wright -Adult Use Cannabis 3

Governor Tim Walz supports legalization by fraud. The AUC is a greedy, opportunistic, illegal money grab. The ultimate goal of Governor Walz and the DFL is to exclude Minnesotans from the market by denying your right to Constitutional cannabis and economic justice. If they can require a person to have a license, then they can:

1. Eliminate the competition;
2. Drive up prices to black market levels;
3. Keep criminals in business who can always undercut the legal market;
4. Choose which wealthy investors to enrich;
5. Swindle revenue that belongs to the people;
6. Prevent the poor from selling homegrown to help pay their bills; and
7. Raises the economic burden on the sick and their families for cannabis medicine they could produce themselves for the cost of seeds. The Governor and Legislature forces them to buy overpriced and overtaxed cannabis from licensed dealers who profit from their misery.

The Adult-Use Cannabis Bill (AUC) is unconstitutional, economically unfair and cruel to the sick.

Here’s just a short list of its flaws:

1. It wastes taxpayer dollars to create patronage jobs. Instead of combining the same duties that are currently being performed by the Dept. of Public Safety’s “Alcohol & Gambling Enforcement Division” this bill creates an entirely new bureaucratic agency called the Cannabis Management Board.
2. It creates a Substance Use Disorder Advisory Council that will advise the Dept. of Human Services (DHS) forever, without the automatic expiration of 2-years required by Statute 15.059. In Statute 254A.04, the Legislature created an Alcohol & Other Drug Abuse Advisory Council to advise DHS, which expired in 2018. By now, boring the DHS with advice on cannabis dependence that barely exists, in perpetuity, is stupid.
3. The AUC imposes a 10-percent gross receipts tax on cannabis, while the gross receipt tax on alcohol is 2.5-percent. In other words, cannabis is taxed 4-times more than alcohol, the most destructive drug known to mankind and way more addictive. It’s a prime example of “regressive taxation,” where the poor pay a disproportionate share of the tax burden. How do you justify that?
4. The AUC requires two employees to transport or deliver cannabis. One employee is enough to transport or deliver alcohol and prescription drugs. Is pot more dangerous than alcohol and amphetamines? Why do you need a guard employee? Just lock the vehicle. This is nonsense!
5. The AUC prohibits outdoor advertising on a building or a vehicle. However, the alcohol commissioner can approve the grape logo for Edina Liquor and the name “Budweiser” on the side of a delivery vehicle. More nonsense!
6. The AUC has equity grants because it inequitably defrauds the poor and rich alike of their Constitutional right to grow, sell and peddle without a license. The rich won’t bother growing cannabis when they can easily buy it from a personal grower through an app that connects buyers and home growers or a corporate grower. Outrageous regulations requiring high-cost surveillance and security systems along with high license fees, drives up the cost of small business startups in poor and wealthier neighborhoods.

This is another example of the stupid DFL & GOP bills that are passed every year. How can you NOT KNOW that voting for the ruling parties is wrong? Give them a reason to change, never, ever, vote for them.