House Commerce Committee, 1:00pm.
This was the FIRST committee Bill HF100 was introduced to back on January 5, 2023. Let's talk Cannabis SchhhMoney. $$$
I also testified, again.
Commerce and Policy Committee: Passed
Amendments to cap potency levels DID NOT pass. (Thank Ganja).
I testified on how much money Midwest Cannabis industries made in 2022, and hopefully, Minnesota can be apart of the BILLIONS next year; Our POTHOLES could use the 4.1 Billion we participated in giving Illinois and Michigan last year.
If you'd like to watch my testimony, you can below, I start at 24:00 minutes, about;
Test of Testimony from 3/20/23-
To: Chair Stephenson, and the House Commerce Committee
From: Kayla Fearing, Healing Fear Consulting
Date: 3/20/23
Subject: HF 100- Legalization of Adult Use Cannabis
My name is Kayla Fearing, and I am a native Minnesotan, and owner of Healing Fear
Consulting, a healthcare sciences-based cannabinoid education business. I recently returned back to Saint Paul, in October 2022 after working in Michigan and Illinois cannabis markets for almost three years. My background before cannabis was healthcare; The cannabis industry is an extremely fast paced, and regulated industry, just like healthcare, but it makes the type of money healthcare could only dream of. I'm not even referring to California, Oregon or Colorado- I have personally, seen and worked with this money, and I would like to highlight some statistics of our Midwestern Cannabis Industry, which I hope, will include Minnesota, sooner than later.
Last year, Illinois made $1.8 Billion Dollars in Adult Use Cannabis Sales.
Michigan made $2.3 Billion Dollars in Adult Use Cannabis Sales- December 2022 was a record setting $221 MILLION.
Recreational Adult use Cannabis is taxed in every state that it is legal- Illinois is 35%; one of the HIGHEST in the country. Michigan is 10%, the second lowest in the country, currently. Illinois from the Minnesota border is five hours and twenty-two minutes. Minnesota to the Lower peninsula of Michigan is Nine Hours, and fifty-one minutes; Minnesota to the upper peninsula state line is six hours, and twenty-five minutes. If Minnesota legislators continue to THINK that Minnesotans aren't accessing Cannabis, in legal markets themselves, you're far from wrong. Think. The late 90’s and early 2000’s when our parents and grandparents were taking couch busses to Canada for cheaper accessibility to prescription drugs; it’s happening now with Cannabis.
In Michigan I worked 25 min outside of Detroit, and we averaged 1600 guests a day in our doors; 30- 40 of those people a WEEK came in with a Minnesota ID. Including Minnesota Medical Patients, because Michigan offers reciprocity to United States Medical patients- meaning, if you're a tourist to Michigan, they want all patients to have access to their medicine. I believe this is something Minnesota's Medical cannabis program should adopt immediately if we're as innovative in Healthcare as we claim;
In Illinois, I worked 30 min outside of Chicago, as well as, in Gurnee, IL, near the Wisconsin border. I wasn't working a counter at these jobs, but I sure did see multiple Minnesota license plates in those Dispensary parking lots of shops such as Rise- the same dispensary we have here, a part of our medical program in Minnesota; Illinois does not offer reciprocity to outside of Illinois medical patients, but a 15% discount on your total bill. Minnesotans were shopping in Illinois, because even with a 35% added tax, the product was still available in larger quantities, and higher doses, than Minnesota's medical cannabis program. If we adopt an Adult Use Recreational program with limits, we will continue to be laughed at by legal midwestern states.
Many Minnesotans who CHOOSE to shop recreationally, SHOULD, be on a medical cannabis program; However, due to the stigma of Cannabis in our society, Veterans, Doctors, Politicians, Teachers, Clergy, etc., all choose to shop recreationally instead, and self-diagnose and medicate. That is the reality of this industry.
If you put in place potency caps, possession limits that are naive, and treat Minnesotans like we're uneducated on a plant that we should and could all grow at home ourselves- You will continue to create an illicit black market. Which includes everyone in your districts and neighbors- not just the “criminals,” you think of in your mind. I have watched it happen with my own eyes, and have checked the Out of State IDs, and taken the CASH with my own hands, and wished the individual SAFE TRAVELS. No state is going to enforce something that makes them $4.1 Billion Dollars? (That's Illinois and Michigan combined).
Keep Minnesotan Money, IN Minnesota with SMART laws when it comes to Adult use cannabis legalization. I know Saint Paul, and Minneapolis POTHOLES could surely use that money.
Thank you Chair Stephenson, and Commerce Committee
Komen