06-20-23-WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JUNE 20, 2023 5 5. PRESENTATION ITEMS E. THC Moratorium and Cannabis Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Hanson stated the moratorium for THC ends on August 23. Just before this meeting she spoke with an attorney at Campbell Knutson who was tasked with following the legislative process for THC and adult cannabis. She had indicated in the memo that if a city enacted a new moratorium it could encompass both adult cannabis and lower potency edible THC products and it could be in effect until January, 2025. However, she was just told the new moratorium now cannot include the lower potency THC products. They could let the current moratorium expire and license THC until the end of the year, but they cannot roll adult cannabis into that licensing. So now there is time to discuss adult use as legal sales won't happen until the new Minnesota Office of Cannabis starts licensing in January, 2025. Council will need to decide what they'd like to do with THC products. She noted that they can zone the areas that allow THC edibles. City Administrator Perrault added that if they move forward with a licensing program similar to tobacco, it would no longer be valid after December 31, 2023. He didn't feel the licensing route probably made sense since it would be null and void by the end of the year. Additional guidance for the zoning will be coming out and this could be brought back at a later date with zoning recommendations. He explained that after the current moratorium expires on August 22, 2023 they can no longer do anything with the low potency cannabis products such as gummies and seltzers, unless they want to include them in zoning changes. Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Hanson said the attorney wondered if we'd really want to hurry to amend the ordinance for only a couple of months, and tackle licensing language that is still a moving target. The State will license, cities will register and perform compliance checks. The League of Minnesota Cities may be providing further guidance at the end of this month. Councilmember Monson restated that they are not talking about adult cannabis because they have time and they can't lump the THC edibles into a moratorium. As of August 23, businesses can sell edibles, but they have to follow the regulations per the State law. So, we would have between August 23 and the end of the year to do nothing, go through the process of licensing and/or zoning. Mayor Grant stated they could start the zoning and licensing now. Councilmember Holden said they could do a quick zoning to limit it to commercial areas so people couldn't create at-home businesses. Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Hanson explained they would want to chose a reasonable registration fee, and penalties are laid out. Businesses need to inform the city and register with the city. Compliance checks would be for THC and cannabis but they don't know if it would be done by the Sheriff's Department, or the agency that does our tobacco compliance checks.