A marijuana legalization bill cleared additional Minnesota House Senate committees on Thursday.
The House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee passed the measure from Rep. Zack Stephenson (D) in a voice vote—the eleventh in the chamber to do so this session.
Later in the day, the Senate Labor Committee also advance the companion version sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Port (D) in a voice vote, making it the eighth panel in that body to sign off on the legislation this year.
“Minnesotans are ready for this change,” Stephenson told members of the House committee. “Our current laws are doing more harm than good.”
Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten (D), who presented the proposal on behalf of Port on the Senate side, told panel members that the legislation “is about allowing adults to safely and responsibly use cannabis” and that it “creates a regulated marketplace that is much safer than our current underground illicit marketplace.”
“I really care about this bill because of expungement and because of the fact that cannabis prohibition has caused immense harm in our communities in the criminal justice system,” she said, noting racial disparities in the enforcement of criminalization.
“When we legalize, there’s this responsibility to have expungement
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