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“This is a form of reparation,” said state Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville. The “CanRenew” grant program in the new Minnesota marijuana law will start in 2026 and will award $15 million a year to eligible organizations in communities that have high concentration of people who were convicted for a marijuana offense or had family members convicted. Communities with large veteran populations, high poverty rates or have determined to have “experienced a disproportionately large amount of cannabis enforcement” will be eligible for the funding, according to the law.

Marijuana was illegal up until Aug. 1, 2023, so now we are going to give money to those who broke the law and we are rewarding communities that had good law enforcement and were upholding the law? I wonder how our law enforcement officers who were doing their job feel about this?

Russel Tordoff
Glenville