The Isanti County Commissioners held a spirited discussion on changes to its cannabis ordinance as part of its meeting held Tuesday, Jan. 21.
The commissioners originally passed a cannabis ordinance at its Jan. 7 meeting, noting that there would likely be amendments to this ordinance. Two amendments were brought forward on Jan. 21 in the hope of bringing those changes to a public hearing, a necessary step in making the changes.
One was to change the allowable hours for the sale of cannabis products to 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and the other focused on “temporary cannabis events,” which is an event lasting no more than four days at which cannabis products may be sold.
State law says an organizer of such events must have a cannabis event organizer license issued by the state’s Office of Cannabis Management.
Several commissioners expressed interest in limiting the hours even further, especially on Sundays; Commissioner Todd Christensen asked if the hours could be the same as those set for liquor sales, and was told that was possible.
“If the goal of the board is to restrict the hours as much as possible, I can go in that direction,” County Administrator Amanda Usher said. “I can put together a proposed amendment based on that direction.”
Commissioner Alan Duff restated his opposition to the section involving the temporary cannabis events.
“If there’s agreement to the board to consider that, I think it would be worth it,” he said.
Usher noted that the state is not prepared to issue those licenses for the events, which would open the door to remove that section. She noted that the permits for other events, such as a flea market or a motocross event, would open the door for cannabis events to come to the board, but under those licensing procedures.
“I would recommend that, once the state does get some of those laws in place, we should add to the ordinance regarding special events,” she said. “Ideally the state will come up with some laws that would allow us to be stricter than for other events, and we could adopt that for this ordinance.”
Commissioner Steve Westerberg wants the county to look into limiting the areas where such events can be held.
The commissioners approved holding a public forum on Tuesday, March 4 starting at 9:30 a.m. Usher said she will continue to do research on temporary cannabis events, and Christensen suggested sending a letter to State Sen. Mark Koran and State Rep. James Gordon expressing the county’s disapproval of “forcing this cannabis stuff on us,” according to Christensen.
