Minnesota elections are almost here!

Since voters legalized cannabis in 2023, Minnesota has seen the real and measurable benefits of legalization. Minnesota reduced cannabis arrests from 9,547 in 2022 to 947 in 2025. The human cost that prohibition brought on is hard to calculate. A cannabis arrest haunts a person for the rest of their life, stymieing economic, educational, and parental opportunities and rights. 

We have also seen teen use drop 56% in those few years. And Minnesota is not an outlier, as every state that has legalized cannabis has seen a substantial drop in youth usage and access, according to federal data. 

Legal cannabis also allows Minnesotans to have a safe, regulated option to use cannabis while paying for programs that strengthen their communities. Since legal sales began in September 2025, adult-use cannabis taxes have generated $2.1 million for the state within just over three months. Most of that revenue goes directly into the state's general fund, with some going to local governments as well. 

These are the benefits of legalization, but that progress isn’t guaranteed. It depends on who we elect.

Voters have an opportunity to decide who represents them in the state capitol. The entire House of Representatives and the state Senate are up for election. While MPP did not have the bandwidth to survey candidates for the state legislature, we were able to highlight the two top-polling gubernatorial candidates' policy stances on cannabis. 

Amy Klobuchar (D) is currently a senator for Minnesota. She has been a strong supporter of federal legalization and states setting their own policies. She is a strong supporter of medical cannabis as well. In her earlier career as a prosecutor, she was opposed to legalization, but that stance evolved by 2019.

Lisa Demuth (R) is also a current state senator. In 2023, she voted against the cannabis legalization bill. In August 2023, in the days before legalization, she called for a special session to review the law. In May 2025, she called for the cannabis excise tax to be increased from 10% to 15%.