“The city of Circle Pines needs to be ready to have in place our local rules and regulations of how it works…” said Mayor Dave Bartholomay. “You don’t operate just as a city of 5,000 people in the middle of nowhere.”
Circle Pines politicians are expecting grass to get a pass at the state capital in St. Paul. The prospect of marijuana being legal is why the city drew up some cannabis regulations at a recent council meeting.
“We’re not necessarily going to be able to please everybody, but at least it’s a smart, thought out policy plan,” Bartholomay said.”
Grass game plan
The city council created a road map on how they will handle things. The game plan looks like this:
- Minimum age for buying marijuana is 21.
- Cost of getting a license to sell cannabis is $100 plus background fees.
- The penalty for selling grass to a minor is $1000 for the first offense, $1500 for the second and 2k for the third.
- Marijuana cannot be sold in liquor stores. The new state law will set the parameters regarding the sale of cannabis in proximity to certain places.
“A city needs to think about things like where would you want these stores or dispensaries to be?” Bartholomay said. “Maybe not too close to schools, maybe not too close to a church.”
According to Bartholomay, Circle Pines wants to have common sense regulations.
“People have to be licensed, like any business in town would be licensed,” Bartholomay said. “That way if they do stuff wrong, if they’re not obeying the law, we have some way to work with them and say, ‘if you don’t straighten up we’re going to pull your license.’ ”
Circle Pines has taken a micro and macro view of legalized marijuana. Their laws are patterned after some North Metro cities and Colorado – where marijuana has been legal since 2012.
“We wanted to make sure that all of our laws are somewhat similar…” Bartholomay said. “What works in these other places – the Denver’s and the suburbs and stuff? So when we come along we’re not just trying something. We’re often looking at what has worked best.”
Avoiding “pot holes”
Circle Pines has been bracing for this marijuana moment for months and hopes to avoid any “pot holes” down the road.
Said Bartholomay: “We believe now by passing this that we’re in a good position for whatever the legislature does.”.
However, Circle Pines is not expecting legalized cannabis to be a windfall.
Said Bartholomay: “We don’t see this really as a revenue stream at all.”
Bartholomay says if marijuana becomes legal, the state could have other rules and stipulations in the legislation. That means Circle Pines will need to to sync up with Minnesota regulations.
