#23 | Regulating Three Cannabis Markets at Once with Minnesota's Eric Taubel

Shawn Collins of THC Group and Erik Gundersen of ERG Strategies sit down with Eric Taubel of the Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management for a conversation about regulating three cannabis markets at once - and what happens to the most mainstream of them when the federal hemp ban takes effect in November.

Minnesota legalized adult-use cannabis in 2023, but what it built is unlike any other state: a brand-new agency overseeing a new adult-use market, an existing medical program, and a lower-potency hemp market that was already in breweries, liquor stores, and Target before the first dispensary opened. Three years in, the stores are open, the license numbers are in, and the product that made Minnesota the center of the cannabis conversation is about to become federally illegal.

Eric joins The Hybrid to talk about his path from general counsel at the Minnesota Department of Education to employee number six at OCM, why the office looked like the biggest state project since the Obamacare exchanges, and how the first hundred days were spent rewriting the bill, hiring the lawyers who would draft the rules, and sequencing the work as agency first, rules second, market third. The conversation walks through what that sequencing cost and what it bought: pressure from every direction during a rollout every headline still calls tumultuous, why Eric treats "it's taking too long" as a criticism of a goal he never shared, and the early returns - more than 325 licenses issued, 75 percent of them micro businesses, and 43 percent held by verified social equity operators.

Shawn, Erik, and Eric also dig into the hemp story: how a divided legislature "accidentally" legalized THC beverages in 2022, why Minnesota's breweries had a ready-made product and distribution system waiting, who the hemp consumer really is, why the state refuses to regulate vestibules and triple ID checks, and what the November 12 ban actually changes - the products are legal the day before and the day after; what changes is every business's risk calculation, and OCM built a licensed landing spot for hemp operators before the ban was even signed.

From there, the conversation turns to social equity beyond the license: a $15 million-a-year community reinvestment fund, automatic expungement that worked so fast applicants could not find their own records, plain-language guidance written for a sixth-grade reading level, a three-person customer service desk that answered 14,000 calls last year, and the moment every regulator reaches when the market has to start organizing itself.

This episode is about Minnesota, but it is also about every state asking whether cannabis, hemp, and medical belong in separate markets - and what it takes to turn a statute into one.

Learn more about the Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management at https://mn.gov/ocm

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🔎 Topics: Minnesota cannabis, Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management, Eric Taubel, cannabis regulation, cannabis policy, adult-use cannabis, medical cannabis, hemp THC, THC beverages, hemp ban, federal hemp ban, micro business license, cannabis licensing, social equity, community reinvestment, expungement, craft cannabis, market launch, cannabis agency, legalization, The Hybrid podcast