On Tuesdays, Sen. Lindsey Port clears hours on her schedule to take feedback on cannabis legalization, allowing anybody with a concern or suggestion to get face time with the lead Senate sponsor.
A few thick folders sit within Port’s reach in her office. They’re filled with emails, reports, proposed amendments and other advice she’s accumulated during the more than 100 appointments she’s had since January in what she describes as the biggest undertaking of her time in the Legislature.
Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville, reviews material surrounding her marijuana legalization bill in her office in the Minnesota Senate Building on April 4.
Brian Bakst | MPR News
“I’ve met with everybody from students who want to make sure that there is peer-to-peer education on the dangers of marijuana to hemp farmers to criminal justice lawyers to concerned parents, people who don’t want cannabis legalized,” said Port, DFL-Burnsville. “Really, I have not said no to those meetings.”
As lawmakers return to the Capitol for the session’s remaining six weeks, the marijuana bill is nearing the end of a committee gauntlet. Votes on the House and Senate floor could happen yet this month, although differences in the bills before each body seem certain to push the plan into another round of negotiations.
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