The State of Enforcement: Progress and Shortcomings in Cannabis Arrest Rates
Minnesota
On May 30, 2023, Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed HF 100 into law, legalizing and regulating cannabis for adults 21 and older. Legal sales began in September 2025 from state-licensed stores. Some tribally licensed sales began earlier. Minnesota’s law also allows adults to cultivate up to eight plants (four of which may be flowering) at their primary residence, as long as it is out of public view and in an enclosed, locked space.
HF 100 did not specify a penalty for minors in possession, but a default penalty applies, a petty misdemeanor carrying up to a $300 fine.
Public consumption is legal in most outdoor locations in Minnesota, unless it’s prohibited by the municipality. Smoking in places where tobacco is prohibited, such as most indoor locations, is subject to a civil fine, mirroring the treatment of tobacco.
While Minnesota’s legalization law included many important criminal justice reforms, it also included a criminal misdemeanor for having an open package of cannabis, which can result in 90 days in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. [18] The crime prohibits any cannabis flower or cannabis product that was removed from the packaging it was sold in, or if the packaging that has ever been opened, unless it is in the trunk or, if there is no trunk, if it is in another area of the vehicle not normally occupied by the driver and passenger.
In late 2025, the Minnesota Reformer reported that more than 3,500 charges had been brought by the “open package” law since legalization passed in spring of 2023. [19] The newspaper noted, “The police stops and prosecutions have defense lawyers concerned about the threat of racial profiling and warrantless vehicle searches.” In Hennepin County, the most populous county, 42% of those charged were Black, despite only 13% of the population being Black.
At the time of their reporting, cannabis consumers were largely unaware of the prohibition, as the Minnesota Reformer notes “The law prohibiting improperly packaged marijuana in vehicles isn’t mentioned on the state’s ‘need to know’ page about adult-use cannabis. …”
In their review of cases, the paper found in many cases “the driver is not even suspected of being under the influence but simply had a jar of marijuana in the passenger area or in the center console. In those cases, drivers often freely showed officers their bag of weed, seemingly unaware they had done anything wrong.”
Arrests for cannabis possession and sales have dropped by over 75% in Minnesota, to 860 possession arrests in 2025 and 65 arrests for manufacturing or sales. But these don’t appear to include the open container arrests, which are codified in the traffic laws.
Even as Minnesota expunges tens of thousands of records, it is creating thousands of new criminal records for conduct that endangered no one.
Minnesota Cannabis Arrests
** **
Arrests 2022
Arrests 2025
Decrease
Percent Decrease
Possession
3,650
860
2,790
76.4%
Manufacture or Sales
126
65
61
48.4%
Total
3,776
925
2,851
75.5%