ELY— How to regulate the sale of cannabinoid products here was the focus of a sometimes-rambling city council study session here on Tuesday. Minnesota legalized edible cannabinoid products with up to 5 mg of THC per serving during last year’s legislative session, with a limit of 50 mg per package.
But the new law, which caught many communities and even lawmakers by surprise, came with little thought about how to regulate the sale of the products. Minnesota cities can adopt their own regulations through ordinance, and many are doing so to provide more structure than was offered in the 2022 law. Many Minnesotan municipalities already regulate permits, fees, and sale hours for products like tobacco and alcohol.
Like many other Minnesota cities, Ely passed a moratorium on all new permits to sell cannabinoids at its Dec. 6 meeting due to concerns over the introduction of edible cannabinoids.
As the Timberjay reported in its Dec. 9 issue, the moratorium expires on March 7 if city takes no further action or until the city passes its own ordinance regulating the sale of these products. The city can opt to extend its moratorium, which it can do for up to a year.
The city council shot down its first attempt at a cannabinoid ordinance on Jan. 17. At this same meeting, businessman John Chaulklin, who runs a smoke shop and edible cannabinoid store with his wife in Cook, approached the council for a permit to open a lounge in Ely. The proposed lounge would sell edible cannabinoid products for consumption on the premises.
According to Ely city attorney Kelly Klun, Chaulklin has since contacted the city to change the business model from a lounge with onsite consumption to a shop that sells the product for consumption offsite by customers.
Though Chaulklin changed his business proposal, since then, an existing Ely restaurant inquired with the city over the possibility of getting a permit to sell cannabinoid beverages, which are included as legal edibles in Minnesota.

The study session
At the Jan. 17 council meeting, the councilors decided to hold a study session before reintroducing a cannabinoid ordinance as an agenda item. The agenda for the session, which is available on the city’s website, included two different proposed ordinances for regulating the sale of edibles. One more permissive ordinance allowed “on-sale” edible cannabinoid products and to be sold in Ely well as “off-sale” products. The other ordinance allowed only “off-sale” products.
The difference between the two is that “on-sale” products can be consumed where they are sold whereas “off-sale” products are sold to be consumed elsewhere.
“On-sale is literally the chewing of the gummy bears, for example, on site where you purchased it, or it could also be a THC beverage (to drink) on site where you purchased it,” explained Klun to the councilors.

Councilor concerns
The subsequent discussion by the council and its questions to Klun, Police Chief Chad Houde, and Police Officer Brad Roy, suggested that several councilors take a dim view of permitting “on-sale” products.
“I’m against on-sale,” council member Al Forsman bluntly. “I’m going to support the ordinance for ‘off-sale’ alone. I think it’s inevitable that it’s going to pass in the state (Legislature) anyways, so we might as well get to get control of it (how we sell it in Ely).” Councilor Adam Bisbee agreed with Forsman.
The conversation and the questions careened from topic to topic, covering a lot of ground, including discussion about how to determine if someone is impaired driving a vehicle after consuming legal edible cannabinoids, the regulation of these products in parks, public spaces or near schools, and how to enforce violations of the ordinance.
Each councilor had his or her own areas of concern and each had questions or comments to make during the almost-hour long session. The session resembled a graduate school seminar more than a meeting of locally elected officials.
How edible cannabinoids are packaged for off-sale purchase was another topic of concern. For example, the councilors worried that the edible cannabinoid gummies and their packaging might appeal to toddlers.
“We’re going to have more poison control incidences with children,” remarked Officer Roy. “We’re seeing it already in places like California.”
Another exchange over packaging brought up a concern about people outside of Ely bringing it into the community with no regard for local laws or concerns. Mayor Heidi Omerza suggested there are limits to what the city can do about that, “We do happen to be a tourist community. We can say yes or no to whatever we want, however, believe it or not, people may bring whatever they want up here, so we will be dealing with this one way or the other.”
Councilor Bisbee offered a humorous take. “I can already envision thousands of slimy gummy bear wrappers strewn across the parks and into the Boundary Waters and everywhere in between – and I don’t know if they are offered in [sustainable] packaging.”
Another draft ordinance will be presented at the first city council meeting in February.