Minnesota Cannabis Laws: Possession, Home Growing, and Use

Minnesota cannabis laws let anyone 21 or older possess, use, and grow cannabis within set limits, and they took effect on August 1, 2023, under Chapter 342 of the state statutes. State-licensed retail sales opened in late 2025. The framework is broad, but it is not permissive everywhere: public use, driving, workplaces, rentals, and federal law each carry rules that catch people off guard.

How Much You Can Have

If you are 21 or older, Minn. Stat. § 342.09 lets you carry up to two ounces of cannabis flower in public and keep up to two pounds at home. Concentrates are capped at eight grams. Edibles top out at 800 milligrams of total THC.¹

You can give cannabis to another adult for free in the same amounts you can carry publicly. Giving any amount to someone under 21 is illegal, and so is handing out cannabis as a promotion or free sample tied to a business.¹

Enrolled medical cannabis patients are exempt from these standard limits when their products carry patient-specific labeling.²

Penalties For Going Over

The jump from a ticket to a felony happens faster than most people expect. Minn. Stat. § 152.0263 sorts unlawful possession into four degrees:³

Fourth degree, a petty misdemeanor: two to four ounces of flower in public, 8 to 16 grams of concentrate, or 800 to 1,600 milligrams of THC in edibles. Maximum fine $300, no jail.
Third degree, a misdemeanor: four ounces to one pound of flower in public, 16 to 80 grams of concentrate, or 1,600 milligrams to 8 grams of THC in edibles. Up to 90 days and $1,000.
Second degree, a gross misdemeanor: one to two pounds of flower outside your home, 80 to 160 grams of concentrate, or 8 to 16 grams of THC in edibles. Up to 364 days and $3,000.
First degree, a felony: two pounds to ten kilograms of flower, 160 grams to two kilograms of concentrate, or 16 to 200 grams of THC in edibles. Up to five years in prison and $10,000.

Growing At Home

You do not need a license to grow, but the plant count is fixed. Each residence is limited to eight plants total, with no more than four flowering at any time.² It has to be your primary residence. The plants have to be in an enclosed, locked space that cannot be seen from a sidewalk, street, or any other public area.

Registered medical caregivers get more room. A caregiver can grow eight plants for one patient household on top of eight for personal use, up to 16 total, with no more than eight flowering at once.¹

Renters should read the lease. Rental agreements can restrict or prohibit cultivation on the property.⁴

Where You Can Use It

Smoking and vaping cannabis are banned in all public places, including parks, sidewalks, and restaurant patios. School grounds and federal lands are also off-limits. Local governments can adopt their own ordinances setting petty misdemeanor penalties for public use.

Multifamily housing has a rule that trips up a lot of tenants. State law prohibits smoking or vaping cannabis anywhere inside a multifamily building, balconies and patios included.⁴ This is statewide, not something individual landlords opt into. Medical patients are exempt. Edibles and oils are not covered by the smoking ban, so tenants can generally use those in their units unless the property owner has banned all cannabis on the premises.

Cannabis And Driving

Minnesota treats cannabis in a vehicle roughly the way it treats open alcohol containers, and the penalties are actually steeper. Under Minn. Stat. § 169A.36, using cannabis in any form inside a vehicle on a public road is a misdemeanor. Having an opened, unsealed, or partially used cannabis product in the passenger area is a misdemeanor even if no one is consuming it.⁵

To transport it legally, put it in the trunk. If your car does not have a trunk, it must go somewhere the driver and passengers do not normally occupy. The glove compartment does not qualify. Vehicle owners can be charged for opened cannabis found in their car, even if they were not driving at the time.⁵

Driving while impaired by cannabis is a crime. Minn. Stat. § 169A.20 lists cannabis flower, cannabis products, hemp edibles, and THC among the substances that trigger DWI charges.⁶ The same four-degree DWI structure that applies to alcohol applies here. A first-time fourth-degree DWI is a misdemeanor, but aggravating factors such as prior DWIs or a child in the vehicle can push charges to a first-degree felony with up to seven years in prison. There is no per se THC blood level; prosecutors generally have to show cannabis actually impaired your driving.

Buying It Legally

State-licensed retail sales began in September 2025, when existing medical cannabis providers were first authorized to sell adult-use products. As of early 2026, the Office of Cannabis Management has approved more than 125 cannabis licenses, most of them retail, with roughly 1,400 additional businesses in pre-approved status working toward opening.⁷ Tribal nations continue to operate their own sovereign dispensaries.

Every retail purchase carries a 15 percent gross receipts tax on top of standard state and local sales tax. Retailers can list it as a separate line on the receipt or fold it into the sticker price.⁸

Cities and counties cannot ban personal possession, use, or transportation, but they can restrict where cannabis businesses set up, including buffer zones of up to 1,000 feet from schools and up to 500 feet from childcare centers, athletic facilities, treatment facilities, and parks.⁹ Strict local zoning does not affect your right to possess or grow cannabis at home.

Your Job And Off-Hours Use

The state’s Drug and Alcohol Testing in the Workplace Act was updated to limit employer cannabis testing. Under Minn. Stat. § 181.951, most employers cannot require a cannabis test as a condition of hiring, and they cannot refuse to hire you solely because a drug test comes back positive for cannabis.¹⁰ They also cannot test on an arbitrary or capricious basis.

The exceptions are broad. Employers can still test for cannabis and act on the results for safety-sensitive positions, peace officers and firefighters, jobs involving face-to-face care of children, vulnerable adults, or patients, positions requiring a commercial driver’s license, jobs funded by a federal grant, and any position where state or federal law requires testing.

All employers, without exception, can prohibit cannabis use and possession during work hours or on company property.¹⁰ The protection is about what you do on your own time, not what you do at work.

Old Convictions Getting Cleared

One of the more significant pieces of the 2023 law is automatic expungement of prior low-level cannabis convictions. If you had a petty misdemeanor or misdemeanor cannabis conviction, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was tasked with identifying the record, sealing it from public view, and notifying the courts and law enforcement. Sealed records still exist but no longer appear on background checks.¹¹

Felony cannabis convictions are not automatic. Those go before the Cannabis Expungement Board for individual review. If you have a felony-level cannabis conviction and have not heard anything, a criminal defense attorney can tell you where you stand.

Federal Law Still Applies

Cannabis remains a Schedule I controlled substance federally, and that gap creates consequences state law cannot fix.

Firearms

Federal law bars any “unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” from possessing or buying firearms or ammunition. Because cannabis is federally illegal regardless of state legalization, using cannabis in Minnesota means you cannot legally buy a gun, and answering “no” to the drug-use question on the federal background check form is itself a federal crime.¹² This is one of the most common traps for legal cannabis users who also own or want to own firearms.

Immigration

Non-citizens face real risk. Cannabis use, even when fully legal under Minnesota law, can jeopardize visa renewals, green card applications, and naturalization. Federal authorities can treat cannabis use as evidence against the “good moral character” requirement for citizenship, and it can trigger deportation proceedings or a finding of inadmissibility when re-entering the country. If you are not a U.S. citizen, be cautious regardless of what state law allows.

Federal Property And Federal Employers

Cannabis is prohibited on all federal land within the state, including national parks, military installations, and Veterans Affairs facilities. Federal employees and contractors subject to federal drug-free workplace rules are not covered by Minnesota’s employment protections.

1
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes 342.09 – Personal Adult Use of Cannabis
2
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes Section 342.09 (2025) – Personal Adult Use
3
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes 152.0263 – Cannabis Possession Crimes
4
Office of Cannabis Management. Cannabis Use and Multifamily Housing
5
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes 169A.36
6
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes 169A.20 – Driving While Impaired
7
MPR News. Steady Growth Expected in Minnesotas Adult-Use Cannabis Market
8
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes 295.81 – Cannabis Gross Receipts Tax
9
City of St. Louis Park. Cannabis Zoning Ordinance
10
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes 181.951 – Authorized Drug and Alcohol Testing
11
Minnesota House of Representatives. Law Legalizes Adult-Use Cannabis, Expunges Prior Low-Level Convictions
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts