Ten years ago, Massachusetts voters brought cannabis out of the shadows. On Nov. 3, they'll decide whether to send it back.

This week, the Minnesota Star Tribune published an opinion piece arguing they shouldn't. It's titled To get cannabis right, regulate it. Don't repeal it., and it carries Minnesota Cannabis College's name onto the Star Tribune's opinion page.

Here's what it argues, and why it matters for anyone working in Minnesota's market.

The piece is by Kasey Kollross, who sits on MNCC's board of directors and on the board of the National Cannabis Industry Association. I name both seats in the op-ed. I also help put this newsletter together, which is exactly why I’m saying so up front.

The views are mine, published under my byline. We're sharing them because the argument is the one our programs are built on, and you deserve to know the relationship before you weigh it.

Question 8 would repeal adult-use cannabis sales in Massachusetts. No licensed recreational dispensaries, no regulated cultivation, no home grow. Medical cannabis would remain, and possession of up to an ounce would carry no penalty, according to Ballotpedia's summary of the measure.

Voters approved adult-use in 2016 with 53.7% of the vote. If Question 8 passes, the Marijuana Policy Project notes, Massachusetts would be the first state to vote to recriminalize an adult-use market it had already built.

It's worth reading that plainly. Medical stays. Small-amount possession stays. What leaves is the part with the lights on: the licenses, the labs, the labels, and the people trained to run them.

I have spent three decades around this plant. I’ve watched it move from the shadows to licensed shelves, into testing labs, and now into classrooms. My argument is not that the legal market is flawless. It's that its flaws are reasons to regulate it better, not reasons to push it back underground.

I also take on one of the central claims of repeal campaigns and argue that Minnesota's own data doesn't back it up. I'll make that case in full below.

Read the op-ed in the Minnesota Star Tribune →

Minnesota is in its founding era. Adult-use cannabis became legal here in 2023, and licensed stores began opening in 2025. Every rule, license, and job in this market is still new enough to be argued about.

Repeal campaigns don't stay put, either. MPP warns that a win in Massachusetts would likely invite similar ballot fights in other states. The argument being tested in Boston this fall is one Minnesota could hear next.

Here's the part a ballot question can't show you. A regulated market isn't a law sitting on a shelf. It's people: the budtender checking an ID at 9 p.m. on a Friday, the cultivation tech logging plant counts nobody will thank her for, the compliance lead who knows chapter 342 by section number.

Regulation only works when someone trained is standing in the light.

That's the work education as repair is designed to do: put the communities most harmed by prohibition at the front of the line for the jobs legalization created. CanTrain powered retail training prepares people for the retail floor. CanGrow powered cultivation training prepares them for cultivation. The free statewide job board connects them to employers, with no toll booth.

Want to donate, volunteer, co-organize, or create your own personal fundraiser? Visit our Give 828 page.

Repeal is a light switch. Regulation is the wiring, and wiring takes skilled hands.

Read the op-ed. Send it to someone who thinks the legal market is the problem. Then come help us train the people who keep the lights on.

Resources: The op-ed (Star Tribune) • Question 8 (Ballotpedia) • Free statewide job board • CanTrain and CanGrow

Say hello anytime: [email protected].

Find work: free statewide job board • Get trained: CanTrain and CanGrow • Say hello anytime: [email protected]

Minnesota Cannabis College is a Twin Cities-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. EIN 86-2319307.

Discover your next career in cannabis.

Keep showing up, keep cheering each other on — and as always, our mission is education as repair! 👨‍🎓

The MNCC Team

P.S.

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