Minnesota Republican Senators Block Marijuana Legalization Vote Proposed By Democrats

The Minnesota’s Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday blocked Democrats’ move to advance a marijuana legalization bill that’s been stalled in committee.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Melisa López Franzen (D) announced her plans to bring the issue up for consideration on the chamber floor through a procedural mechanism that would have required a supermajority of 41 votes to advance. As was expected, the motion failed to reach that threshold in the GOP-run body.

The process López Franzen sought to use is called recall from committee. The Senate legalization bill was referred to committee in February 2021, but it did not advance. Democrats sought to leverage that process to skip committee consideration and bring it straight to the floor for consideration.

“Minnesotans want to have this discussion and conversation about legalization of cannabis,” she said. “They broadly support moving ahead with this legislation. They expect us to debate the merits of this proposal and not block the conversation from happening.”

But the motion was defeated in a 31-33 vote.

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