MN Cannabis Czar Out After One Day

ST PAUL, Minn — Simply in the future after being assigned to the highest submit of Minnesota’s Workplace of Cannabis Administration, Erin DuPree is out. 

On Friday, KARE 11’s companions MPR News and APM Reports reported that DuPree’s Apple Valley hemp enterprise “sold products that exceeded state limits on THC potency, owed money to former associates and accumulated  tens of thousands of dollars in tax liens.”

Whereas she did not supply an express purpose for her departure, DuPree denied ever knowingly promoting unlawful merchandise at her enterprise in an announcement, including when she turned conscious of them, she eliminated them from her store’s stock.

“Conducting lawful business has been an objective of my business career. However, it has become clear that I have become a distraction that would stand in the way of the important work that needs to be done,” mentioned Dupree in an announcement. 

She was slated to take over the function on Oct. 2., earlier than at present’s information. 

“DuPree is a proven and effective leader, who will be successful in standing up Minnesota’s new adult-use cannabis market and helping Minnesotans succeed in the industry,” he mentioned in a launch. 

Nevertheless, his tone shifted in a message on Friday.

“We have a responsibility to assure Minnesotans that this emerging market will be safe, lawful, and well-regulated,” mentioned the Governor in his Friday assertion. 

Walz introduced Charlene Briner will lead the workplace within the interim. 

In an interview Friday, Republican Senator Zach Duckworth criticized the Walz administration’s hiring course of.

“This is something that’s so serious and so important, that we have to do our due diligence,” Duckworth mentioned, “not only regarding the law but those that we’re going to also trust to enact it.”

The developments involving the Workplace of Cannabis Administration have additionally been tracked intently by entrepreneurs like Zach Rohr, founding father of Minny Grown and one of many many hoping to get a license by OCM to promote leisure marijuana.

“It’s definitely surprising and a little shocking,” Rohr mentioned of DuPree’s departure. “To miss glaring red flags during this hiring process for the director of Office of Cannabis Management, does plant a seed of distrust at the state capitol with folks in the industry.”

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