Hemp-derived THC store opens second location in East Grand Forks
May 23—EAST GRAND FORKS — With recreational marijuana in Minnesota on the brink of legalization, a northwest Minnesota entrepreneur who has found a niche selling hemp-derived THC products is growing his operation.
John Reitmeier, owner of Canna Corners in Crookston, Minnesota, has opened a location in East Grand Forks. Located at 910 Central Ave. Northwest, the store opened on Monday, May 15.
Canna Corners sells products containing low levels of hemp-derived THC, the ingredient in cannabis that causes a high. The sale of hemp-derived THC products in Minnesota was legalized in July 2022.
The law included regulations for the sale of hemp-derived THC products, such as an age requirement and THC limits in servings, but it did not provide a provision on how compliance would be monitored or enforced, leaving city and county governments to decide. When it opened in Crookston in August 2022,
Canna Corners sparked a debate among city leaders
and an eventual
emergency ordinance to keep tabs on what businesses were selling the products.
For Reitmeier, who farms near Fisher, Minnesota — between Crookston and East Grand Forks — opening a store in East Grand Forks was a natural next step. He also found customers from Greater Grand Forks traveled to his store in Crookston.
"Rather than all of them having to drive many times this way, we only have to drive one time to be over there to meet our customers close up and face to face," Reitmeier said.
Ronny Reitmeier, John Reitmeier's son, works at the East Grand Forks location. He said business has started to pick up a week after the store's soft opening. Most of the customers skew older.
"It's more older folks that want pain or sleep management, quality of life management," Ronny Reitmeier said. "That's very rewarding, actually, when they come back and say 'I've slept for the first time in so long and it was such good quality.'"
Expansion to other towns in the region is not out of the question, John Reitmeier said.
"We've got inquiries out to locations and potential partners literally across the northern part of Minnesota," John Reitmeier said.
The cannabis industry is expected to expand even more as a bill that would legalize recreational adult-use cannabis heads to the desk of Gov. Tim Walz. House File 100 was approved on party lines, 34-32, in the Senate on Saturday, May 20, after it was approved by the House last week, 73-57.
If Walz signs it — as he is expected to do — the bill will allow people 21 and older to possess marijuana. It also will expunge marijuana conviction records and create a regulatory plan for cannabis products. Once signed, it will go into effect on Aug. 1.
John Reitmeier is happy with the bill.
"I'm one of the people who believes that we need to stop the illicit market, and the way to stop the illicit market, although it may take a long time, is to get people thinking about the fact that when you're buying locally, you're buying pure," John Reitmeier said. "You know what the product is, it's helping the tax structure, it's putting people to work. I think over time, people are just going to come along on that program and you'll see the illicit market fading away."
The law will require cultivators, retailers and wholesalers to have licenses, with a new office of cannabis management to regulate the industry. Edibles containing low levels of hemp-derived THC, like the ones sold at Canna Corners, will also be regulated under the law, meaning sellers will need to apply for a license.
John Reitmeier says his company plans to sell recreational cannabis under the new law, but is unsure how that will look at this point.
"We're yet to start having legal meetings here and see, if we should be fortunate enough to get the license, will everything that we have carry along with it, or is it something that we have to run as two separate companies?" John Reitmeier said. "We don't know the answer to that yet, but either way, we're excited to be a part of the new laws that are coming out."
