Buying weed in Minnesota, start to finish

A big spring law, two federal moves and one city tax cut changed the picture this year.

• April 28. State-licensed medical marijuana moved to Schedule III under federal law. Adult-use cannabis stayed Schedule I.
• May 27. No vape products for patients under 21, and hemp shops without a liquor license can qualify to serve hemp THC drinks on site.
• August 1. Medical products go only to enrolled patients, stores with a new endorsement can weigh flower at the counter, and hemp THC drinks can come in resealable 750 mL bottles.
• October 1. Albert Lea's city sales tax ended.
• December 11. A federal hemp change is set to put products over 0.4 mg of THC per container outside federal hemp, which covers most hemp THC drinks and gummies. How that plays out here isn't settled yet.
• Taxes. Still 15%, since the jump from 10% on July 1, 2025.

This is the question that trips up most shoppers here. The THC seltzers and gummies at liquor stores, bars and corner shops are lower-potency hemp edibles, capped at 5 mg a serving, 50 mg a package and 10 mg a drink. Those shops can't sell flower, THCA flower or vapes. Only a cannabis-licensed store can.

• Hundreds of milligrams? The regulator says hemp edibles that strong are illegal.
• Look for the symbol. Legal products carry the state's universal symbol on the package.
• Two licenses. A legal store needs a state license and a city or county registration.
• Tribal dispensaries. They run under Tribal law on Tribal land, and seven Tribes have compacts or agreements with the state.

You can report an unlicensed seller through the regulator's complaint form, and Minneapolis takes reports too. Every store on Alexis 420 comes from the official license list.

Of the 240 licensed spots we list, 184 post their hours. Most open around 10 AM and close around 8 PM, and 36 stay open until 10 PM or later at least one night. On Sundays, 162 of them open their doors.

The law allows sales from 8 AM to 2 AM Monday through Saturday, and from 10 AM on Sunday. Cities can trim the late hours, and some do. Saint Paul stops at 10 PM and sells 11 AM to 6 PM on Sundays, and Duluth sells 10 AM to 9 PM every day. The full rundown is in our dispensaries open late guide.

Minneapolis and Saint Paul lead our list with 25 and 17 stores, and most of the rest are small-town shops spread across the state. The taxes and limits are the same everywhere. What changes city to city is local sales tax, hours and park rules.

Moorhead, Winona, Duluth and Albert Lea sit right on the borders, a short drive for shoppers from next door. The bag can't go back across. Start with the Minneapolis dispensaries list if you're in the Cities.

Alexis 420 only lists stores on the license list from Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management (OCM). Law facts on these pages come from the statutes, the office's rules and pages, the Department of Revenue and city ordinances, and we recheck them when the law changes.

Want to check a store yourself? Our how to tell if a dispensary is licensed guide shows how.