By next year, there may be as many as a thousand medical cannabis patients in northern Minnesota, though it’s seeming less and less likely that any of them will pick up their supplies in Duluth. Earlier this month, the city’s planning committee proposed a six-month moratorium on cannabis manufacturers or distributors, giving city officials time to consider how a facility would affect the homestead.
On Monday, city council president Linda Krug cited zoning concerns and asked, “Where would it have the least amount of destruction to neighborhoods and people’s lives?” But the city might not be having this discussion at all if it weren’t for Jim Carlson, owner of the Last Place on Earth, a downtown headship. He was sentenced recently to 17 and a half years in prison for allegedly selling synthetic drugs. Carlson maintains that he did nothing wrong: He sold incense and bath salts, some of which came with a warning not to consume. But consume people did — causing the city establishment to gasp.
