Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now is a political third party in the U.S. state of Minnesota established in 1998 to oppose drug prohibition.
Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now became a major party in Minnesota in 2018 when their candidate for State Auditor, Michael Ford, received 5.3 percent of the vote. During the 2010s the party began expansion attempts to other states, continuing during the 2020s, as the Legal Marijuana Now Party.
In 2020, the Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now nominee for United States Senator received 190,154 votes in the November 3 election, the largest number of votes received in 2020, in the U.S., by any such third-party candidate. Democrats have stated that Legal Marijuana Now candidates are detrimental to the Democratic Party. An analysis of votes cast in the 2020 Minnesota elections found that Legal Marijuana Now candidates might have helped Democratic candidates in swing districts, by pulling a greater number of votes from Republican candidates.
Scholars have credited Legal Marijuana Now with motivating the Minnesota Democratic Party to prioritize cannabis legalization, in 2023.
History
Background before 1998
The Minnesota Grassroots Party was formed in 1986 as a response to Ronald Reagan's War on Drugs. In 1996 the party split, with some former members forming the Independent Grassroots Party for one election cycle.
1998—2012
In 1998, members of the Independent Grassroots Party formed the Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now political party.
Minnesota does not allow voters to petition to put the law itself onto the ballot for a vote. The only petition the people can use in Minnesota is to nominate independent and third party candidates for office.
2014—2018
In 2014, Dan Vacek ran for Minnesota Attorney General as the Legal Marijuana Now candidate and got 57,604 votes, qualifying the party to be officially recognized and to receive public funding from the state.
Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now held their first convention and adopted a party constitution on November 26, 2014. Founding members Oliver Steinberg, Marty Super, and Dan Vacek comprised the organization's 2015 leadership council.
In 2016, Michael Ford was elected chairperson of the Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now Party. From 2018—2019, Marty Super served as chairperson. Tim Davis was chairperson of Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now from 2020 until 2023, when Dennis Schuller became chairperson of the Minnesota party.
The Legal Marijuana Now Party placed a candidate, Zach Phelps, on the ballot in the Minnesota State Senate District 35 Special Election, in February 2016.
Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now nominated candidates by petition to appear on the ballot for the November 6, 2018, election. Their candidate for State Auditor, Michael Ford, who is African-American, received 133,913 votes or 5.28%, qualifying Minnesota Legal Marijuana Now Party to be an official major party in the state, which gives Legal Marijuana Now candidates ballot access without the task of having to petition.
2019—2020
The Legal Marijuana Now Party placed a candidate, John “Sparky” Birrenbach, of Pine City on the ballot in the Minnesota State Senate District 11 Special Election, in February 2019.
In 2020, Legal Marijuana Now candidate Adam Weeks who was on the ballot in Minnesota's 2nd congressional district where Democratic Representative Angie Craig was seeking re-election in a close race, died four weeks before the November 3 election, throwing the election into chaos because a Minnesota state law said that if a major party candidate died during an election campaign, a special election would be held. Prior to his death, Weeks had boasted in a voicemail left for an estranged friend that a Republican had offered him money to run against the Republican and Democratic candidates. Federal judges ruled that the election should go ahead because federal law setting the date of the election preempted the state law, so the name of the candidate, Paula Overby, who was nominated by Legal Marijuana Now Party to replace Weeks, was not on the ballot. State Legal Marijuana Now Party leaders encouraged their supporters to cast their votes for Weeks, in memoriam, and the dead candidate received 5.83% of votes in the three-way race.
During the 2020 election campaign, Minnesota Democratic Party leaders said that the Legal Marijuana Now Party made it harder for DFL candidates to win. But a St. Cloud Times analysis of votes cast in the November 3, 2020, election found that the marijuana candidates took at least as many votes, if not more, from Republican candidates than they took from Democratic candidates.