Minnesota edible businesses riding high thanks to new THC law

(FOX 9) - Since the day you could legally get stoned in Minnesota, Zach Rohr’s small edibles business has been riding its own high.

"Our phone literally rang from July 1 to the end of the July fourth weekend. It just wouldn’t stop," said Minny Grown CEO Zach Rohr. "People really want this product."

Within hours of THC edibles becoming legal in Minnesota, the Minny Grown website crashed from the influx of people trying to place orders. Rohr admitting they weren’t prepared for the surge.

"It came so fast. The bill was passed the very beginning of June, and July 1st was here two weeks after that," he said. "Within hours, we had sold out of everything."

In the last two weeks, the Cannon Falls business has added fifty retail accounts and five additional full time employees with Rohr planning to hire five more people before the end of the month. He’s even put the whole family to work to try and catch up.

"It's all hands on deck right now," he said. "My dad, my mom, my brother, aunts, uncles, grandma they’re all down here working to get these orders out."

The director of addiction medicine at Hennepin Healthcare Dr. Gavin Bart calls this sudden surge "predictable."

"I think that initial peak we see in these early weeks is sort of the curiosity, the taboo is lifted, people who have never tried it can get the thrill," he said. "They’ll try it and move on."

Bart warns that ingesting these edibles doesn’t come without risk, saying the poison control hotline at Hennepin Healthcare has seen an increase in calls this month.

Rohr says their packaging has child safety mechanisms in place, and that they advise customers to only consume one edible.