After a slow first year, thousands of new patients flooded in last summer when the program expanded to serve people suffering from intractable pain.

Minnesota's medical marijuana manufacturing companies have lost $11 million in just two years of sales.

According to financial documents obtained by the Associated Press, LeafLine Labs said it lost $4.7 million last year and $2.2 million in 2015.

Meanwhile, Minnesota Medical Solutions recorded a $1.2 million loss in 2016 and a $3 million loss in 2015.

"From a financial perspective, 2016 was a much better year than 2015," a spokesperson with MinnMed said in an e-mail Monday evening. "Revenues increased from less than $500,000 to more than $2 million, while losses decreased from approximately $3 million to $1 million."

Top state lawmakers are trying to work out a system allowing Iowa residents to start buying medical marijuana oils and pills in Minnesota, a novel arrangement that could raise issues with the federal government.

Iowa could join more than two dozen states with medical marijuana programs under a bill awaiting Gov. Terry Branstad's signature. That legislation would expand a limited 2014 law, allowing more patients to buy the low-dose medication from in-state dispensaries by December 2018.

But in the meantime, Iowa residents could look to Minnesota. A provision of the bill specifically references that state as a potential source of medication and directs Iowa regulators to contract with Minnesota's two manufacturers of medical marijuana.

LeafLine Labs was founded by practicing physicians who see the unnecessary suffering patients endure every day. They are, first and foremost, caregivers who exist to give our patients the quality of life they deserve. LeafLine Labs provides relief through medical cannabis to suffering Minnesotans.

3,421

The total number of patients who visited cannabis centre’s in Minnesota and purchased legal medical marijuana products in March 2017. (Source: Minnesota Department of Health)

1,588

The number of patients who had enrolled in Minnesota’s medical marijuana program, as of June 30^th 2016. (Source: Minnesota Department of Health)

Florida

There’s a lot going on in Tallahassee as Sunshine State legislators forge the regulatory framework for Florida’s medical marijuana program.

Senators appear poised to advance legislation (SB 406) to welcome five new cannabis dispensaries to Florida by October. At least one would be minority-owned. Friday’s measure also requires four additional dispensaries within “six months after each instance of the registration of 75,000 qualifying patients with the compassionate use registry.”

That 75,000 figure is dramatically less than the previous threshold of 250,000.

Two ex-executives from Minnesota Medical Solutions are being charged for sending $500,000 worth of cannabis oil across state lines, and could be bringing the entire company down with them.

With a limited medical marijuana system already in place, Minnesota has become a dim beacon of hope in a region of the country that has typically turned their nose up at cannabis use in any way, shape, or form. With two recreational bills sitting in front of lawmakers, the state is inching ever closer to a more progressive stance on marijuana.

Minnesota lawmakers want to crack down on one of the state's medical marijuana companies whose former executives have been charged with illegally shipping $500,000 of marijuana oils to New York, pushing legislation allowing regulators to revoke the manufacturer's license and levy a huge fine.

Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, no stranger to shocking the political establishment, has set his sights on cannabis legalization, recently penning the book, Jesse Ventura’s Marijuana Manifesto.

Most state legislatures reconvene in early January, and by February they’re in full swing, moving some bills forward and killing others in committee. This year 27 state legislatures are considering bills pertaining to cannabis in some form. (Well, okay: 26. Mississippi had two medical marijuana bills, but they’re already dead.) Some states are pushing full adult-use legalization. Others are pulling back on medical legalization measures adopted by voters last November. We’ll keep tracking them as they live and die. Most state legislatures adjourn by early June. Stay tuned.

Two Minnesota state lawmakers are introducing legislation to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.

If made law, Minnesota would join eight other states that allow the legal sale and use of marijuana.

The author of the one of the measures introduced Wednesday, Rep. Jon Applebaum of Minnetonka, says that, to millennials, legalizing marijuana is not controversial. The second-term lawmaker says support for legal marijuana is growing in states across the country, including Minnesota.

“Eventually this is going to happen,” he said. “And it would be in Minnesota’s best interest if we start talking about it now.”