MINNEAPOLIS — Hi Flora!, one of the early innovators in Minnesota’s budding cannabis industry, is closing up shop in early December. They opened in Minneapolis about a year and a half ago. 

“It has really good energy in here. We’re welcoming and people love to come here, so it’s sad,” owner Heather Klein said. 

Hi Flora! serves plant-based food and offered low-dose THC tinctures people could add to their food or drinks or take home. They also sell THC beverages in their store. 

Klein, who has been sober since 2017, said she wanted to create a fun non-alcoholic bar. She said the financial struggles started in August 2023, when the Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) said a customer experienced a “serious adverse health event” after consuming a product. 

“The paramedics said it was a little anxiety. By the time the paramedics got here, she was fine,” she said.

Klein said they try to inform and educate customers about their products before they are consumed, and that the incident in August was rare. The OCM inspected the business following the incident, which led to alleged violations including selling products exceeding the legal amount of THC and allowing on-site consumption without an alcohol license.

Klein said the product they found to be over the legal limit was a concentrated ingredient used to create the lower-dose products.

“It wasn’t being sold, and there was no label on it because it wasn’t being sold,” she said. 

Due to a 2017 alcohol charge, Klein said she can’t obtain a permanent liquor license for on-site consumption of low-dose hemp, even though her business is alcohol-free.

“That was my whole concept, so there’s not much we can do,” she said. 

Klein said she was fined $7,500 for the violations. After she stopped selling the tinctures, she said sales dropped 50%. 

“I had meetings with the head of the health department in here, and they approved everything I was doing,” she said. 

But once the OCM took over in August, she said things were too difficult. 

“There’s no clear guidelines. They seem to changing weekly, daily sometimes,” she said.

While this chapter is ending, Klein said she’s hoping to reopen in some capacity, in another smaller space.

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis woman is recovering in the hospital with several broken bones after a hit-and-run crash.

Julia Klatt Singer, a Minneapolis preschool teacher, poet and painter, said she was crossing Central Avenue at Second Street East on a green light after 4 p.m. last week. A large black SUV approached her as she was halfway through the crosswalk, she said.

“I just remember flying through the air and as I was flying through the air, I was thinking, ‘This was not how I’m going to die.’” said Singer.

Soon after, a crowd gathered around her to help. So too, Singer said, did the driver of that SUV.

“I heard a voice, I didn’t see the person, say, ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you.’” she said.    

But not long after, Singer said the driver disappeared. 

Singer is now laid up at Hennepin County Medical Center, covered in bandages and medical equipment. Her injuries include a broken heel and knee, and a fractured hip and vertebrae.

She has now been through two surgeries.

“I know he didn’t mean to hit me, but he just wasn’t paying attention,” said Singer.

Singer said she is incredibly lucky to be alive and is grateful to say she will eventually be back walking and biking.

She thinks whoever hit her got overwhelmed, scared and fled.  

It’s time now, she said, for that person to take accountability.

“I know it would make it so much easier for my family members because they feel pretty powerless, and they know what a long road of rehab I have, and it would just feel better to have that person come forward and say they had done it,” said Singer.

Minneapolis police said they are still investigating. So far, there have been no arrests.