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ST. PAUL 鈥� You've probably heard by now that recreational marijuana is going to be legal in Minnesota this summer.

But during a very busy 2023 legislative session, lawmakers made plenty of other changes to what's legal and not legal in Minnesota.

Gun control measures grabbed the headlines in most coverage of this year's public safety package. But the 500-page bill contains many changes to state criminal law, and not just new crimes. The state is also changing rules on no-knock warrants and giving prisoners a path to earlier release. Other bills addressed election disinformation and the abuse of AI-generated pornography as a form of harassment.

Here are some of the more significant changes to Minnesota's crime and criminal justice code this year:

Up until now, people who contribute to a felony if the death occurred within the course of a felony 鈥� even if they didn鈥檛 directly contribute to the death.

A change to Minnesota law will shield people indirectly attached to murders. Instead, they'd have to be a major participant in the felony that resulted in a killing.

The law also offers a path for people convicted of aiding and abetting felony murder to overturn their convictions.

Carjacking grabbed headlines in Minnesota as crime surged in 2020. In early 2021, Minneapolis and St. Paul also had a rash of carjackings that eventually started to spread to the suburbs. In 2021, state officials logged 779 carjackings statewide. More than 600 happened in Minneapolis, while fewer than 10 occurred in greater Minnesota outside the seven-county metro.

While state and local law enforcement reported an uptick in the number of carjackings in Minnesota, it was difficult to say just how much they had gone up because the Department of Public Safety didn鈥檛 actually track them until 2021. Not only that, but carjacking was not a specific offense in Minnesota criminal code.

That鈥檚 set to change under a new law passed as part of this year鈥檚 public safety package. Now, state law sets stiff sentences for taking someone鈥檚 vehicle by force. The lowest tier, third-degree carjacking, carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. If a person uses a weapon, real or simulated, or inflicts harm on a victim, they鈥檙e guilty of first-degree carjacking and face a minimum sentence of up to 20 years.

This year鈥檚 public safety bill includes a new path for people convicted of crimes to secure earlier release. The Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act changes the parole system will to allow people convicted of crimes to get released after completing 50% of their sentence on condition they complete programs like addiction or sex offender treatment. Under past law, release is possible at 66% of the sentence.

In what鈥檚 been described as a first-in-the-nation change, Minnesota has decriminalized drug paraphernalia. That means it鈥檚 no longer a criminal offense to possess objects like pipes or syringes that have residue of illegal drugs like meth or heroin. Addiction harm reduction advocates hail the move as a step toward reducing infectious disease and overdose deaths.

Using artificial intelligence to create sexual images of people without their consent or for spreading election disinformation will be illegal in Minnesota under a law set to go into effect this summer. This change passed as a stand-alone bill in May.

The aim is to curb the misuse of 鈥渄eepfakes鈥� 鈥� realistic artificial-intelligence-generated video, images and sound portraying people saying and doing things they鈥檝e never done.

The often convincing images have vastly proliferated on the internet in recent years, prompting alarm among ethicists and political observers, who worry about their potential for election manipulation and harassment.

In a separate elections bill, the state also created new penalties for election misinformation and interfering with poll workers. Spreading false information about voting 60 days ahead of an election and harassing or intimidating election officials or voters would be a gross misdemeanor.

In an effort to combat a surge in fentanyl-related overdose deaths, DFL and GOP lawmakers backed a bill typing illicit fentanyl penalties to existing penalties for the sale and possession of heroin.

More than a year after officers shot and killed 22-year-old Amir Locke in an unannounced raid on a Minneapolis apartment, Minnesota lawmakers placed statewide restrictions on no-knock search warrants.

Under the new law, officers would be able to obtain a no-knock warrant if the 鈥渙ccupant or occupants in the premises present an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm to the officers executing the warrant or other persons.鈥�

Officers would have to prove that they can't search a premise when it's unoccupied and would have to provide a judge with a list of the known occupants of a property, including the number under age 18.

Law enforcement groups say restrictions on no-knock warrants will interfere with the element of surprise necessary to gather evidence in situations where suspects may dispose of evidence of a crime. Proponents say it鈥檒l prevent needless deaths in the future in police raids.

Minnesota is clarifying its 鈥減eeping Tom鈥� law a year after the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of a man who filmed a sleeping woman without consent.

The Minnesota Supreme Court in spring 2022 ruled that a man who stayed at a woman鈥檚 house after a first date and took video of the woman while she slept without clothes on had not broken privacy law because he was inside the woman鈥檚 home.

The new law establishes a crime for 鈥渞ecording or broadcasting images of a person鈥檚 intimate parts if the person is in a home or other place where a reasonable person would have an expectation of privacy.鈥� Violation of the law would be a gross misdemeanor.

It also makes it a crime to record a person鈥檚 private parts, or clothing covering those parts, under or around the person鈥檚 clothing. A first violation would be a misdemeanor, a second offense a gross misdemeanor and a third offense a felony.

In recent years, businesses in the Twin Cities metro have been targeted by groups of looters who stormed into stores and stole large amounts of merchandise. In one high-profile incident in 2021, suburban Best Buy stores were stormed by looters who made off with tens of thousands in merchandise.

To address the trend, organized retail theft is set to become a specific offense under Minnesota criminal law. People found guilty of organized retail theft can now face a maximum penalty of up to 15 years in prison if the amount of theft is over $5,000.

Follow Alex Derosier on Twitter or email aderosier@forumcomm.com .