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Minnesota cannabis regulators announced May 5 that they are ready to “stage” the adult-use market with a series of license lotteries beginning next month.
The Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) will conduct lotteries on June 5 for social equity and general applicants in three licensing categories, including for aspiring adult-use cultivators, manufacturers and vertically integrated “mezzobusinesses” (medium).
The OCM will also hold a lottery for social equity applicants vying for a cannabis dispensary license on June 5. A lottery for general applicants in this license type will follow sometime this summer, according to the office.
The state’s awards process for these licenses has been a work in progress that’s going on two years since Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed legislation to legalize adult-use cannabis on May 30, 2023.
“The office has prioritized the review of applications for the license types necessary to successfully stage the market,” OCM Interim Director Eric Taubel said in a media release. “Today’s announcement reflects the office’s goal to license the supply chain from the starting points in order to foster an equitable cannabis market that prioritizes public health and safety, consumer confidence and market integrity.”
Taubel filled the leadership role following Charlene Briner’s resignation in January.
This week’s announcement comes amid a ruling that Minnesota Second Judicial District Court Judge Stephen L. Smith issued April 4, ordering the OCM to hold a license preapproval lottery for 648 social equity applicants hoping to enter the state’s forthcoming adult-use marketplace. Smith said state regulators broke the law when they canceled the license preapproval process in December 2024.
Although the OCM had intended to hold the preapproval lottery to give awardees a leg up on moving forward with securing the investments and real estate needed to launch their businesses ahead of non-social equity operators, Smith had issued a stay preventing the OCM from holding the preapproval lottery on schedule due to 1,169 rejected applicants, some of whom argued they were wrongly left out.
Rather than sit and wait for the stay to be resolved, the OCM canceled the preapproval lottery altogether and opted to move forward with a general licensing cycle for all applicants to avoid further delay in rolling out a program. Still, Minnesota is facing the third-longest adult-use rollout in the nation after Vermont, 1,713 days, and Maine, 1,431 days.
Despite an appearance to ignore the court order for a preapproval lottery in this week’s announcement for a general lottery, the OCM indicated that holding the dispensary lottery for social equity applicants on June 5, before the one for general applicants, preserves “some of the advantages” envisioned in state legislation.
“In the coming weeks, more and more applicants will be notified that they are advancing to the application lotteries,” OCM Social Equity Director Jess Jackson said. “They will soon join the hundreds of qualified social equity applicants who are already deep in the process of completing application requirements. It’s exciting to see the entrepreneurial spirit of our applicants as they get closer to having a license in hand and prepare to open their doors for business.”
In addition to the limited license structure for cultivators, manufacturers, retailers and mezzobusinesses, the OCM is reviewing applications for unlimited license types, such as testing facilities. The market will also include microbusinesses and dual-structured medical cannabis businesses, as well as cannabis wholesalers, transporters and delivery services to help secure the supply chain.
Applications for cannabis event organizers and lower-potency hemp edible manufacturers and retailers will follow later this year, according to the OCM.
