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Minnesota News
Estelle Timar-Wilcox

Cannabis business license applications to open in February

A cannabis seedling with the sky in the background
A cannabis seedling reaches for the sun on a 4-acre plot of leased land not far from the Waabigwan Mashkiki manufacturing facility in Mahnomen, Minn.
Ann Arbor Miller for MPR News | 2024

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Minnesota’s Office of Cannabis Management announced Tuesday that it will start accepting applications for business licenses in two weeks. It’s the next step in the state’s rocky launch of a legal cannabis market.

People looking to grow, sell and transport cannabis products can submit business applications from Feb. 18 to March 14. Those applications will go into lotteries for a capped number of licenses. 

“Getting licenses out the door and into the hands of qualified applicants is our priority as we approach the launch of Minnesota’s adult-use cannabis industry,” OCM interim director Eric Taubel said in a statement.

The state will first hold a lottery for social equity licenses. Eligible social equity applicants have been pre-approved to participate in the first lottery. These are applicants from communities harmed by past cannabis laws and low-level prosecution, among other groups. 

Pre-approved applicants not selected in that lottery will be automatically entered in the general lottery, along with all other license applicants.

The state office has not yet set dates for the lotteries but said it will likely be in May or June. 

Some business types, including microbusinesses, testing facilities and delivery services, don’t have caps on the number of available licenses. The state said it will review applications for those businesses on a rolling basis.

The social equity license lottery was slated to happen in November, but momentum stalled when several applicants sued the state for throwing out two-thirds of the social equity pre-approval applications. The Office of Cannabis Management said applicants hadn’t met requirements, but many rejected applicants said the denials were unfair. Legal issues pushed back the lottery – and the timeline to open legal cannabis businesses. 

The Office of Cannabis Management said in Tuesday’s announcement that it will reach out to applicants who were denied in the license pre-approval process and ask for more information to fix their applications. Once corrected, they can move ahead in the application process.

Once lotteries are held this spring, business owners selected for licenses can move ahead with opening up shop later in 2025.