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All 249 cannabis businesses that won in the state’s first cannabis lottery last week were mistakenly informed on Monday that they were not selected for a license.

According to Minnesota’s Office of Cannabis Management, a staff member sent the wrong email notification to winners of Thursday’s lotteries. The email said they did not get a license.

“The message was corrected and sent to all selected applicants within one hour,” said Jim Walker, OCM public information officer, in an email.

The corrected message congratulated winners for securing their license and provided next steps, including completing a criminal background check. 

Winners of the lottery last Thursday won a license to conduct business in Minnesota’s new cannabis market, pending completion of the licensing process. Monday’s email could have been interpreted as saying the winners failed the process. 

Abbey Johnson was one of the 74 who won a retail license and received the confusing chain of emails.

“I was shocked to see that,” said Johnson, who owns two hemp stores in Lakeville and Dundas. “I was like maybe I got the numbers wrong. I don’t know how I could have made that big of a mistake when I’ve been waiting two years, but I could have, you know, and I looked and I had the right number. And so immediately started freaking out.”

She called two of her friends who also got retail licenses in the lottery. They both got the same email. Johnson contacted the cannabis agency and within an hour or so, she said she got an email saying OCM had made a mistake.

She says she understands human error, but it has real consequences on her business. Johnson has been waiting to get the reward letter from OCM to give to the cities where her hemp stores are located, and one of those cities has a limit of five licenses.

“They should just be better at their job or something by now,” she said. “Everything’s riding on them doing their job when I have absolutely zero faith that they’re going to continue to do their job.”

Nicole Ki

Author

On Monday morning, all 249 applicants who won licenses in the cannabis lottery were informed via email that they weren’t “selected” for a license. The state’s cannabis office later corrected the error.

A cannabis seedling with the sky in the background

Winners in Minnesota’s first cannabis lottery mistakenly told their licenses were denied

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