Minnesota sets date for cannabis license lottery

OG Article

Mike Bunge

05-06-2025

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A lottery for cannabis license applications will be held on June 5.

The Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) says the license lottery will be for social equity and general applicants for three license types OCM says are “critical” to establishing the state’s cannabis supply chain: cannabis cultivator, cannabis manufacturer, and cannabis mezzobusiness.  A lottery for general applicants for the cannabis retailer license—which includes a second chance for social equity applicants not selected in the first lottery—will follow in July.

A mezzobusiness license allows the licensee to grow, produce concentrate, manufacture artificially derived cannabinoids, and producing other cannabis or hemp products.

“The office has prioritized the review of applications for the license types necessary to successfully stage the market,” says OCM Interim Director Eric Taubel. “(This) 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.”

The license application lotteries will be livestreamed for members of the public and the media via the office’s YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@MNCannabisManagement.  Results will be posted to OCM’s website and shared with applicants after completion

OCM says the lotteries mark a significant milestone in the state’s work to launch a legal adult-use cannabis industry that is expected to mature over the next several years.  In reviewing applications, OCM says it assigned half of its reviewers to focus on the four license types limited in quantity by state statute, prioritizing those essential to building up the cannabis supply chain—cultivator, manufacturer, and mezzobusiness—followed closely by retailers.  The other half of reviewers focused on license types available in unlimited quantities, beginning with testing facilities – another type essential to the launch of the state’s cannabis market.

OCM says they then turned to applications for microbusiness and medical cannabis combination businesses to support cultivation capacity and continuity of access to medicine for medical patients.  Finally, reviewers focused on cannabis wholesaler, transporter, and delivery service license types, which represent downstream market services.  Applications for cannabis event organizers and lower-potency hemp edible manufacturers and retailers will follow later this year.

“In the coming weeks, more and more applicants will be notified that they are advancing to the application lotteries. They will soon join the hundreds of qualified social equity applicants who are already deep in the process of completing application requirements,” says Jess Jackson, OCM’s director of social equity.  “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.”