Minnesota cannabis regulators say they’ll hold a lottery in the coming weeks to determine who will operate the state’s first legal marijuana businesses, but the Office of Cannabis Management is facing pushback this week after it rejected around two-thirds of the applicants it deemed ineligible.
It’s been more than a year since Minnesota’s adult-use cannabis law took effect. People over 21 may possess, use and grow marijuana with some limitations. The Red Lake and White Earth tribal nations — which are independent — have been operating dispensaries for around 16 months.
Lawmakers anticipated that it would take much longer to vet and license recreational marijuana businesses elsewhere in the state. The first to apply are people the statute considers social equity applicants, including those who live in high poverty areas, people harmed by the war on drugs, and military veterans.
More than 1,800 people applied for 282 licenses, so the state is using a lottery to determine who will move forward in the process. But the Office of Cannabis Management on Monday notified around 1,150 applicants that their names would not be going into the hat.
In a phone interview with MPR News on Tuesday, Charlene Briner, the interim director, said that the reasons varied from documentation problems to violations of ownership requirements. She said other applicants tried to game the lottery or submitted information that appeared to be fraudulent. [Read More @ MPR News]