The Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) Wednesday announced it was canceling the special license lottery for social equity applicants and will instead move toward a lottery next year for both social equity and general applicants.
While no new date is set for license lotteries, a chart released by OCM suggests it will now be in May or June, months later than previous estimates of first quarter of 2025.
The office said it was responding to a Ramsey County court order late last month that put the lottery on hold to give disappointed applicants who were denied entry into that first lottery time to make their case to the court of appeals. At least eight legal actions have been filed with the appeals court seeking review of their cases. A ninth comes from successful lottery entrants who ask the court to let the lottery proceed soon.
Among those denied who have asked for relief from the appeals court is a group that OCM asserts is violating laws against multiple applicants for licenses and so-called straw applicants, that is applicants who are fronts for others.
“I don’t want to sugarcoat this,” said OCM interim director Charlene Briner during a Wednesday press conference. “The 648 social equity applicants who qualified and were expecting to participate in the lottery are understandably disappointed.”
“To avoid further delay and risks to social equity, OCM is ending the license preapproval process and moving forward with opening a standard licensing cycle for both social equity and general applicants beginning early next year,” the agency said in a press release. “This step allows the office to prevent delays to the market launch due to ongoing litigation and retain some benefit to social equity by allowing applicants for license preapprovals to move into this new round.
“Leaving these applicants in limbo is not an acceptable outcome and would diminish their opportunity to succeed in the market,” it said.
Hellbound and Down 