Minnesota Awards 249 Cannabis Business Licenses

Minnesota's rollout of recreational marijuana has been almost historically slow, but things are starting to pick up now that a majority of the legal challenges have been resolved.

One of the biggest steps in the process just happened late last week. The state's first cannabis business license lottery took place in St. Paul, hosted by the Office of Cannabis Management, and the results are in.

Lottery Moves Minnesota Closer to Legal Weed Sales

The lottery, the first of two scheduled, awarded licenses to cannabis manufacturers, cultivators, retailers, and mezzo-businesses. Mezzo-businesses can be involved in multiple stages of the cannabis supply chain, such as cultivation, manufacturing, and retail sales.

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The lottery happened on a live stream as eager applicants waited for the results one by one. In total, 249 licenses were awarded. Here's the breakdown:

50 licenses for cultivators
24 licenses for manufacturers
100 licenses for mezzo-businesses
75 licenses for retailers

Next Steps for License Winners

The randomly selected applicants must now complete final steps. These include background checks, providing a signed labor peace agreement with a bona fide labor organization, securing a site location with local approvals, and submitting final business plans to the Office of Cannabis Management.

The OCM will conduct one more lottery for cannabis retailer licenses on July 22. This round will also give social equity applicants not selected in the first lottery a second chance.

Phil Lewis

Minnesota’s Slow Path Compared to Other States

Historically, it takes about 17 months for states to roll out recreational marijuana. In Minnesota, recreational cannabis became legal on August 1, 2023. Now, 22 months later, things are finally coming together. For comparison, Vermont holds the record for the slowest rollout at 57 months. If current trends hold, Minnesota will end up being the third slowest in the country.

Tour Minnesota's Fanciest Mini Golf Course - The Centennial Lakes Putting Course

While they won't call it a mini golf course, it kind of is. This 18-hole course boasts all real grass playing surfaces, natural obstacles like sand traps, boulders, and water, just like a real golf course.

The whole course looks and feels like a shrunken golf course, and it plays like one, too! The holes are long! The shortest hole is 57 feet, the longest is 125 feet, and the whole 18-hole course plays 1,662 feet.

This is no ordinary mini golf course!

Take a tour.

Gallery Credit: Nick Cooper

2025 Minnesota State Fair Grandstand Performers

Here is the schedule of all of the performing acts that will take the Grandstand stage at the Minnesota State Fair in 2025. As more acts are announced, we'll update this schedule.

Gallery Credit: Nick Cooper - TSM Duluth