Lawsuits seeking to halt lottery for cannabis licenses in Minnesota

Two lawsuits filed on Friday are looking to halt the upcoming lottery for cannabis licenses in Minnesota.

The lawsuits were both filed against the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) because of the lack of detail in why the complainants were denied.

OCM is set to pick from 648 different applications for cannabis license pre-approval on Tuesday which allows those businesses to finalize operations before recreational sales begin next year.

Each application went through a review to ensure the requirements and baseline standards were met. Applicants who did not meet those requirements, including some identified by the OCM as being in violation of the law or fraudulent, are not moving forward in the lottery.

It’s unclear if the lawsuits will have an impact on Tuesday’s schedule but the OCM says the person behind one of the lawsuits is “the face of a scheme to use hundreds of straw applicants to gain unfair advantage in the lottery.”

“We remain committed to weeding out bad actors who seek to overwhelm the system at the expense of legitimate, prospective business owners,” said Charlene Briner, the interim director of OCM.

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