The Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management has announced the date for the first lottery to decide who will get cannabis business licenses from the state.

The license lottery will be June 5 for cannabis cultivators, manufacturers and “mezzobusinesses” — those are essentially all-in-one operations that can grow and buy cannabis, and make and sell cannabis products.

There’ll also be a June 5 lottery for cannabis retailer licenses for social equity applicants, including veterans, people who live in high-poverty areas and people historically harmed by the war on drugs.

A second lottery of cannabis retailer licenses — for general applicants as well as social equity applicants not selected in the June 5 lottery — will be held in July.

The announcement and sequence of lottery dates “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,” Eric Taubel, interim director for the state’s Office of Cannabis Management, said in a news release. He said the office “has prioritized the review of applications for the license types necessary to successfully stage the market.”

The state said hundreds of applicants have qualified for the lottery for a set number of licenses for various categories. More applications remain under review.

As of May 1, state records showed there were:

• 95 applicants for 50 available cannabis cultivator licenses

• 80 applicants for 24 available cannabis manufacturer licenses

• 267 applicants for 100 available cannabis mezzobusiness licenses

• 724 applicants for 150 available cannabis retailer licenses

Those numbers do not include applications that were withdrawn or denied. There are other categories of cannabis business licenses that do not have caps on numbers and are not part of the planned lotteries.

The Office of Cannabis Management said the June 5 license lottery will be livestreamed, and available for the public to watch.

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