ST PAUL, Minn. — On Monday, the Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) announced the date for cannabis license application lotteries. 

The lottery drawings will be Thursday, June 5 for applicants seeking a manufacturer, cultivator or mezzobusiness license.

The office will also hold a lottery for social equity applicants (SEAs) applying for a retailer license on June 5. To qualify for social equity status, a person must have been convicted of cannabis possession or sale, be a military veteran or worked for a farm operation.

“A lottery for general applicants for the cannabis retailer license—which includes a second chance for social equity applicants not selected in the first lottery—will follow this summer,” the news release stated. 

“In the coming weeks, more and more applicants will be notified that they are advancing to the application lotteries. They will soon join the hundreds of qualified social equity applicants who are already deep in the process of completing application requirements,” Jess Jackson, OCM’s director of social equity, said in the release.

Recreational marijuana became legal in Minnesota on Aug. 1, 2023, making it the 23rd state to do so. Lines stretched around the block that day when the first dispensary opened on the Red Lake Nation. Tribal governments did not have to wait for the state’s licensing process.