A state judge in Minnesota ordered state marijuana regulators to stick with their original plan last year of a license lottery for social equity permits, a plan thrown aside in December after a number of lawsuits were filed by disgruntled cannabis business hopefuls who claimed they were wrongly disqualified from the drawing.

Instead, the state Office of Cannabis Management planned to move ahead with two other license lotteries this spring for retail, cultivation and manufacturing permits, the most coveted permit types. Other licenses – such as microbusinesses, wholesalers, delivery services and medical marijuana combination companies – are unlimited and will be awarded to any applicant who meets the criteria.

Now, however, the agency must organize and hold a lottery for 182 licenses to be handed out among 648 verified social equity applicants, prior to proceeding to general permitting for non-equity candidates. The office has roughly 3,500 total business license applications to sift through, and the other two lotteries are supposed to be held in May or June.

“Canceling the lottery effectively casts aside the significant time and investment 648 qualified applicants put into shoring up their capacity to hit the ground running as a licensee,” Judge Stephen Smith wrote in a ruling on Friday, which was first reported by The Minnesota Star Tribune.

“(The Legislature) understood that allowing disadvantaged groups to build their capacity early on in the licensing process would enhance their ability to operate a successful business,” Smith wrote. “That advantage is lost if there is no social equity lottery.”

A spokesman for the OCM told The Star Tribune over the weekend that the agency still intends to “seek dismissal of the case on an expedited basis,” and that it “expects to be able to begin issuing licenses to qualified social equity applicants in a matter of weeks.”

“There are currently more than a thousand qualified applicants for social equity licenses who are first in line to receive business licenses, and OCM has been clear since November that any delay to the lottery would prove fatal to the preapproval process. At this stage, additional litigation and delays serve no one,” the agency told The Star Tribune. “OCM looks forward to continuing its work to get licenses out the door and launching the market as soon as possible.”