The Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) announced Monday, April 7, that an administrative law judge has approved draft rules governing Minnesota’s adult-use cannabis market. The rules, approved without changes, will publish in the State Register and then go into effect later this month. The OCM describes this an important milestone and says it sets up the final step to launch the states market by allowing OCM to being issuing business licenses.

“The adoption of rules is the most significant step to launching the cannabis market because the office cannot issue business licenses until they are in place,” said Interim Director Eric Taubel. “The judge’s approval of our proposed rules without changes shows that we did our work to engage with the prospective cannabis business community and put together a reasonable structure for ensuring consistency, safety, and equity in Minnesota’s cannabis industry.”

The OCM states that there are more than a thousand qualified applicants for social equity licenses and more than 6000 of these qualified applicants advanced from last fall’s license preapproval process.

“It was important for us to preserve early-mover advantages for social equity applicants envisioned by the Legislature,” said Jess Jackson, OCM’s director of social equity. “By ensuring the applicants who qualified during license preapproval have the first chance at licenses once rules are approved, we are continuing to prioritize social equity in every stage of licensing.”

The final approved rules can be found here.