Licenses for cannabis businesses will start being issued Tuesday

A license preapproval lottery Tuesday marks a major milestone for the legal cannabis industry in Minnesota. Office of Cannabis Management Communications Director Josh Collins says a lot of Minnesotans are excited about getting into the industry.

“They’ve seen other states where this has happened, and it creates new economic opportunity. There’s tax revenue, both locally and at the state level, that will begin to be really benefiting Minnesotans in a number of ways,” says Collins

Two-hundred preapproval licenses will be given out among the more than 600 qualified applicants. Collins says the applicants went through a rigorous review process that included reviewing applications to make sure that they complied with the requirements set out in statute. A number of applications that appeared to be fraudulent and or used predatory practices were discarded.