ST. PAUL, MINN. — The Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management issued the following statement regarding a lawsuit filed today: 

“We remain committed to weeding out bad actors who seek to overwhelm the system at the expense of legitimate, prospective business owners.” 

- Charlene Briner, interim director, Office of Cannabis Management 

Additional background: Today, a lawsuit was filed (Aranguiz and Connolly v. Office of Cannabis Management) requesting that a judge halt the cannabis license lottery planned for next Tuesday. The individual filing the suit is the face of a scheme to use hundreds of straw applicants to gain unfair advantage in the lottery. This attempt to flood the zone and place their thumb on the scale at the expense of legitimate social equity applicants is disturbing. 

These kinds of spurious tactics have been used in other states and are well-known to anyone paying attention to the evolving cannabis industry nationwide – and precisely what social equity advocates and authors of Minnesota’s cannabis legislation cautioned about and thoughtfully prepared against in state law. 

What is most troubling is that these individuals are using the judicial process to thwart the ambitions and dreams of legitimate social equity candidates who have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get a head start in this industry. 

We look forward to details of the complaint becoming widely known to the public, because the details will show a deliberate attempt to subvert state law. This is precisely why the office set a high standard and exercised great care in reviewing the more than 1,800 applications, and why we look forward to continuing our work to launch the cannabis market with legitimate businesses operators who are prepared to follow the law as part of Minnesota’s legal cannabis industry.

###