Lawsuit: Improper denial of cannabis licensing applications [Video]

ST PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota cannabis license lottery did not happen as scheduled Tuesday, after a judge ordered a temporary restraining order to halt it. That legal process isn’t the only one playing out with the Office of Cannabis Management, though.

Another lawsuit alleges that OCM “has improperly, arbitrarily and capriciously denied licensing applications because the statutory requirements regarding application denials were not followed.” Filed Friday, that lawsuit comes from six business owners and individuals.

“The OCM process also kicked out a bunch of people, like the six people that we filed suit on behalf of who should be in the lottery, who are bona fide Minnesota entrepreneurs,” Jen Randolph Reise, head of business and cannabis law at North Star Law Group, said.

OCM has alleged in other litigation that some applicants are “bad actors,” submitting multiple applications to overwhelm the system.

According to the OCM, the plaintiffs in that lawsuit are the “face of a scheme to use hundreds …