Two lawsuits have been filed against Minnesota’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) aiming to delay the state’s lottery for social equity licenses, the Star Tribune reports. The lawsuit comes after the agency last week denied some 1,200 social equity applicants – about two-thirds of all applications – for issues ranging from inadequate paperwork to “flooding” the application pool in attempts to improve the odds of receiving pre-approval.
The lawsuits were filed last week by eight license hopefuls who contend the OCM denials were arbitrary or without explanation. Jen Reise, an attorney who filed a lawsuit on behalf of six applicants, said the OCM’s evaluation process was “unfair” and inconsistently applied. The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order delaying Tuesday’s lottery and that her clients be given the opportunity to correct paperwork errors.
“We’re deeply concerned that OCM has been unwilling to engage with social equity applicants, many of whom were denied for extremely minor paperwork problems or whose denials are not supported by the reasons OCM is giving them.” — Reise to the Star Tribune
In the other lawsuit, Cristina Aranguiz, one of the denied applicants, said the explanation by OCM for
