ALBERT LEA, Minn. (FOX 9) – The green ceiling is cracking in Minnesota.
Twenty-five months after the state legalized recreational cannabis, businesses are getting off the ground and for the first time, they’re ready to open off tribal land.
Floodgates open
Inspector cannabis:
The cannabis floodgates are opening in Minnesota. The state has started doing inspections and they issued the first license to a cultivator up in Pine County.
An Albert Lea retailer may be the next to get a license, and he hopes to open his store by the end of June.
Walking into The Smoking Tree, you still need to bring your imagination to see a smoke shop on the verge of history.
“This is just the reception area,” said owner Jacob Schlichter. “You’re gonna get IDed. We’re gonna photograph ya, photograph your ID.”
Schlichter is a social equity microbusiness owner, so he only plans to have one store.
And this week, he had one of the first inspections by the Office of Cannabis Management.
They checked on his city approval, his surveillance camera system, and everything down to the disposal bin for recalled products and the locked trash bin.
“You had to have this stuff,” he said. “This is mandatory to pass the inspection.”
Hundreds are trying
Two have succeeded:
More than 700 businesses now have preliminary approval from OCM, but Schlichter is one of two people known to have passed inspection.
Now all he has to do is pay for his license and stock his limited shelves, probably with cannabis coming from the state’s tribal distributors.
“It’s the strategy,” Schlichter said. “Start small. If you get that license and you know you’re in, then you can start investing everything and filling it all out.”
Happy to be there
Updated plan:
This was not Schlichter’s original plan, even though he was in the office when Gov. Walz signed legalization into law.
“Actually I was just happy to be there,” he said.
A friend’s overdose on hard drugs convinced him that legal cannabis could be a better option.
Family and friends talked him into pursuing a business, partly by highlighting the good he could do with the profits, especially if he got in early.
“I think it would be just amazing to go from all the cannabis propaganda that we’ve had for many decades to now people in the cannabis industry are building libraries, building schools, and just overall upgrading their communities,” Schlichter said.
What’s next:
OCM is obviously very busy right now, but they’ll get even busier next month when they hold the next lottery for general applicants looking to get retail licenses.
The green ceiling is cracking in Minnesota. Twenty-five months after the state legalized recreational cannabis, businesses are getting off the ground and for the first time, they’re ready to open off tribal land. Read More
