It’s been a while, literally and symbolically. Last time I wrote, I was in a desolate spot, wondering if we’d even get to see the beginning of our journey, let alone the end. And now I sit and write as confident as I could possibly be, legally green-lit to a chance at the Minnesota cannabis market in its infancy. The state did respond to my email after a week and it was good news. Our application was accepted and we’re going to get a license. Holy shit - let’s go!
So, what are the next steps? And how long until we’re selling flower? Step one was for us to complete background checks on our owners and have them submitted to OCM. We completed this step late last week so we’re hoping to hear back soon that we’ve moved from Qualified Applicant to Preliminarily Approved Applicant. After that, we will submit our final site location information so the state can validate our compliance with city zoning code. We’ll see if the city plays nice – our location is zoned properly and is in a location that meets all the requirements by state law. I can imagine scenarios by which more conservative cities could boycott applications but I’m hopeful they won’t do that. It’s a good reminder that your local officials can carry a lot of influence on how your home city is structured. Don’t forget to vote down the ballot and take a minute to understand who’s running your city.
Once our location is approved, we’ll need to schedule a pre-licensure inspection to ensure we’re prepared to meet the state cannabis rules and laws. We need to make some improvements to our facility in order to ensure we meet all the requirements, but this shouldn’t be much of a hurdle for us. After an inspection, we’ll finally be issued a license and we can start growing. How long will all that take? I’m guessing a few months. The city gets 30 days for their portion and I bet the state will have some backlog in inspections. However, I can imagine a real scenario where we have plants in the “ground” by the end of September with retail sales very shortly afterwards. I could also imagine it creeping into the winter a little further.
After we have a license from the state, we can purchase a retail registration from the city. Then we can finally sell cannabis products to customers. Our first batch of our own flower products will come about 4 months after we receive a license. Figure about 4-6 weeks of vegetative time, another 8-10 weeks of flower time, 10 days to dry, 2 weeks to test and package. I imagine most of the products that will stock shelves in the first dispensaries will come from the tribes since they are already able to grow at whatever capacity they want.
The best part for me is that the pieces are in place and this thing is going to start rolling quickly. I have stuff to do to keep it going every day and that’s fun and exciting and fulfilling. The actual fun stuff starts now! LFG BABY!