Adult-Use Licensee Resources

North Star Accelerator Program 

We are accepting applications for the next Q4 cohort of accelerator members!

If you are a building a licensed adult-use business in Minnesota (micro, mezzo, or retail), check out the accelerator for regulatory guidance, community support, and recommendations and referrals that will save you tons of time and money. We’re a group of small entrepreneurs working together to support one another in building compliant and successful businesses.

You do NOT want to snooze on this - the cohort closes TOMORROW, October 3!

From DEED:
Startup and Small Business Resource Fair

Date: Thursday, October 9, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Location: Great Northern Building (180 E. 5^th St., Saint Paul, MN 55101)

OSBI provides innovators with resources and consulting services to scale startups in Minnesota. This casual, open-house-style event allows attendees to have face-to-face conversations with the State’s top small business experts.

Also from DEED:

• List of Potential Funding Opportunities

• 5 Steps to Start Your Business in Minnesota

• SBAO's Business Compliance Checklist

• List of Investors

Minnesota Cannabis College

Workforce training is coming from the Minnesota Cannabis College, who also just received grant money from MN! Sign up here to get updates 

(Have resources to share? Email to me at [email protected])

Get your dispensary running smoothly with our 9 Essential SOP Templates—from security and cash management to inventory, HR, and daily operations.

Free Download Here.

Hemp-Derived THC Corner

The license application window for lower-potency hemp edible retailers, manufacturers, and wholesalers will be open Oct. 1 - Oct. 31. In other words: if you want to continue to manufacture or sell hemp-derived THC products, you MUST apply for licensure in October (exception: folks who are in process to switch lanes and be a cannabis retailer, and that’s how you will sell hemp-derived THC products).

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg; changes to labeling, testing, and more will also be painful for manufacturers. The Star Tribune wrote about this today, interviewing some industry leaders and folks at yesterday’s meeting.

For context, these changes are driven by the difference between Minnesota’s temporary statute for hemp-derived THC (Minn. Stat. 151), which the industry has been operating under since 2023, and the full cannabis statute, Minn. Stat. 342. Minnesota law always contemplated that the hemp-derived THC industry would go through their own licensing process, after which they would be subject to 342.

But there are a multitude of differences between the two statutes and with what has become normal business practice for the industry, resulting in what feels like a firestorm of changes that become effective this fall. Those include:

• Hemp-derived products may no longer be shipped direct to consumer (DTC) from Minnesota, because the statute requires personal delivery to check the consumer’s ID and that they are not intoxicated. This is an enormous change for manufacturers and retailers that have been selling DTC.

• Manufacturers must change their labeling to comply with Minn. Stat. 342 rather than the temporary statute, Minn. Stat. 151, effective upon their license being issued. Those changes include adding specific warning symbols and required information no longer being able to be provided via QR code.

• To be legal to sell in Minnesota, all products have to be tested in Minnesota, beginning Jan. 1, 2026.

• Hemp-derived THC retailers will need to get a retail registration from their local government, who must grant it (there are no opt-outs, caps, or zoning, unlike the adult-use industry).

My advice for hemp-derived THC folks:

• Start by figuring out whether you need to apply for a hemp-derived THC Retailer, Manufacturer, and/or Wholesaler license (technically, LPHE-R, LPHE-M, and LPHE-W, respectively). You can hold two or three together, unlike in the adult-use industry. You do NOT need to make this application if you will be dealing with hemp THC products under a pending adult-use license.

• The deadline for submitting licensing paperwork for all is October 31 at noon.

• Sign up for OCM’s free webinar on Tuesday, Oct. 7. [Denise add LINK]

• Review OCM guidance! We’ve collected OCM’s various resources, as well as the ones North Star Consulting is creating, at this Hemp-derived THC Resource Page. Check back between newsletters for more!

Finally, I wanted to share that, if you listened closely through the required changes and guidance, OCM gave us some clever ways to comply:

• Knowing that testing in Minnesota in January will be tight, manufacturers can test products under Minn. Stat. 151 (i.e., wherever they are testing now) until the end of the year, and label those products with 342-compliant labeling and the words “Manufactured under Minnesota Statutes 151.72.”

• Similarly, OCM does not want uncompliant product to have to be destroyed. Instead, you may add a “marketing layer” that is 342-compliant on top of the old label. Futsy? Yes. I envision a lot of stickering in our collective futures.

  

• Also, while manufacturers have to change to 342 immediately upon licensing, OCM noted that they have some control over the timing of licensing because it is tied to when they pay the license fee. IMHO, that’s much more helpful than the waiting for an email that we are doing on the adult-use side.

• And, the transition guidance allows retailers to sell products that comply with either 151 or 342 through the end of the year. (Highlight on the slide is mine)

OTHER CANNABIS NEWS

Around the U.S.

Michigan: The MI House of Representatives has approved a 24% wholesale tax on recreational marijuana products. If approved by the Senate and signed into the law, the tax would take effect in January 2026.

Illinois: Gov. Pritzer has threatened to ban hemp-derived THC products in Illinois, Axios reports, after the state legislature failed to pass any regulatory framework.

Missouri regulators published an annual report on the state's marijuana programs.

New York now has over 1,900 adult-use cannabis licenses, 57% of which are held by social equity applicants.

Oklahoma narcotics agents have seized 577 pounds of processed cannabis and 18,644 plants from a licensed operator as part of an investigation into illegal cannabis cultivation and diversion of regulated products. Officials said they served a warrant at the licensee, New Good Harvest 999 LLC, and discovered the illegal grow operation.

Federal

I was going to write a whole bit about how the Hemp-Derived THC industry is being threatened nationally by Congressional Action. That appears to be stalled by the government shutdown, for now. #silverlinings?

From Cultivated: Pres. Trump posted an ad for The Commonwealth Project, which works to "integrate medical cannabis into mainstream health care for seniors.” The ad touts the 2018 Farm Bill, which he signed into law, as the first step in getting widespread access to CBD and other cannabis compounds. The ad calls for more research into the benefits of medical cannabis. Interesting!

From Ganjapreneur: Recent drug trials testing a full-spectrum cannabis extract found the experimental drug was an effective treatment for chronic lower back pain. Participants taking the experimental drug reported pain relief and improved sleep quality, and the study did not identify serious side effects or signs of addiction.

Fifty-three percent of Americans say that cannabis is “not at all dangerous” or “not very dangerous,” according to a recent poll by the right-leaning Rasmussen. The survey included Republicans and Democrats but only had 1300 participants.

ISO: Industry Classifieds

Have a property or services to offer to my readers? Or, looking for one? You can do so either by providing your info openly (a classic “I’m seeking xyz, contact me at __), or confidentially (having interested parties contact me to be connected to you). Contact me for more info and pricing: [email protected]

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