More than two years since recreational cannabis was legalized in Minnesota, the first state-licensed microbusiness dispensary is poised to open in Duluth Tuesday.
Legacy Cannabis in Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood is scheduled to open at 4:20 Tuesday afternoon, the unusual starting time is a cheeky cannabis culture inside joke. It joins tribal cannabis dispensaries, which have been selling their own recreational cannabis for over a year, and the state's two medical cannabis companies, which began selling recreational cannabis this week.
“It’s a historic thing,” said Josh Wilken-Simon, lead consultant for the company who founded the business as Legacy Glassworks in 2010.
“We aim to help remove the stigma around cannabis by fostering a welcoming environment rooted in education, respect, and community,” Wilken-Simon added.
Legacy Cannabis is selling products grown by the White Earth Nation’s cannabis business Waabigwan Mashkiki, which means ‘flower medicine’ in Ojibway.
Waabigwan Mashkiki grows cannabis in a 50,000 square foot indoor facility, which it uses to supply the White Earth Nation’s on-reservation dispensary, as well as retail stores in Moorhead and St. Cloud.
The White Earth Nation also sells wholesale cannabis to the Prairie Island Indian Community and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe for their dispensaries.
Legacy Cannabis in Duluth is the first state-licensed business Waabigwan Mashkiki sells to, said Zach Wilson, the tribal business’s CEO. But he says it won’t be the last.
“Everybody and their brother’s reaching out, needing and wanting supply. I get hit up three to five times a day,” said Wilson. “We are trying to do our best to work with as many as we can with what inventory we have. We don't want to over-promise and under-deliver on volume with the kind of numbers we're expecting the state to do.”
The market in many states that have legalized cannabis is dominated by large corporate retailers. Minnesota legislators set aside a portion of the market for microbusinesses, that have the ability to cultivate cannabis, manufacture it into products like edibles, and sell it at retail stores.
As of Tuesday, the state’s Office of Cannabis Management has approved 37 cannabis business licenses, 23 of which are for microbusinesses that plan to offer retail sales, including Legacy Cannabis. State officials say while other micro-retailers have also opened, the Duluth storefront is the first to acquire cannabis product to sell.
But Josh Wilken-Simon expects many others to quickly follow suit. He equates it to the early days of the craft beer market, when brewpubs exploded around the state.
“One of the coolest things about all this is (in) most other states, the very first dispensaries to get their doors open are those large, multi-state corporate cannabis [retailers]. It’s just really exciting that we're seeing a craft cannabis market begin (here) that many of us envisioned for so many years.”
