Beyond Licensing: Jess Jackson on What Minnesota Cannabis Needs Next

For the last few years, a lot of Minnesota cannabis conversations have centered on one thing:

Getting licensed.

Who qualifies? When will applications open? How long will approval take? How much runway does a business have once it gets through the process?

Those questions still matter.

But Minnesota cannabis is moving into a different phase now.

Businesses are opening. Cultivators are building. Products are entering the market. People are looking for jobs. Entrepreneurs are trying to figure out how to turn an opportunity on paper into a business that can actually survive.

That is where our latest conversation with Jess Jackson, Director of Community and Economic Development at the Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management, gets interesting.

Jess joined me on The Canna Connect Show to talk about the work happening beyond licensing and what she has learned after a year of listening to people trying to build in this market.

Getting a License Is Only the Beginning

Early in our conversation, Jess shared a number that puts a lot of this into perspective.

According to an OCM needs survey she discussed in the interview, 33% of Minnesota’s social equity verified participants surveyed were pursuing their first business venture.

Not their first cannabis company.

Their first business.

That means some entrepreneurs are learning basic business operations at the same time they are trying to navigate one of the most heavily regulated industries in the country.

Jess compares the experience to being dropped into law school before you have completed the steps that normally come before it.

There is cannabis compliance to understand, but there is also staffing, cash management, point-of-sale systems, standard operating procedures, financing, real estate, inventory, and all the other things that come with running a company.

That realization helped shape what Jess calls the “continuum of readiness.”

The question is no longer simply, “Are you eligible for a license?”

It is also, “Are you ready to operate the business that comes with it?”

Listening Before Building the Next Program

One of the efforts Jess talks about with a lot of pride is OCM’s Social Equity Mixer series.

The idea grew out of a simple realization: people were struggling, and OCM could not be the only voice in the room.

An agency can explain regulation.

A business owner can explain what operating a company actually feels like.

A service provider can offer another piece of the puzzle.

A community organization may understand resources that someone has never heard about.

Bringing those perspectives together gives entrepreneurs a better chance of understanding what they are walking into.

Jess also explains that OCM surveys participants after events to understand what they knew before attending, what they learned, and what they need next. That feedback is then used to think about future programming.

That part stood out to me.

Minnesota cannabis changes quickly.

The questions people had a year ago are not necessarily the questions they have today.

If we are serious about building an industry that lasts, the support around it has to evolve too.

Where Does the Grant Money Actually Go?

We also spent a good amount of time talking about money.

That conversation can get confusing quickly.

People hear that millions of dollars have been allocated to cannabis programs and naturally ask:

Where is it?

Jess breaks down two different lanes.

One is CanRenew, which she describes as community reinvestment aimed at responding to harms created by cannabis prohibition. In the interview, Jess says the current round involves $10.9 million across 56 grantees doing work around the state.

The other is CanGrow, which is focused on helping farmers participate in cannabis through technical assistance and financing.

But there is an important layer that can easily get missed.

OCM is often not giving money directly to an individual entrepreneur or farmer.

Instead, it funds organizations that then deliver the training, assistance, or financing.

Jess uses a hypothetical Canna Connect example in the interview: OCM could fund an organization to provide an educational series, and farmers would work with that organization rather than interacting directly with OCM for the service.

Understanding that structure helps explain why simply hearing “there is funding available” does not necessarily mean there is a button somewhere that every cannabis entrepreneur can click.

Access to Capital Is Still Complicated

The financing conversation gets even more interesting when Jess talks about CDFIs.

She explains that CanGrow’s loan financing structure relies on eligible intermediary organizations. But many organizations remain cautious about taking on cannabis because of federal risk and the potential impact on the rest of their work.

Jess says the program has struggled to attract applicants for that role.

She also notes that some credit unions showed interest but were not eligible under the way the law was written.

That brings us to another major theme of this episode:

Not every problem people associate with OCM can actually be solved by OCM.

Some things are administrative.

Some things are written directly into state law.

Some depend on outside organizations choosing to participate.

And some require the industry to organize and advocate for change.

Understanding Who Can Actually Change Something

I think this is one of the most useful conversations we can have as the Minnesota market matures.

It is easy to say, “OCM needs to fix this.”

Sometimes that may be exactly right.

Other times, the change requires lawmakers.

Jess talks about the importance of building a critical mass around an issue, getting clear about what the industry wants, and bringing those ideas through the appropriate channels.

She also points out that OCM can still play a role without being the organization that carries a policy proposal forward.

The agency can listen.

It can provide technical assistance.

It can explain how an idea might interact with existing law.

But the industry also has a responsibility to organize around the changes it wants to see.

That is a much more useful conversation than treating one agency as the answer to every problem.

Social Equity Is Bigger Than a License

Jess also explains why her work has evolved from being discussed simply as “social equity” into the broader Division of Community and Economic Development.

Social equity means different things depending on who is sitting across the table.

For an aspiring operator, it may mean access to a license or capital.

For someone carrying a cannabis conviction, it may mean learning about expungement resources or removing a barrier to employment.

For a community affected by prohibition, it may mean reinvestment.

For someone trying to enter cannabis without owning a company, it may mean finding a job.

Jess talks about having to listen to all of those communities, including people who want more cannabis access and people who remain deeply uncomfortable with cannabis in their neighborhoods.

That makes the work messy.

It also makes it important.

A Cannabis Industry Needs Workers Too

Not everyone entering Minnesota cannabis is going to become a license holder.

That should be obvious, but ownership has dominated so much of the conversation that workforce development can sometimes feel like an afterthought.

Jess talks about building pathways for people to find jobs in the industry and giving them practical tools like resume review, interview preparation, and connections to employers.

That is another sign of a market growing up.

A functioning cannabis industry needs cultivators and dispensary owners.

It also needs employees, tradespeople, accountants, marketers, attorneys, security professionals, technicians, sales teams, delivery workers, and all of the other roles that support an ecosystem.

Participation can look different for different people.

Tribal Sovereignty Is Different From Social Equity

We also spend time talking about tribal cannabis and an important distinction Jess makes:

Tribal sovereignty and social equity are not the same thing.

Minnesota’s Tribal Nations are sovereign governments.

Jess explains that the relationship with the state therefore operates on a government-to-government level, with separate regulatory frameworks working together through agreements rather than Tribal Nations simply participating as another category within the state’s social equity program.

For anyone following Minnesota cannabis closely, that distinction matters.

Tribal cannabis is an important part of this market, but understanding why it functions differently requires understanding sovereignty first.

Then Jess Put on Her “Big Sis” Hat

Later in the episode, the conversation shifts back toward the entrepreneurs themselves.

Jess describes putting on her “big sis” hat and asking people to be realistic about where they are in their business journey.

Sometimes frustration comes from policy.

Sometimes it comes from realizing you do not yet know something you need to know.

Those are very different problems.

And once you recognize the difference, you can start asking a better question:

What is my competitive advantage?

Maybe you do not have the biggest store.

Maybe you cannot carry every product.

Maybe your advantage is delivery.

Maybe it is community.

Maybe it is an incredibly loyal customer base.

Jess’s advice is not to copy what everyone else is doing just to stand out.

Figure out what you can do differently and build around it.

That is business advice that applies well beyond cannabis.

“How Do We Eat Together?”

One of my favorite moments comes near the end.

Jess talks about the tendency to view an emerging market through scarcity.

If somebody else succeeds, does that mean there is less left for me?

Her answer is a much better question:

“How do we eat together?”

That feels especially relevant in Minnesota right now.

There will be competition.

There should be competition.

But this ecosystem is still young enough that collaboration matters too.

One retailer can carry another Minnesota company’s product.

A grower can learn from another grower.

An experienced operator can help someone avoid a mistake.

A service provider can connect an entrepreneur with someone they need.

Government can listen.

Industry can organize.

Community can continue to show up.

That is how an ecosystem gets stronger.

Watch the Full Conversation

There is a lot packed into this episode.

Grants. Capital. Social equity. Workforce. Tribal sovereignty. Regulation. Advocacy. Business readiness. Collaboration.

But underneath all of it is a conversation about what happens when legalization stops being an idea and becomes an industry people actually have to build.

Minnesota cannabis is no longer only waiting for the market to arrive.

We are in it.

Now the question is what we do with it.

Join the conversation and tell us what Minnesota cannabis businesses and communities need next.

#CannaConnectMN