First Government-Run Marijuana Store In Minnesota Will Open Next Week, Local Officials Say

The first government-run marijuana retailer in Minnesota is set to open its doors next week, local officials say.

After getting cleared to build the facility, the city of Anoka said it has completed construction and is ready to become operational beginning on Wednesday, February 6. Anoka is one of more than a dozen Minnesota cities aiming to manage its own dispensary.

“We see this as a natural evolution of our long-standing commitment to responsible municipal retail and reinvesting profits back into the community,” Mayor Erik Skogquist (D) told Marijuana Moment on Tuesday. “Since 1937, Anoka has successfully managed and reinvested millions in profits from our municipal liquor stores. That experience has given us a unique blueprint for the cannabis sector.”

“Every cent of net profit will stay here—it will go towards revitalizing our parks and lifting the collective weight off our neighbors’ shoulders by easing the tax burden and helping keep our city affordable,” he said.

“While Minnesota legalization has prioritized social equity ownership, all too often wealthy out-of-state corporations move in and extract maximum profit from communities,” the mayor said. “The Anoka model ensuring that the benefits of legalization directly improve the quality of life for the people who live here.”

While lawmakers outside of Minnesota have previously floated proposals to have state-run dispensaries, that’s been met with resistance in states like Pennsylvania. But Anoka sees a unique opportunity to demonstrate how municipal government can leverage legalization in a way that more directly benefits local residents and initiatives.

“Our residents want a safe, vibrant, and well-maintained community while keeping taxes as low as practicable,” Skogquist said in a press release. “Anoka Cannabis Company allows the City of Anoka to do just that.”

“We aim to safely control the sale of a regulated substance, set a high bar for others to follow, and use profits to lessen taxpayer burdens while further investing in the community,” the mayor said. “These opportunities rarely come along, and in Anoka, we are capitalizing on it to make sure that all 18,000 residents see the benefits.”

Here are the details on the opening schedule for Minnesota’s first government-run marijuana store:

• Community Open House – Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, 3 p.m. – 7 p.m.
  No cannabis sales during this event.
• Ribbon Cutting Ceremony – Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, 2 p.m.
• Opening Day – Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, 10 a.m.
  Open to the public by appointment only. Appointments can be scheduled at AnokaCannabis.com.
• Grand Opening Event – Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, 12 p.m.- 4 p.m.

“At Anoka Cannabis Company, education is at the heart of our mission,” Stephanie Rietz, the dispensary’s manager, said. “We want our customers to feel empowered and informed through their cannabis journey, all while knowing their purchase benefits the community. We want to set a new standard for what community-centered, responsible cannabis access can look like.”

This marks of the latest developments in Minnesota’s marijuana program since the governor signed legalization into law in 2023.

Last September, for example, Minnesota officials granted the state’s first-ever marijuana event organizer license, allowing adults to buy and consume cannabis products on-site at a festival. The first non-tribal marijuana shops opened for sales to adults 21 and older earlier that month.

Also last year, the Minnesota city of Eden Prairie sought suggestions from residents on what to name a new, government-branded cannabis gummy product to be sold at municipal liquor stores.

Minnesota’s House of Representatives circulated a poll at last year’s State Fair that asked attendees about the idea of allowing localities to enact bans on marijuana businesses within their borders. Most respondents who have an opinion on the issue agree with the policy, despite it not currently being a part of the state’s cannabis laws.

Ahead of the enactment of legalization in Minnesota, lawmakers’ separate State Fair polls found majority support for the reform.

The governor has also selected a top cannabis regulator for the state who will oversee the adult-use market rollout. Last June, June, the state Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) issued the state’s first recreational marijuana license for a cultivation microbusiness.

OCM said at the time that it’s taking further steps to build up in the industry and create opportunities to entrepreneurs, including opening a new licensing window for cannabis testing facilities, accepting the first applications for marijuana event licenses and verifying more social equity status requests.

Separately, after Minnesota lawmakers passed a bill to end the criminalization of bong water containing trace amount of drugs, the governor signed the measure into law last May.

The change addresses an existing policy that had allowed law enforcement to treat quantities of bong water greater than four ounces as equivalent to the pure, uncut version of whatever drug the device was used to consume.

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Meanwhile, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) said last month that the state is “exploring” how to respond to an impending federal ban on hemp THC products, which would be “very disruptive” to a “thriving industry.”

At the congressional level, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tina Smith (D-MN), along with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), addressed the forthcoming hemp prohibition, which they said should be corrected by replacing that policy with a regulatory framework similar to what Minnesota has implemented at the state level to prevent youth access and ensure product safety for adults.

Klobuchar, the ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, called it a “pivotal moment for many farmers, workers and small business owners who have built our state’s successful hemp industry.”

The senator touted the fact that she helped secure language in appropriations legislation that provides grant funding for the University of Minnesota to explore novel ways to utilize hemp for industrial purposes such as construction materials and pet bedding.

Minnesota’s Democratic top prosecutor, Keith Ellison, was one of 39 state and territory counterparts who sent a letter to congressional leaders earlier this month that voiced support for the hemp provisions of the spending bill President Donald Trump signed. Ellison later defended his decision, in part by arguing that states with regulations in place for cannabinoid products like Minnesota should not have to worry about hemp entering their market from unregulated, out-of-state operators.

Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen.