Illinois Marijuana Program Overview

Illinois Marijuana Program Overview

The Land of Lincoln became the 11^th state to legalize recreational marijuana with sales starting in January 2020.

In its first year, there was more than $1 billion in legal cannabis sales. By October, 2020 the state had already collected more than $100 million in revenue.

Illinois’ adult-use program has a strong social equity and minority bent with 25 percent of the tax dollars collected from marijuana sales designated for restorative justice grants, while other funds will support substance misuse and mental health treatment.  In May Illinois was making nearly $31 million in social equity grants available to identified as economically distressed. The law also provided a path for people to receive pardons and expungements of past marijuana convictions. At the start of 2021 there were more than 500,000 expungements and pardons for low-level cannabis offenses. A state fund was established to help residents with the legal aid to get convictions overturned.

Illinois is issuing several different types of licenses including; craft grower, infuser and a conditional adult-use dispensing organization license.

Initially, only medical marijuana dispensaries were licensed to sell recreational cannabis, but Illinois is looking to add 75 additional licenses in 2021. Licenses were created last year, but not yet issued due to a rash of lawsuits challenging how licenses were scored. Last year 937 businesses submitted applications for more than 4,500 sites. 75 dispensary licenses were available, and just 21 qualified for a lottery to determine the license winners. But because of complaints that the scoring was inconsistent and unfair, the lottery was held up. Many of the qualifying applicants were wealthy and politically connected, even with a scoring bonus for social equity applicants.

Military Veteran Components

In the license redo, applicants qualify by achieving a certain score, rather than requiring the highest scores as in the first round, when only perfect applications qualified. Also, only applications with majority ownership by a military veteran got bonus points to get a perfect score in the first round, effectively disqualifying any applicant without veteran ownership.

Illinois will be issuing an additional 110 dispensary licenses, 60 craft grower licenses, and 60 infuser licenses by December 2021.

Social Equity Components

To qualify as a social equity applicant, the applicant must be an Illinois resident and meet at least one of the following criteria:

• The applicant has at least 51% ownership and control by one or more individuals who have resided for at least 5 of the preceding 10 years in a disproportionately impacted area.
• The applicant has at least 51% ownership and control by one or more individuals who:
• • Have been arrested for, convicted of, or adjudicated delinquent for any offense that is eligible for expungement under the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act
  • Is a member of an impacted family
• The applicant has at least 10 full-time employees and at least 51% of who currently reside in a Disproportionately Impacted Area; or have been arrested for, convicted of, or adjudicated delinquent for any offense that is eligible for expungement under the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act or a member of an impacted family.

We have successfully secured licenses for clients in over 20 markets across the United States. If you are interested in applying for a dispensary license, contact us by phone at (602)-290-9424‬ or email (info@thecannabisbusinessadvisors.com) for more information.