Late last week, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker joined key lawmakers and stakeholders from around the state to announce they had all come to terms on the basic framework to legalize the use and sale of marijuana to adults over the age of 21.<\/p>\n
Illinois\u2019 new cannabis coalition is now expecting things to move on to the next phase: legislative debate. They will also begin to query feedback from broader groups of lawmakers who weren\u2019t involved in the initial plan and other stakeholders. The measure\u00a0was introduced<\/a> in the Illinois State Capitol building on Monday, May 6.<\/p>\n The plan will allow Illinois residents to possess up to 30 grams of cannabis flower, five grams of cannabis concentrate and 500 milligrams of THC contained in a cannabis-infused product. Those limits are cut in half for folks from out of state. Illinois households will be able to grow five plants.<\/p>\n \u201cYears of work by stakeholders across Illinois means that today we are putting forward a framework for the General Assembly to move forward this session to legalize adult-use cannabis, and we welcome additional feedback and insight during this debate,\u201d said Pritzker\u00a0in a statement Friday<\/a>\u00a0announcing the plan for legal cannabis was moving forward.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the outset, I made clear that any plan for adult-use cannabis had to prioritize social justice and equity, and the approach we\u2019re taking starts righting some historic wrongs and opening up access to this new market with a $20 million loan program that will help qualified applicants from impacted communities,\u201d said Pritzker.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The bill was initially\u00a0filed on January 9<\/a>\u00a0by State Senator Heather Steans. A little over a month later, State Senator Toi Hutchinson signed on as the main co-sponsor. On the House side, Pritzker pointed to the early work done by Representative Kelly Cassidy. In recent weeks, they met often with the governor\u2019s staff to finalize everything about the plan.<\/p>\n \u201cThis bill stems from an inclusive process that entailed community meetings, town halls and legislative working groups,\u201d said Steans. \u201cIn spite of having a wide variety of views, most of us wanted the same basic things \u2014 social justice, safety for our kids and revenue for our state. I think we\u2019ve done a good job of balancing these three goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Cassidy noted prohibition hasn\u2019t worked, and the final plan represented an important policy change that was long overdue.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to create a safe, legal and comprehensive regulatory system that protects patient access and allows adults to use cannabis while keeping it out of the hands of children,\u201d she said. \u201cWe wanted to address the years, the decades of unfairness in the ways that our drug laws have been enforced. This bill represents a giant leap in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n This final plan hits on the key priorities for Pritzker. That includes the most obvious: legalizing the use of cannabis for adults aged 21 and older. But from there, it\u2019s very much about helping the communities hit the hardest the War on Drugs in Illinois. In recent years,\u00a0thanks in part to decriminalization<\/a>, arrests are down in Chicago over cannabis crimes, but\u00a0there is still a massive racial disparity<\/a>\u00a0in who is actually getting sucked into the criminal justice system\u2019s revolving doors.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s only a crumb of what the communities hit the hardest by the War on Drugs deserve, the $20 million Pritzker mentioned would go toward promoting equity in ownership and participation in the cannabis industry is a good start.<\/p>\n However, equity programs have been\u00a0tragically delayed<\/a>\u00a0in cities across California, due to a lack of money. However, the Illinois cannabis equity plan is fairly specific about where the money is coming from. The funds for the loan program will come from existing funds from the current medical cannabis program. Fees from licenses for existing dispensaries and cultivators that are approved in the first round of applications would also contribute to the pool of money the equity applicants will be able to receive grants from.<\/p>\n And on a final interesting note, Pritzker and his team even got the State Police in the mix for the announcement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Illinois State Police will be a responsible partner in enforcing the law and ensuring any and all provisions of adult use legislation are strictly and efficiently complied with,\u201d said the Illinois State Police Acting Director Brendan Kelly. \u201cWe are committed to ensuring the safety of the residents of Illinois.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you think cannabis legalization is a good idea?<\/p>\n The post Illinois Governor Unveils Cannabis Legalization Plan<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Late last week, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker joined key lawmakers and stakeholders from around the state to announce they had all come to terms on the basic framework to legalize the use and sale of marijuana to adults over the age of 21. Illinois\u2019 new cannabis coalition is now expectingContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,3792,216,1051,4060,687,81,97],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35066"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35067,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35066\/revisions\/35067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What Ca<\/strong>nnabis Legalization Could Look Like in Illinois<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Will Illinois\u2019 Cannabis Law Succeed in Building Equity in the Cannabis Industry?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Illinois Governor Unveils Cannabis Legalization Plan<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"