With the legislative session winding down, the Illinois Senate has passed a law that would regulate and tax adult-use cannabis, making the state the first in the nation to set up a legal cannabis marketplace through the legislature. (Vermont was the first to pass cannabis legalization through the legislature and not through the ballot, but did not set up a marketplace.)<\/p>\n
The bill has now been sent to the Illinois House, where it has only two days to pass before the session ends. <\/p>\n
If the bill makes it to the governor\u2019s desk, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has pledged repeatedly<\/a> that he is in support of legal cannabis, so he is almost certainly on board to sign the bill, as it is a part of his coalition effort<\/a> to bring the cannabis reform effort to pass. <\/p>\n The Steans said in a statement<\/a> following the Senate\u2019s passage of The Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act<\/a> that it will also include the most comprehensive restorative justice measures of any state that has legalized cannabis, seeking to combat the disproportionate harm prohibition caused to minority communities.<\/p>\n \u201cProhibition If As The According to the bill\u2019s text, those grants will directly address the impact of economic disinvestment, violence and the historical overuse of police responses to community and individual needs by providing resources to support local design and control of community-based responses to these impacts. One of the biggest goals will be reducing gun violence. Last year, Chicago saw 561 homicides<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Advocates \u201cThis One \u201cThe TELL US,<\/strong> which state should legalize cannabis The post Illinois Could Be Days Away From Legalizing Cannabis<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
With the legislative session winding down, the Illinois Senate has passed a law that would regulate and tax adult-use cannabis, making the state the first in the nation to set up a legal cannabis marketplace through the legislature. (Vermont was the first to pass cannabis legalization through the legislature andContinue 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":[50,3792,1051,4060,3823,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35745"}],"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=35745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35746,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35745\/revisions\/35746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nbill, championed by State Senator Heather Steans of Chicago, would make it
\nlegal for adults over the age of 21 to purchase and use cannabis in Illinois.
\nThe bill marks continuing progress in Illinois, moving on from the success of
\ndecriminalization the state has seen since 2016. In 2011, Chicago police
\narrested 21,000 people for marijuana offenses, but in 2017, that number dropped
\nto 129, which is less than 1% of the 2011 number.<\/p>\n
\nis not working. It\u2019s time to come up with a better policy,\u201d Steans said. \u201cThis
\nplan keeps our children safe by prioritizing public safety, includes extensive
\nrestorative justice measures and brings in much-needed revenue for our state.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthe bill passes the house, on January 1, adults in Illinois will legally be
\nable to purchase up to 30 grams of cannabis flower, five grams of concentrates
\nand 500 milligrams of cannabis-infused products. These things won\u2019t actually be
\navailable on New Year\u2019s Day though. As seen in many other states, the
\nregulatory hoops usually take a bit of time to design, nevermind jump through.<\/p>\nCannabis Equity in Illinois<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nfor helping the victims of Illinois\u2019s War on Drugs get their lives back
\ntogether, a lot of it will happen automatically under the plan. Anyone with a
\nconviction involving less than 30 grams will likely have their records
\nautomatically expunged down the line. People who were convicted with 30-500
\ngrams will be able to petition the courts to vacate their convictions.<\/p>\n
\nbill also puts forward a plan on what will happen with the money generated by
\ncannabis legalization. A lot of it will go to communities hit the hardest by
\ndiscriminatory drug laws by creating the \u201cRecover, Reinvest and Renew Program
\n(R3)\u201d to distribute the money through grants.<\/p>\n
\ntax surplus money will also be distributed through a bunch of other programs
\nand funds. Two percent will go to education and safety campaigns. Eight percent
\nwill go to law enforcement to use prevention and training. A quarter of the
\nextra funds will go back into the R3 program. The majority of the funds will go
\nto programs that address preventative substance abuse programs and mental
\nhealth services and the state\u2019s General Revenue Fund.<\/p>\n
\nare excited about the progress, despite the tough timelines for the bill\u2019s
\npassage.<\/p>\n
\nis just one step of many in ending cannabis prohibition,\u201d said Dan Linn, the
\nexecutive director of Illinois NORML in a statement following the bill\u2019s
\nvictory in the State Senate. \u201cEven after this bill passes, there will still be
\nwork to do to give adults in Illinois access to cannabis without having to
\npurchase it from a limited amount of stores and cultivators.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nof the goals to solve those access issues is to lower the bar for entry
\nallowing for more competition that would benefit both small businesses and
\nconsumers.<\/p>\n
\nbarriers to entry into this marketplace will only continue to expand the
\nproblems of the wealthy being able to profit from this new opportunity while
\nothers with fewer resources are unable to move from the illegal to the legal
\nmarketplace in terms of growing and selling this product,\u201d said Linn.<\/p>\n
\nnext? <\/p>\n
\n
\nRead More: Illinois Could Be Days Away From Legalizing Cannabis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"