On Jan. 1, 2020, commercial recreational cannabis sales will begin in Illinois. If examples from past states are any indication, there will be absurdly long lines, there will be many cases of sticker shock and, at some time months or years into the future but seemingly inevitably, there will be no more medical marijuana. <\/p>\n
The loss of medical marijuana has been the trend, but this is one that Illinois is poised to break, because in Illinois, medical-cannabis patients will be the first in line to get legal weed<\/a> \u2014 and if supplies run out, they will be the last.<\/p>\n Medical cannabis is dead, one line of conventional wisdom in Both its killer and its elegy is full-blown adult This can\u2019t be said to currently apply in states like Florida where medical cannabis is still the only vector for obtaining legal weed, but it does appear to be the future. The prime example fulfilling this narrative is California, the first state to experiment with relaxed cannabis laws: Medical cannabis patients, many of whom rely on recently re-legalized donations of free weed, must buy $3,000 worth of cannabis in order for the cost of a state-issued medical card to be worthwhile<\/a>. The fading relevance of medical cannabis in California followed a severe contraction in Washington, also triggered by legalization,<\/a> when more than 1,500 medical-cannabis dispensaries were replaced by 222 recreational stores \u2014 regulated by the state liquor control board, not the public health department.<\/p>\n At least part of this is business. Most dispensaries are What might work is the choice between no cannabis and some cannabis \u2014 and if being in the latter camp hinged on whether or not you were a patient. <\/p>\n Unlike most other legal states swimming in a vast oversupply Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who invested tens of millions of dollars of his (hereditary) personal fortune in his successful gubernatorial campaign \u2014 of which legalization was a key promise \u2014 has said that legalization will \u201cprotect\u201d medical cannabis patients, as Illinois Public Media recently reported<\/a>. This means patients will get \u201cpriority\u201d at dispensaries even when dispensaries can start accepting all adults 21 and over, a promise repeated by state lawmakers.<\/a><\/p>\n Current Illinois state law, however, allows retailers to accept cannabis from licensed cultivators and then decide whether they\u2019d like to sell that cannabis to medical or recreational consumers. But state law also requires any \u201cdual-use\u201d cannabis retailer to monitor its monthly inventory and to keep enough medical cannabis on the shelf to satisfy the demand seen in the months before legalization. Anyone not doing this runs the risk of penalty, including having their licensed revoked, a Pritzker spokesperson told<\/a> the Chicago Sun Times.<\/p>\n So far, 18 of the state\u2019s 21 existing cultivation centers Whether this works \u2014 whether patients\u2019 needs will be TELL US<\/strong>, have The post How Illinois Is Prioritizing Medical Cannabis<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 1, 2020, commercial recreational cannabis sales will begin in Illinois. If examples from past states are any indication, there will be absurdly long lines, there will be many cases of sticker shock and, at some time months or years into the future but seemingly inevitably, there will beContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,10200,1051,53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40186"}],"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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40186"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40187,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40186\/revisions\/40187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\ncertain drug-policy reform circles goes, a victim of its own success. <\/p>\n
\nlegalization, the summit for which medical marijuana \u2014 and the requirement that
\nanyone patronizing a dispensary first patronize a doctor\u2019s office \u2014 served as
\nbase camp. <\/p>\n
\nrecreational. A pivot to cannabis as a \u201cwellness product\u201d rather than a
\n\u201cmedicine\u201d requiring a doctor\u2019s recommendation means the potential pool of
\ncustomers is vastly expanded; it also means that patients aren\u2019t prioritized.
\nEven special product offerings, such as stronger edibles, don\u2019t seem enough to
\nentice a recreational customer to go through the hoops of qualifying as a
\nmedical patient.<\/p>\n
\nof cannabis \u2014 some of which is going unsold, some more of which is sold on the
\nunderground market \u2014 Illinois expects a severe cannabis shortage, with growing
\ncapacity able to fulfill less than 25% of demand. (Early supply shortages have
\npreceded supply gluts and crashing prices, a sequence Illinois might wish to
\navoid.)<\/p>\n
\nhave been issued licenses to grow recreational cannabis. They, too, have been
\ninstructed to grow enough cannabis to meet the demand anticipated at Illinois\u2019s
\n37 dispensaries. <\/p>\n
\nprioritized, and whether Illinois is serious about punishing operators who don\u2019t
\n\u2014 remains to be seen. But even the vocal attention medical marijuana patients
\nare receiving in Illinois is something they can\u2019t count on elsewhere and
\nIllinois stance appears an improvement over the recognition, from regulating
\nbureaucrats if no one else, that medical cannabis was not an end unto itself.<\/p>\n
\nyou ever been a medical marijuana patient?<\/p>\n
\n
\nRead More: How Illinois Is Prioritizing Medical Cannabis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"