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Illinois officials announced on Friday that they are awarding $3.5 million in grants funded by marijuana tax revenue to organizations that work to reduce violence through street intervention programs.<\/p>\n
This is the latest funding opportunity to be made available through the Restore, Reinvest, and Renew (R3) Program, which was created under Illinois\u2019s cannabis legalization law. The policy stipulates that 25 percent of marijuana tax dollars must go to community reinvestment for communities most impacted by violence, incarceration and poverty.<\/p>\n
The new grants will support efforts to specifically combat violence during the summer months, when crime is typically highest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to address the root causes of violence and invest in communities and the people who deserve more resources and opportunities than they have historically been given\u201d Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton (D) said in a press release. \u201cThese grants will increase programming, job opportunities, provide safe spaces, and other positive outlets for youth and emerging adults. When we empower people, we change lives and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Organizations based in 12 cities across Illinois\u2014including Chicago and Joliet\u2014will receive the funding. They include Bethel Family Resource Center, Boxing Out Negativity Inc., Free Lunch Academy, The Outlet and Youth With A Positive Direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsing a public health approach, this emergency response to summer violence will expand and increase resources aimed at addressing the risk of escalating violence, which is experienced each year in the state\u2019s most vulnerable communities,\u201d Delrice Adams, acting director of the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA), said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Illinois has proved to have a robust adult-use cannabis market that has generated significant tax revenue for these and other purposes.<\/p>\n Based on monthly data, Illinois is set to see more than $1 billion in adult-use marijuana sales<\/a> in 2021. And that, of course, means more tax dollars. Last year, Illinois sold about $670 million in cannabis and took in $205.4 million in tax revenue<\/a>.<\/p>\n Illinois began taking in more tax dollars from marijuana than alcohol<\/a> earlier this year, the state Department of Revenue reported in May. From January to March, Illinois generated about $86,537,000 in adult-use marijuana tax revenue, compared to $72,281,000 from liquor sales.<\/p>\n June was the fourth month in a row that recreational marijuana sales exceeded $100 million<\/a>, according\u00a0to the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Last month saw a slightly higher monetary sum at\u00a0$116,380,348 worth of cannabis purchases<\/a>, albeit for fewer individual items sold.<\/p>\n Illinois officials have emphasized that the tax dollars from all of these sales are being put to good use. For example, the state announced in January that it is distributing\u00a0$31.5 million in grants funded by marijuana tax dollars<\/a>\u00a0to communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs.<\/p>\n Awarding the new grant money is not all that Illinois is doing to promote social equity and repair the harms of cannabis criminalization. Pritzker announced in December that his office had\u00a0processed more than 500,000 expungements and pardons<\/a>\u00a0for people with low-level cannabis convictions on their records.<\/p>\n Relatedly, a\u00a0state-funded initiative was recently established<\/a>\u00a0to help residents with marijuana convictions get legal aid and other services to have their records expunged.<\/p>\n But promoting social equity in the state\u2019s cannabis industry has proved challenging. Illinois has faced criticism from advocates and lawsuits from marijuana business applicants who feel officials haven\u2019t done enough to ensure diversity among business owners in the industry.<\/p>\n Pritzker signed a bill that took effect on Thursday that is meant to build upon the state\u2019s legalization law by creating more cannabis business licensing opportunities<\/a>\u00a0that are meant to help people from disproportionately impacted communities enter into the marijuana industry.<\/p>\n \u2014 Regulators announced<\/a> that they will hold three lotteries to award new licenses.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a House committee recently approved a resolution that\u00a0broadly condemns the war on drugs<\/a>, calling it \u201cthe United States\u2019 longest and costliest war and ultimately a complete and shameful failure.\u201d<\/p>\n Federal Marijuana Protections And Other Drug Policy Provisions Approved In New Spending Bills<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Illinois Uses $3.5 Million In Marijuana Revenue To Prevent Violence<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Illinois officials announced on Friday that they are awarding $3.5 million in grants funded by marijuana tax revenue to organizations that work to reduce violence through street intervention programs. This is the latest funding opportunity to be made available through the Restore, Reinvest, and Renew (R3) Program, which was createdContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":48906,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48905"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48907,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48905\/revisions\/48907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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