Illinois will award 185 additional recreational marijuana dispensary licenses beginning later this month under a measure that aims to correct ways the state’s landmark legalization effort fell short of its goal of giving minority-owned businesses greater access to the predominantly white industry.
Seventy-five of the additional licenses were to be awarded in May 2020, but were delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic and because of issues with the scoring system for awarding licenses that prompted lawsuits. Those licenses will be awarded Aug. 19 via a lottery of top-scoring applicants who tied in the initial round.
First, the state will award 55 new licenses in each of two lotteries: one on July 29 for companies that scored at least 85% on their applications, and another Aug. 5 specifically for companies that score well and also qualify as “social equity applicants.” That category is for those who live in areas disproportionately affected by the war on drugs, have cannabis-related convictions or have a family member with an eligible conviction.
The new licenses will be added to the state’s existing 110 licensed recreational marijuana dispensaries. Social equity applicants will now be permitted to set up shop within 1,500 feet of an existing dispensary, which previously was prohibited. The idea is to give new entrants to the industry access to prime retail locations already staked out by existing players.
One of the major selling points of the legalization law that took effect in 2020 was that it would help communities harmed by the war on drugs and tough-on-crime policies in previous decades. But while hundreds of thousands of marijuana-related criminal records have been expunged, the state’s new billion-dollar industry remains dominated by white-owned businesses.
The new law, signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker Thursday and effective immediately, aims to address that problem, Pritzker said at an unrelated event in Chicago.
The changes should allow the state to overcome “the challenges that were in the original law that were impossible to overcome,” he said.
The signing should alleviate tension between the Pritzker administration and some members of the Legislative Black Caucus, who raised criticisms of the initial application process.
“This industry has the potential to change lives but only if we keep the principles of equity at the center of every decision we make,” Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, a Maywood Democrat who sponsored the measure with Democratic state Rep. La Shawn Ford of Chicago, said in a statement. “The signing of this legislation brings us one step closer to making these promises a reality.”
In addition to setting up the new lotteries, the measure also allows medical marijuana customers to shop at any dispensary rather than requiring each person to designate one specific location, and allows medical dispensaries that were among the first to be approved for recreational licenses to relocate within 90 days. The latter became an issue when towns with existing medical locations chose to ban recreational sales.
Aside from the new dispensary licenses to be awarded later this summer, the state on Thursday announced the first round of 213 licenses for craft growers, infusers and transporters, operations that are seen as easier entry points into the burgeoning industry. Of those licenses, 40 are for craft growers, 32 for infusers and 141 for transporters.
Applicants weren’t required to submit demographic details, but based on data from the 80% who self-reported the information, roughly two-thirds of the applicants are minority- or women-owned businesses, according to the state.
dpetrella@chicagotribune.com
