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Amanda Vinicky | July 15, 2021 9:07 pm
Illinois is set to hold a lottery before month’s end, deciding the first winners among the thousands of applicants that long ago submitted bids to open cannabis dispensaries under the 2020 law that made marijuana legal.
A lottery’s set for July 29, with another Aug. 5 and a third Aug. 19; successful applicants will win coveted licenses to collectively open another 185 cannabis dispensaries throughout Illinois.
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“As far as I’m concerned, we want to make sure that they go as smoothly as possible, and so we’ve been working every day since this bill was passed really to try to set up the lottery so we get the results that we’re all expecting,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.
UpdatedThu, Jun 3, 2021 at 12:44 pm CT
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Toi Hutchinson, at center left, appeared with Douglas Kelly, at left, of the Cannabis Equity Illinois Coalition, State Rep. LaShawn Ford, at center, Rickey Hendon, right center, and Tyrone Muhammed, right, of Ex-Cons for Community and Social Change. (Jonah Meadows/Patch)
CHICAGO Social equity applicants for state licenses to sell cannabis gathered at a West Side restaurant Wednesday to urge Gov. J.B. Pritzker to quickly sign a recently passed bill authorizing a trio of new lotteries to divvy up pot shop permits.
The group of about two dozen hopeful marijuana merchants was joined by the sponsor of House Bill 1443, State Rep. LaShawn Ford (D-Chicago), and former state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, the governor s top cannabis advisor.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
State Rep. La Shawn Ford joined a group of minority cannabis applicants Tuesday to announce plans for legislation that would address the state’s problematic marijuana licensing rollout and create up to 115 new pot shop permits in a move that could vastly expand Illinois’ weed market.
During a news conference outside Nature’s Care dispensary in West Town, the Chicago Democrat framed the forthcoming bill as the next step in ensuring Illinois meets its lofty goal of creating equity in the white-dominated cannabis industry. But he acknowledged that work won’t be complete until “Black and brown people start making money.”
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
Infighting among a group of minority pot shop applicants drafting legislation to resolve the state’s troubled licensing rollout came to a head Tuesday when a downtown news conference effectively devolved into a sparring match.
The ad hoc coalition of social equity applicants a designation created to diversify the state’s white-dominated weed industry has splintered into two factions pushing dueling proposals and battling over specifics.
The two groups want to double the number of new dispensary licenses from 75 to 150. And they agree that a second lottery should be created to issue those additional permits to existing applicants that don’t qualify for the initial, long-delayed lottery. That drawing