Where to find current information and starting a growery/dispensary

Does anybody happen to know where are you could consistently find the most up-to-date information on what they’re coming up with for licensing on owning a dispensary or to be a grower for recreational in Illinois? I know everything is in the works right now but I would like to stay as up-to-date as possible.thanks for any help

One would begin familiarization and understanding of the IL market, regulations, processes, and opportunities by first addressing medical, as adult use (cultivation and dispensary) will most likely closely mirror medical.

The draft adult use placeholder was filed the Thursday prior to Pitzker's inauguration, and that is what one (all) is waiting for to establish what the adult use will most likely look like.

That can be found here.

Sponsors and others have been addressing stakeholders seeking input, which of course prefers no additional licenses, and it seems more and more that is being realized as absurd, as existing are incapable of meeting medical demand , let alone adult use.

Note:
We have a substantial amount of work in Illinois, and as of late, given how it is unfolding, are deciding it will be a state of great focus for us. (#2 adult use market in nation after CA until NJ, NY, FL come into play, and IL most likely going to be first, although NJ is pretty close as their currently doing multiple additional ATC RFA's and adult use proceeding fairly quickly. (They almost had it done last year/2018. Just sticking points between Murphy and the rest).

One thing (IL) is certain:
Lot of opportunity for skilled, sound, experienced groups (as most/the majority are not ),with their only strengths so far being to attempt to control competition through control of limited licenses. Once open competition comes into play, the majority of existing stakeholders are definitely going to feel the pinch.

Advocates believe it’s an opportune time to propose legislation to legalize marijuana, with Democrats controlling the governor’s office and both legislative chambers.

Ammons has held her own meetings with stakeholders to craft her legislation, and said she isn’t trying to disrupt the Steans/Cassidy bill, but is trying to make sure that whatever bill is passed addresses damage done by imprisoning minorities at higher rates for drug offenses.

“The conversation needs to shift to how we’re going to address the disproportionate harm in our communities,” she said. “We want to make sure people who have been criminalized can become part of the economy.”

Steans and Cassidy still are negotiating with various parties such as other lawmakers, the governor’s office and law enforcement, and plan to introduce a bill by April.

“We’re working with a lot of organizations and the administration to do an updated draft of the bill,” Steans said. “It’s not going to pass before May. We may have several iterations to go to get a draft and negotiate again.”

As Michigan legalizes marijuana, the race is on with Illinois for 1st commercial sales in Midwest

One obvious difference between their proposal and Ammons’ is that they would limit residents to five home-grown plants, rather than 24, citing concerns by police about home-grown plants contributing to a black market.

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They also are not proposing consumption areas, due to problems seen elsewhere with odors and local opposition to marijuana “cafes.”

Like Ammons’ proposal, Steans and Cassidy would expunge certain nonviolent drug offenses, and encourage minority ownership of marijuana businesses and investment in minority communities.

As an indication of how various interests will fight over how to divvy up tax revenue from the new industry, Ammons’ bill would create a 10 percent excise tax on marijuana and send 30 percent of the proceeds to a state school fund; 50 percent to the General Fund; and 2.5 percent each to the State Employees Retirement Pension, Teachers Retirement System, State Universities Retirement System and to Illinois State Police, to hire and train drug enforcement officers.

Her bill would allow existing medical marijuana businesses to sell recreational pot as well, but she said the new program should include a majority of minority license holders. To prevent poorer entrepreneurs from being priced out, as with medical marijuana licenses, she would limit application and licensing fees to $5,000.

To present their proposals, both Ammons, and Steans and Cassidy, plan to hold town hall meetings on the issue before legislative hearings.

“It’s a big subject,” Ammons said. “We can’t rush it through.”

Opponents hope to make their voice heard at any upcoming hearings.

Brian Fengel, president of the Illinois Chiefs of Police Association, said his group members want to negotiate with legislators to minimize the danger from people driving while high, and they want funding to train local police on recognizing drugged driving.

In contrast to many black lawmakers, such as Ammons, the Illinois NAACP has been reported to oppose legalization.

Drugs have already done too much damage in minority communities, said Tim McAnarney, lobbyist for Healthy and Productive Illinois, a coalition of anti-marijuana organizations. “We don’t understand how putting more drugs into those communities is going to help them,” he said.

Decriminalization has already addressed overdue concerns about arrests for small amounts of marijuana, McAnarney said. He also supports new proposals to expunge past convictions as well.

If marijuana is legalized, the coalition hopes to at least eliminate home-grown pot, McAnarney said, because some of it will inevitably supply the black market. And the coalition adamantly opposes edible cannabis candies, soda pop and other treats that appeal to children.

Whatever legalization looks like, McAnarney said, it will never raise enough money for all the special interests fighting over a slice of the pie.

“There’s no amount of taxation,” he said, “that would raise enough money for all the people who think they’re going to benefit.”

rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com

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Twitter @RobertMcCoppin

Twitter @PetrellaReports

Good luck illinois. Looking like the little man might get fucked. You might not even get homegrows.

“I’m not certain there’s going to be any need for additional cultivation licenses,” says state Sen. Heather Steans, who is crafting the recreational bill along with state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a fellow Chicago Democrat. “We definitely don’t want an oversupply because we don’t want to encourage diversion” of marijuana across state lines to places where it remains illegal. Steans plans to commission a supply-and-demand study to determine how many licenses are needed.

Because we are going to be continuing to limit the number of licenses, you can get preferential treatment towards equity applicants," said Steans. "Giving additional points for diversity, diversity of ownership, diversity of the workforce, diversity of how you're spending your dollars on contractors and if you are a majority, if you're actually incubating and helping to grow an equity applicant."

They paid her well....

Verano holdings head:

Before leaping into Illinois' emerging marijuana business, Archos was a restaurateur who still owns four Wildberry Pancakes & Cafe locations. "We've like being in heavily regulated markets (like Illinois) because it weeds out the competitors," he says...

Good luck to the land of lincoln. Get the lube ready.

Say goodbye to rec home grows.

"It would allow households to grow up to five plants, but we are considering whether that should only be for medical patients at home. - Steans and Cassidy champaign town hall.

Sorry I am not being provocative but it seems being ex LEO is one of the sure fire ways
Of getting licensed,,,,
Perverse but it seems that way ,,,s2

The whole thing is sickening. They will still get to destroy peoples lives for growing a few plants at home while funneling people to their chosen few rec license holders who paid them off for the tax money. Legal in illinois is looking like a sick joke.

One thing you can always count on in Illinois, if it's not illegal it soon will be. Land of Lincoln my ass, more like Land of Laws. Illinois is a nanny state always has been. I'm guessing they will not allow homegrown. Illinois will be the most unfriendly recreational state in the country. They will give people all the more reason to leave the state other than high taxes, toll roads and government corruption etc. Bye bye Illinois.

Tonygreen said:

The whole thing is sickening. They will still get to destroy peoples lives for growing a few plants at home while funneling people to their chosen few rec license holders who paid them off for the tax money. Legal in illinois is looking like a sick joke.

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Sounds like business as usual in Illinois.

it is estimated that $170 million will be realized in fiscal year 2020,” the budget proposal states. “Initial license fees would be the same price as the current medical cannabis renewal fee of $100,000. Credits against future cannabis taxes would be equal to 1/5th of 90 percent of the license fee, reducing the economic cost of the licenses to a value closer to the fees in other states.”


Illinois. I feel bad for you. Looking like the greediest most perverse and corrupt implementation of "rec" yet.

That old chestnut “ watch out for what you wish for “ seems very relevant as “ normal growers not related to huge bucks seem like they are getting shagged ,left,right, and centre,,
Tax, license $$$$$$ etc,etc, ad infinitum ,,,,s2

Check out this gem....


Robert McCoppin
Chicago Tribune

Medical marijuana growers, once banned from making political contributions, are now spending money to influence the expected legalization of recreational cannabis in Illinois in an effort to keep that market to themselves — at least temporarily.
Leading members of the industry have formed a political action committee, hired a former state senator as a lobbyist and begun contributing to political office holders.
The aim is to limit cultivation licenses being issued to competitors if recreational pot is legalized. Critics say that would create a market that benefits a small number of growers at the expense of retail marijuana stores and the public. And it runs counter to a new study that finds that demand will race past the current capacity.

The state’s tightly regulated marijuana industry is expected to undergo huge growth if the drug is legalized for general use. Existing medical marijuana dispensaries are expected to be allowed to sell for recreational use as well, but because of the federal ban on marijuana, they must buy their supply only from licensed growers within the state. The Medical Cannabis Alliance of Illinois, which is seeking to limit the licenses, represents many of the cultivation centers and dispensaries, but the growers dominate funding of the lobbying.

The alliance’s efforts are not sitting well with some people within the industry.
“If you continue to have a limited number of (growers’) licenses, it’ll be more expensive, and you’ll get more people continuing to buy on the black market,” said Dan Linn, executive director of the pro-marijuana legalization group Illinois NORML, and general manager of Maribis medical cannabis dispensaries in Springfield and Chicago. “There’s a natural demand for more license holders.”



Former state Sen. Pam Althoff, the new executive director of the Medical Cannabis Alliance of Illinois, says existing medical growers should have a chance to show they can handle the coming boom in retail marijuana.
“My organization believes they have the current capacity to meet the demand,” she said. “Until we see substantive data that indicates differently, we support no new cultivation licenses.”

However, that position is undermined by findings of an ongoing study commissioned by state lawmakers and conducted by former Colorado state marijuana czars-turned-consultants Andrew Freedman and Lewis Koski.
"The study shows market demand in Illinois will quickly outstrip supply from (the) state’s existing licenses," according to a statement from the sponsors of the legalization legislation in the Illinois General Assembly.
The sponsors also advocate expanding the number of businesses in the industry.
“I’m committed to ensuring that this market is competitive – and that entrepreneurs from all communities have access to it,” said state Sen. Heather Steans, one of the sponsors.

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Medical cannabis growers, who already have been vetted by state regulators, want to be grandfathered in to get recreational licenses immediately and would like a ban on new licenses for a year or more. After Illinois lawmakers legalized medical marijuana in 2014, more than 300 groups applied to get business licenses, but only 16 growers ended up with licenses from state regulators. They currently supply pot for 55 medical dispensaries in the state.
The law expressly prohibited license holders or their political action committees from contributing to political candidates, to prevent the appearance of unfair influence. But that provision of the law was challenged and overturned by a federal judge in 2017.
Now, those companies are taking advantage of the change in the law. In August, medical cannabis businesses pooled their money to contribute more than $100,000 to create a new political action committee, the Illinois Relief Fund. Its top donors were some of the largest medical cannabis growers in Illinois — GTI Clinic Holdings, Cresco Labs and GTI Rock Island, each of which donated the maximum amount allowed, $22,200, on Nov. 22, 2018. WCCC, operating as Windy City Cannabis, also donated $22,000 that day, according to Reform for Illinois, a nonpartisan watchdog group that tracks state records.
Among other medical marijuana companies, Salveo Health & Wellness donated $7,500; and Nature’s Grace and Wellness, and PharmaCann each donated $5,000.



Medical cannabis license holders have also begun donating to individual office holders. Cresco Labs contributed $3,500 in 2017 to former state Rep. Lou Lang, who helped make the company’s existence possible by sponsoring the law that created the medical marijuana industry in Illinois.
Lang, a long-time Democrat representative from Skokie, resigned in January to join a lobbying firm led by Nancy Kimme, who was chief of staff for the late Republican state Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka.
Kimme's clients have included medical marijuana companies Cresco Labs, Custom Strains and Illinois Grown Medicine, state records show.
Cresco also contributed $1,000 to Citizens for Bridget Degnan, the former deputy director of the state’s medical cannabis program, who was elected Cook County commissioner in 2018.
In addition, Windy City Cannabis gave $2,500 to Friends of Don Harmon for State Senate. Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat, sponsored a new law that allows anyone who qualifies for prescription opioids to qualify for medical marijuana. The law, which took full effect this year, has begun to expand the business greatly.
Nationally, more than 1,200 marijuana growers and sellers have contributed nearly $6 million to political causes, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics.
Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which opposes legalization, said the contributions are not surprising.
“Legalization is always about money for a privileged few,” he wrote in an email. “It has little to do with social justice or state revenues. We need a balanced policy that doesn’t criminalize users but also doesn’t promote and commercialize high potency pot — which is exactly what this proposal would do. Their true colors are showing.”
Alisa Kaplan, policy director for Reform for Illinois, said the situation bears watching but is no different than legal lobbying by other industries.
“We’re concerned whenever there’s the possibility of undue influence that would diverge from the public interest, but we don’t know if that’s happening yet,” she said.
Kaplan is concerned, however, about revolving doors that allow former state lawmakers to begin working immediately as lobbyists. In this case, Althoff resigned her office in September, and became executive director and a lobbyist this year for the Medical Cannabis Alliance of Illinois. Althoff also ran unopposed and won a seat last fall on the McHenry County Board. Reform for Illinois supports at least a one-year ban on lawmakers who leave office before they start lobbying.
Althoff, who once voted against allowing medical marijuana before supporting it in 2014, said the medical cannabis industry in Illinois should serve as a model for the recreational programs in Illinois and nationwide. She emphasized that the program has had an excellent track record with the quantity, quality and safety of its products, with sales limited to qualified customers and no major diversions of marijuana to illegal markets.



Other states, like California, Oregon and Washington, have hundreds of licensed adult-use dealers, which have produced a glut of marijuana, Althoff said. That is both unsustainable for businesses and causes the excess to be sold illegally, she said.
However, when legal adult-use was rolled out elsewhere, as in Canada in 2018, Nevada in 2017 and Colorado in 2014, there was a severe lack of legal marijuana that in some cases prompted shortages even for medical patients. Some of that was due to problems attracting financing, issuing licenses, and getting the program up and running, but some observers predict supply problems may continue in Canada for months or longer.
Sponsors of the bill to legalize and tax marijuana, which would be for adults 21 and over, said they are negotiating with Gov. J.B. Pritzker, lawmakers, law enforcement, medical cannabis license holders and other stakeholders before introducing a proposal in March or April. If passed, it may take until 2020 before sales begin.
Medical growers pointed out that they have spent millions of dollars to build and operate cultivation enters and dispensaries, but have been losing money because the program is limited to people who have any of about 40 severe medical conditions. Previous constraints to the program, such as fingerprinting and criminal background checks of patients, have been removed, and the program has grown recently to about 55,000 patients, generating $136 million in sales last year.
State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a co-sponsor of the legalization legislation, emphasized that there will be new licenses for growing, transportation and processing of marijuana to ensure that minorities who were disproportionately criminalized by the war on drugs will participate in the industry and its benefits.
The state’s medical marijuana program required a lot of money to participate, with $2 million surety bonds and $200,000 licensing fees plus millions of dollars to build facilities, which limited participation, particularly by minorities.
To address minority participation, one proposal is to create smaller craft licenses of perhaps 7,000 square feet or less, in comparison with existing medical grow houses, the size of which is unlimited by state regulation.
“There are legitimate concerns about diversification and undue concentration,” Cassidy said. “That’s why we sought this study.”
Industry members argue that they’ve earned their place at the table. Larry O’Hern, chairman of the Medical Cannabis Alliance of Illinois, helps run the Nature’s Grace and Wellness growing warehouse on the family farm near downstate Vermont.
With his son and chief operating officer Timothy O’Hern qualifying as a patient with multiple sclerosis, and other family members using cannabis to treat epilepsy and cancer, he said, “We know first-hand what this medicine can do in our lives.”
He said the industry in Illinois has helped change public opinion and legitimized marijuana, even in conservative rural areas, by running a highly regulated program that’s become a model for other states.
Not all growers oppose new licenses. Mark de Souza, CEO of Revolution Enterprises, which grows marijuana in downstate Delavan, said he welcomes competition, as long as it maintains current testing to ensure truth in labeling, with contaminants below maximum allowed limits, and weekly random checks by regulators.
“The most important aspect is that the market does not grow faster than regulatory bodies can service,” he said.
Customers say they want more choice.
Legal marijuana costs too much, in the view of Eric Clements, 37, Ottawa, who said he is a disabled medical marijuana patient. He and his friends would like to break into the business, but he is on Social Security disability income and has to buy the cheapest “shake,” meaning the small crumbs left over from handling larger buds, for about $45 for a quarter ounce.
In addition to licensed growers, there is also the question of whether and how much people will be allowed to grow at home. A previous bill proposed five plants per home, which licensed med growers and law enforcement oppose. But advocates say that’s the only way to guarantee that people can afford the drug if it becomes legal.
“Prices are way too high,” Clements said, adding, “I know a lot of people who want to grow it.”

stoned2thebone said:

Does anybody happen to know where are you could consistently find the most up-to-date information on what they’re coming up with for licensing on owning a dispensary or to be a grower for recreational in Illinois? I know everything is in the works right now but I would like to stay as up-to-date as possible.thanks for any help

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As above, the starting point was/is medical, as most likely adult use licensing will mirror, but of note is Wednesday (March 20th) is the hearing and the bill is expected to be made available before then.

I have many opinions about it, and quite a bit of things others might not know, but I'll wait until it comes out to begin any ranting and judgement, as much of it unnecessary (as is always the case) and lot of things to be determined.

For those in southern (southern) Illinois, Missouri medical looking extremely promising and sure to hurt IL stakeholders near the southern/Missouri borders.

I have to say, one thing bothering me is many vocal about the prohibitive cost, and licensing fee's aside, which will be reduced, it's not cheap with any sort of regulatory in place. Be it cultivation or dispo, between inventory, security/IT, equipment, build outs, operating reserves, and location and site a big one,even if a deal on the last (reasonable lease), not going to be "cheap" per se....Places (dispo's) in IL right now with $200k-$700k in inventory alone, so....(And don't forget, not bankable and all cash only...)

Hey all, I recognize a few of the names from instagram. Mine is choppedinchicago .... haven't been on here for years.

It might be a counter opinion, but parts of the Illinois system are great. The worker protections are extremely strong and the way I look at it is like this:

Rauner sucked, he literally tried to veto the medical marijuana program twice and then tried to make it essentially not work. He did this by dissolving boards, limiting access, limiting qualifying conditions etc. We are in the position to influence this and turn it into something special. We can learn from the mistakes made and also take the successes of other states.

In the past few months, I have seen the IL market quality and prices drop big time. The next thing we need to do is lift the dispensary registration idiocy. If the dispensaries want to do something, its get rid of that. But they won't, because that helps them control prices.

Anyways, I have an extensive history with Cannabis. I am not the average consumer. But I look forward to discussion here.

I hear Two year med monoply.... 60 new craft cultivation licenses at what 3k sqft...
Bill dropping soon... Ive been saying this could be the greediest and worst rec implementation yet for a long time.
Now we are about to see.