Social Equity

The industry has sold more than $715 million of marijuana in the nearly 7 months since recreational sales began in February. Adult-use products account for almost $550 million of that total.

The funding includes a new public safety center in St. Clair County along the MetroLink route and improvements to America’s Central Port in Granite City.

The license lottery comes more than a year after the state was supposed to award new licenses.

The provision would create two new lotteries for awarding licenses. Illinois was supposed to award 75 new dispensary licenses last year but the process faced backlash after many minority applicants weren’t included in the initial lottery.

The state still has to live up to its promises around racial equity.

Illinois has big goals to build non-white ownership in its new cannabis industry through new business licenses. But those goals are in peril now, because of delays to the licensing process. The longer applicants have to wait, the more money they have to spend to stay viable should they win one.