A cannabis dispensary in Jacksonville is among 140 businesses awarded conditional licenses.
Gov.J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity issued 149 conditional adult-use dispensing organization licenses to cannabis businesses.
Included was Kush21, a dispensary planned to open by the end of the year at 1112 Veterans Drive. The store will be the first branch of the Kush21 chain located outside of Washington.
All the businesses given licenses Friday qualified as social equity applicants under the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act, with 41% being majority Black-owned and 4% being majority Latino-owned.
Businesses given a license have 180 days to select a physical location and obtain a full license, after which they can begin to sell marijuana.
“These licenses represent a significant step toward accountability for the decades of injustice preceding cannabis legalization,” Pritzker said. “Illinois will continue to deliver on the promises of putting equity at the forefront of this process.”
Adult-use cannabis has proven to be a lucrative business for Illinois, with the state reporting Monday that tax revenue from it had risen from $297.7 million to $445.3 million.
The governor also said total sales of cannabis had gone up by half a billion dollars and tax disbursements to local governments had increased by more than $63 million.
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