Ian Sane (CC BY 2.0)
February 2, 2015 by Carla K. Johnson via The Cannabist:
CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner awarded licenses Monday to dozens of medical marijuana businesses across the state after conducting an internal review that found flaws in the never-completed license award process under former Gov. Pat Quinn.
Letters to 18 winning cultivation centers and 52 retail shops were sent out Monday afternoon, Rauner spokesman Lance Trover told The Associated Press. In eight districts, Rauner delayed the licenses for further review, leaving those jurisdictions awaiting word on which companies will be able to join what could be a $ 36 million industry in 2016.
“I believe the right companies were rewarded,” said Tim McGraw, CEO of ACE Revolution Cannabis, which won licenses to build marijuana-growing facilities in the Illinois cities of Delavan and Barry. “We’re excited to get to work to bring safe medicine to the patients of Illinois.”
Letters sent to the cultivation center winners from the Department of Agriculture inform them of a number of conditions. Businesses will need to pay a license fee, for example, and they’ll be subject to ongoing oversight during the startup process.
The license awards follow many weeks of uncertainty after the Quinn administration failed to meet its own deadline of issuing the permits by the end of 2014. The Democrat announced the morning of Rauner’s inauguration that he would leave the issue for the Republican to decide.
The Associated Press reported last week, based on documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request, that Quinn’s office was scrambling to decide whether to issue licenses on the eve of him leaving office. The Rauner administration launched its review of the process almost immediately.
Medical patients had been pushing Quinn to issue the licenses. Rauner’s action Monday means that Illinois’ first legal marijuana crop could be harvested this year. It’s not immediately clear how long it will be before patients will have access to the first legal cannabis.
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