House Dems’ cannabis working group will engage industry, equity
advocates
Send a link to a friend
[February 25, 2023]
By NIKA SCHOONOVER
Capitol News Illinois
nschoonover@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois House Democrats announced the formation of a
cannabis working group Thursday that will aim to steer the burgeoning
industry’s expansion in a business-friendly way while still satisfying
the equity goals of the landmark 2019 legalization law.
The group is led by Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, who has sponsored
numerous cannabis-related bills and is an outspoken advocate for racial
equity.
The working group’s main priority, according to Ford, is to make sure
individuals who have invested in the newly-created industry are
successful. A part of that is to address the disproportionate impact the
war on drugs had on communities of color, particularly when it comes to
cannabis-related arrests.
According to the ACLU, Black people in Illinois were 7.5 times more
likely than white people to be arrested for cannabis-related offenses
prior to the state’s decriminalization of the drug in 2016.
The same law that legalized recreational cannabis use in 2019 also made
individuals previously charged with minor cannabis offenses eligible to
have their records expunged. At the end of 2020, Gov. Pritzker announced
492,129 cannabis-related convictions had been expunged and 9,219
low-level cannabis convictions had been pardoned.
The recreational cannabis law was also designed to give “social equity”
applicants – or those whose ownership consists of minorities, people
with drug convictions or individuals hailing from disproportionately
impacted areas – easier access to new dispensary licenses.
“Our goal was to make sure that those communities that were hardest hit
by the war on drugs actually were able to benefit from this industry by
having the ability to open up in those communities and hire people from
those communities,” Ford said in an interview.
Ford was the sponsor of House Bill 1443 in the previous General
Assembly, a measure that created 110 additional “social equity”
dispensary licenses beyond the initial 75 created by the original
legalization law.
Over 30 cannabis-related bills have already been filed in the current
General Assembly which began in January, addressing areas including
licensing, distribution of cannabis tax revenue and the expungement of
past offenses. The working group will comb through these measures to
more effectively address the industry’s most pertinent issues.
Illinois recorded a record-high $1.5 billion of recreational cannabis
sales in Fiscal Year 2022, generating about $445 million in tax revenue.
Under law, 25 percent of the taxes collected from recreational cannabis
sales are to go to economically distressed communities or those impacted
by the war on drugs. In Fiscal Year 2022, about $115 million in tax
revenue went to the state’s General Revenue Fund.
Beyond an equity focus, Ford said the working group will also aim to
make state policy more accommodating to the industry from a business
perspective.
“We have to make sure that we legislate with the industry because they
are the investors,” Ford said. “If we could empower the businesses, it’s
going to mean more revenue, and we’re going to realize what we intended
for the [cannabis legalization] law to do. And that is increase
employment, develop communities, reduce crime in the state.”
[to top of second column]
|
Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, is
pictured at a Capitol news conference earlier this month. The
Illinois House Democrats announced this week he will lead a new
working group on cannabis industry reforms. (Credit:
Blueroomstream.com)
Ford is joined on the working group by Assistant Majority Leader Marcus
Evans, D-Chicago; Assistant Majority Leader Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora;
Assistant Majority Leader Bob Rita, D-Blue Island; Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz,
D-Glenview; Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago; and Rep. Bob Morgan,
D-Deerfield.
They’ll work with other lawmakers, state agencies, businesses and
associations that work directly with the cannabis industry.
One of the involved organizations is the Cannabis Business Association
of Illinois, a statewide trade association for cannabis businesses.
The association’s legislative priorities include re-implementing
curbside pickup and drive-thru services after pandemic-era measures
expired, decoupling Illinois’ cannabis tax code from the federal tax
code, and extending the right to work in the medical cannabis industry
for those who have previous cannabis-related convictions.
“Currently, the recreational statute allows individuals with previous
drug convictions to gain access to the cannabis industry,” Pamela
Althoff, executive director at the Cannabis Business Association of
Illinois, said in an interview. “That is prohibited in the compassionate
and medical statute. We’d like to see both of them mirrored.”
The Cannabis Equity Illinois Coalition, a grassroots nonprofit that
advocates for cannabis-related reform, has their own priorities for the
legislative session, including expanding support for the craft grow
industry, creating a singular cannabis oversight commission to
streamline cannabis programs, and creating licenses for clubs and
lounges so people other than homeowners are able to legally consume
cannabis.
“The goal is moving away from having 13-plus state agencies who are not
talking to each other,” Peter Contos, deputy director of the coalition,
said in an interview. “We need one cannabis body who just does all the
work, similar to what the state did with the liquor commission.”
Evans and Ford have both introduced bills – House Bills 1436 and 1498 –
to create a cannabis oversight commission. Contos said the coalition is
currently trying to work with both lawmakers to reach an agreement on
the legislation.
Contos added they’re excited to be involved with the working group
because it shows there’s a concerted effort to continue cannabis-related
reforms.
“We have a long way to go in Illinois to get back to the goals we set a
few years ago when we legalized [cannabis] but this is definitely the
first step we need to take,” Contos said.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news
service covering state government. It is distributed to more than 400
newspapers statewide, as well as hundreds of radio and TV stations. It
is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R.
McCormick Foundation.
|