Marijuana Legalization

Some industry leaders say it's time to build on the momentum of the booming medical marijuana market, but others worry the campaigns are premature.

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.

Missouri’s medical marijuana industry is faring well since the first dispensaries opened their doors last October. Today, more than 100,000 patients and caregivers use and purchase medical cannabis in the state.

Illinois generated around $175 million in tax revenue from cannabis in 2020, and 25% of that money goes back to communities in the form of grants.

The Fairview Heights City Council voted 8-1 Wednesday to approve the dispensary near the intersection of Interstate 64 and Illinois Route 159. Ascend Illinois can now move forward with opening its second dispensary in the region at 114 Commerce Lane, a defunct Babies R Us store, in the main shopping district.

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.

The campaign to put recreational marijuana on the 2020 Missouri ballot is over. Organizers with Missourians for a New Approach said COVID-19 is to…

2020 will be a year of new marijuana laws. Illinois became the 11th state to legalize recreational marijuana on Jan. 1, six years after Colorado first started recreational sales. Missouri begins medical marijuana sales later in the year — likely this spring — and thousands of residents have already received certification cards.

COLLINSVILLE — The first day of 2020 has been highly anticipated for many — from baby boomers who remember smoking pot before the government declared the…

New laws allowing recreational use of cannabis in Illinois are explicit in their parameters, but local law enforcement agencies are grappling with what…