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Law360 (September 3, 2020, 9:17 PM EDT) -- After a delay attributed to the coronavirus pandemic, Illinois is now ready to hand out the first wave of retail marijuana licenses to new operators, the state agency overseeing the licenses said Thursday.
The Illinois Department of Professional and Financial Regulation has reviewed the applications for 75 retail licenses and determined the top scorers, who will be part of a lottery to receive conditional licenses later this month, according to department spokesperson Chris Slaby. The top-scoring applications come from just 21 different companies, according to data released by the department.
Illinois, which legalized marijuana for adult use at the start of the year, has so far only licensed its existing medical marijuana retailers to sell recreational pot. This round of licenses, which were originally scheduled to be awarded in May, gives new entrants to the industry — including businesses applying under the state's social equity rules — their first shot.
In late April, the department announced that it would not be able to meet the May 1 deadline to award the 75 licenses. And in June, the Illinois Department of Agriculture announced that it too wouldn't be able to meet a July 1 deadline to award a batch of craft grower, infuser and transport licenses.
There is no update from the Department of Agriculture on when its licensing process will get rebooted. But the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation expects to award its 75 retail licenses in a lottery this month, although no specific date has been set, Slaby said.
The state is divided into 17 regions for the marijuana licensing process, with caps on the number of licenses that can be awarded in each. On Thursday, the department released a list of applicants in each region, all of which received perfect scores and are tied.
The department will hold a lottery for each region to determine which among the tied applicants will receive the conditional licenses. Businesses with a conditional license must pass a final inspection and pay a registration fee before they can begin selling, according to the department.
Some businesses waiting to receive the licenses have been stuck paying rent and other expenses on the properties where they hope to open their shops or grows, raising the risk that some applicants might not have the finances to make it to the finish line, business owners and advocates have told Law360.
But for the medical marijuana businesses that grandfathered into Illinois' recreational marijuana market, the Prairie State has seen adult-use marijuana sales climb from just under $40 million in January to over $60 million in July, according to state data.
--Editing by Alanna Weissman.
Correction: This story incorrectly listed the number of businesses allowed to enter the lottery. The error has been corrected.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
