February 28, Illinois Rep. Marcus C. Evans, Jr. filed with the House of Representatives Clerk’s Office an amendmentto Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act to create a Cannabis Equity and Oversight Commission. The proposed bill would consolidate the current oversight agencies (Financial and Professional Regulation, Illinois Departments of Agriculture, Public Health, and Illinois State Police) into one Cannabis Equity and Oversight Commission.

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The nearly 400-page bill

• Provides that the Commission shall administer and enforce the provisions of the Act relating to the oversight, licensing, registration, and certification of dispensing organizations, cultivation centers, craft growers, infuser organizations, transporting organizations, laboratories, and agents, including, but not limited to, the issuance of identification cards and establishing limits on the potency or serving size of cannabis or cannabis products.
• Provides that the Commission may suspend or revoke the license of, or impose other penalties upon, dispensing organizations, cultivation centers, craft growers, infuser organizations, transporting organizations, laboratories, and their principal officers, agents-in-charge, and agents for violations of this Act or any rules adopted under this Act.
• Contains other provisions. Changes and inserts provisions of the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Program Act into the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act as its own Article. Repeals the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Program Act.
• Makes conforming changes throughout various Acts.
• Effective July 1, 2022.

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The proposed amendment was referred to the Rules Committee March 1, and though the legislation has little chance for passage on its own before April 30 ends the session, the amendment could be inserted into different bill making its way through legislative passage.

For information about more proposed amendments to the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act, click here.

For more Illinois cannabis industry news, click here.