Illinois announced 21 finalists for dispensary licenses
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation announced twenty-one out of the 700 groups that applied for licensing to operate recreational marijuana dispensaries have advanced to the final lottery phase.
The twenty-one groups will be competing for Illinois’ 75 marijuana dispensary licenses that will be awarded through a lottery system sometime after Sept. 18. But no date has been announced.
The complete list of applicants that made it to the tiebreaking phase can be seen here.
All twenty-one groups received perfect scores and qualify as social equity applicants.
The IDFPR reported that thirteen companies are majority owned by a person of color and seventeen of the qualifying applicants have at least one minority owner. Sixteen have at least one owner who’s a woman.
“We are extremely gratified that every license in this first round will go to a social equity applicant. Equity has been at the center of this legislation from day one of negotiations, as we worked to create a system that prioritizes social equity applicants and reinvests revenues in communities hit hardest by the war on drugs,” said Toi Hutchinson.
The licenses were initially set to be issued May 1 but were delayed.
The outside grading firm KPMG informed the 21 qualifying applicants after grading 1,667 applications.
Applicants with tied scores in each of the 17 regions will receive a single entry into a region’s lottery for each application they submitted.
Several of the qualifying applicants share the same owners and may be able to win up to 10 licenses in the lottery.
The announcement leaves several applicants who did not make the cut disappointed at the low number of qualifying applicants.
Illinois’ social equity rules awarded extra points on the scored applications to companies that were majority owned by a person who has a marijuana-related arrest on their record, lives in an area affected by the war on drugs or meets another qualification.
Companies could also employ at least 10 people that meet those qualifications to be considered a social equity applicant.
No new information on the delays of the awarding of 40 craft grow, 40 infuser, and transporter licenses have not been announce. Those licenses were to be awarded July 1.
For more Illinois licensing news, click here.