The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) announced today that, because of a technical error, an outdated Cannabis Dispensary License application for the Social Equity Criteria Lottery (SECL) was made available through the IDFPR online portal. IDFPR closed the online portal and is working to ensure the correct application is made available.

IDFPR will announce when the application window is re-opened and anticipates that it will be fully functional in the coming days. IDFPR will extend the application window appropriately so that all potential applicants have the same amount of time to apply. IDFPR became aware of the incorrect application information on the evening of January 30, 2023. Upon confirmation of this error, IDFPR removed the application from the portal and immediately sought information as to its source.

The announcement states, “The Department (IDFPR), in conjunction with its third-party vendor, prepared and tested for the successful upload of the application. Unfortunately, due to a glitch upon deployment, the outdated version of the application launched.”

A limited number of applications were already submitted. IDFPR is contacting these applicants to ensure that they instead complete and submit the correct application. These applicants will not have to submit a new application fee. IDFPR apologizes for any inconvenience this may have caused.

The announcement also states, “IDFPR remains committed to the integrity of the SECL and this application process. We have worked to streamline this new process to create an accessible and straight-forward application for this new round of dispensary licensing and will continue our best efforts to accomplish this goal. We have also received assurances from our third- party vendor of steps they will take to avoid this situation from arising in the future.”

As a reminder, the correct application will closely follow this mock application, available here. For more Illinois cannabis industry news, visit here.

To learn about cannabis-friendly events in Illinois, visit here.

For Illinois News Joint reviews, visit here.