Marijuana is expected to be sold legally in Illinois for the first time in decades Monday to those who have qualified to be among the first patients in the state’s medical cannabis program. Illinois first approved a medical marijuana pilot program in 2013.
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The dispensaries that will open November 9 are in Marion, Mundelein, Canton, Quincy, Addison, Aurora, Schaumburg, and Ottawa. Patients have had to endure a lot of waiting as the state set up rules for the medical marijuana, licensed medical marijuana growers and distributors, and after that, had to wait for the medical marijuana to be actual grown and sent to licensed dispensaries to be distributed. About 18 grow houses and 60 dispensaries are authorized to operate under the state’s four-year pilot program, scheduled to end in 2018. Here’s a list of the names of those centers and their locations.
For more than 3,300 registered medical marijuana patients in the state, access to cannabis is long overdue. She’s telling her 4-year-old son that marijuana is a natural medicine. Colorado, one of 14 states to allow use of medical marijuana, has experienced an explosion in marijuana dispensaries, trade shows and related businesses in the previous year as marijuana use becomes more mainstream.
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Yet even so, MCAI says it has already helped hundreds of patients in Illinois successfully apply for ID cards. More than 25,000 people have begun the application process, according to a program report.
