Social Equity Applicants Urge Pritzker To Hold Pot Shop Lottery

CHICAGO — Social equity applicants for state licenses to sell cannabis gathered at a West Side restaurant Wednesday to urge Gov. J.B. Pritzker to quickly sign a recently passed bill authorizing a trio of new lotteries to divvy up pot shop permits.

The group of about two dozen hopeful marijuana merchants was joined by the sponsor of House Bill 1443, State Rep. LaShawn Ford (D-Chicago), and former state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, the governor's top cannabis advisor.

The bill passed the Illinois House and Senate last week in bipartisan votes, and the governor said he was grateful to its sponsors and looked forward to signing it into law.

“Equity is at the core of cannabis legalization in Illinois, and this essential legislation will accelerate our collective vision to make sure that the communities harmed the most by the war on drugs can participate in this industry as it grows,” Pritzker said in a statement after the Senate voted 50-3 Friday to approve it.

The law that legalized the possession and retail sale of recreational marijuana in Illinois last year established a dispensary license application scoring system that gave points to those it defined as "social equity applicants" in an effort to diversify the cannabis industry.

But no new licenses have been issued using the system, leaving a handful of companies with almost complete control of the state's 55 licenses, each of which allows for two locations.

As of last year, out of the 219 people with an ownership industry in Illinois dispensaries, two were Hispanic and just one was African-American, according to state regulators.

"There will never be true social equity in this industry. It just can't happen," Ford said. "Because this state, and this country has allowed the horses to get out of the gate and it's too late. But what it's not too late for is for groups like this to have inclusion and to make money and to have competition. Because I do believe that they will be the best owners in the industry."

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Hutchinson said the bill was part of an ongoing fight to dismantle nearly a century of drug policy that has kept Black people locked up and locked out of the legal weed business. She said the courts, legislature and executive branches of state government are all responding to people demanding a place at the table.

"That is unheard of for almost any other thing in the history of us," Hutchinson said.

"The governor is thrilled we're at this day. I am thrilled that we're at this day, even though I know that the promised land we're all trying to get to is still a ways off, and it's going to require work. It's going to require not taking our eyes off the prize. It's going to require all of us working together even when it's hard, because that's when it's most important. It's easy to stand in a room when everybody's applauding. It is really hard to be there standing when folks are throwing rocks."

Applicant Willie "J.R." Fleming, an anti-eviction activist and founder of the South Westside Coalition For Change and the nonprofit Hemp for Hoods, said the delay in issuing licenses has been costly.

"This is an emergent industry, the industry in which I was convicted — arrested 16 times for selling marijuana. I have the right to participate in the legal selling of a drug, which a lot of my brothers still in the federal penitentiary. Today the governor of the state of Illinois has an opportunity to show the country that we are beyond corruption," Fleming said.

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In executive orders tied to his ongoing COVID-19 disaster declaration, Pritzker last year suspended deadlines to issue licenses that lawmakers had included in the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act. State regulators then outsourced the scoring process to the consulting firm KPMG, with the resulting scores the subject of ongoing litigation in Cook and Sangamon county circuit courts.

"Gov. Pritzker, we ask that you not only sign this bill, but expedite the process for the lottery," Fleming said. "People are losing money on a daily basis. There's no [Paycheck Protection Program] for cannabis. There's no economic assistance for cannabis like there should be."

Edie Moore, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, praised the passage of Ford's bill.

"This bill's going to be very impactful to small, independent, Black- and Brown-owned cannabis license holders, ancillary businesses and their employees, because it will immediately ensure increased overall racial equity and inclusion in the cannabis space in our state," Moore said. "We're changing the face of the industry, and I, for one, cannot wait to see what all those colors are going to look like."

Moore is a partner with multiple dispensary applicant groups that were among the 21 entities that had qualified for the lottery by earning a perfect score under the initial regulations, which required having a veteran as a majority shareholder.

One of the ongoing lawsuits challenging the state's licensing process, filed last year by a group of five applicants, has been temporarily stayed. An attorney representing the five plaintiffs in the case last week said the same legal issues raised in the group's September 2020 compliant were still at play under the new bill, but whether the litigation would continue has yet to be determined.

Ford said cannabis equity advocates had set an example of how to pass legislation in Illinois that benefits people of diverse backgrounds.

"As long as I've been in Springfield there's never been an issue that [more] brought Black people together to demand better for Black people. This is the issue, and it's a model for what we can do as a people to change the lives of Black people and to change the trajectory of Black lives," Ford said.

"These businesspeople realize that they're not guaranteed to be a dispensary owner. But what they want is a guarantee to be treated fairly and an opportunity to have a fair shot at this industry."

Ford's bill also created a new social equity applicant-focused lottery for five more medical licenses, which each allow for two dispensaries. While the bill's sponsor said he hoped the state would expedite that lottery, since it is not tied to any legal challenges, the governor's advisor said it would require a new application process.

Related: Jackpot: Pot Shop Lottery Reform Plan Passes Illinois House

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Hutchinson said Wednesday that she expected state officials to announce updated, final scores within a few days. She said state officials had not delayed the scoring review until after the passage of the updated bill.

"This is complicated, and very late coming. The reason we needed the legislation was to be authorized to do these next two lotteries," she said. "We have lawsuits tied to the first lottery. Everybody knows that. And that has to work its way through the court system, and everybody knows that. These [new lotteries] are not tied to that. These are a different bunch than the statute originally called for.

"I know that we relaxed some deadlines, but you know, now, June 2, is very different than when we were under statewide executive orders for a pandemic," she added. "We're not currently in that situation."