Illinois DPH to Revise Medical Marijuana Law

The state of Illinois has announced that they will ease up on a few of the guidelines in regards to the newly formed medical marijuana industry there. The changes will make it easier for patients to gain cards; however, they do plan on increasing the financial requirements for people looking to set up cultivation centers.

A few of the positive changes that will affect potential patients include: changing the annual fee from $150 to $100 as well as doing away with the clause that banned any gun owner from obtaining a medical marijuana card.

As far as the business side is concerned, lawmakers have decided to allow for 21 cultivation licenses and 60 dispensary licenses to be given out. The new law would also allow an individual business to be granted up to five of the dispensary licenses and 3 cultivation licenses. Along with these positives comes a bit of a bummer as far as fees are concerned. Under previous law, hopeful applicants were required to show up to $250,000 in liquid assets. Now, they are required to prove $500,000 in assets thus making the amount of potential applicants much smaller.

The Department of Public Health also stated they will remove controversial language that would have required firearm owners to give up their firearms owner ID cards in order to get a medical marijuana card.

Illinois hopes to gain some public insight before finalizing any of these proposed rules later this summer.