Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker took to the campaign trail over the weekend to stump for President Joseph Biden, taking advantage of the 420 weed high holiday as an opportunity to tout the cannabis policy reforms made by the current administration. At a campaign stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Saturday, Pritzker said that cannabis policy reform can have significant economic benefits in states that legalize marijuana for adults.

“I wanted to come up here on 4/20, because we, too, legalized cannabis in the state of Illinois, and I know that’s been a boon to not only state revenues but also to business and job creation in the state of Michigan,” said Pritzker, according to a report from Michigan Advance.

“To be blunt: we’re proud to have sparked a new industry when we legalized adult-use cannabis,” the governor added on X in a 420 tweet.

Joined by Michigan Democratic state Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, Pritzker said that legalizing marijuana in Michigan was just one of many Democratic victories in the state since 2018.

“You all have turned a state that was — let’s face it, a red state — into a purple state, and now a blue state,” Pritzker told the crowd. “There are so many other states in the country that should be following Michigan’s lead.”

The Illinois governor added that the progress made in Michigan did not come easy, encouraging the public to volunteer for the campaign and canvass voters to get out the Democratic message.

“It’s like the eighth-grade dance, for me, anyway. Sometimes you have to knock on three or four doors before you get somebody you can really talk to,” Pritzker said. “Because you’re willing to do that, you’re going to have somebody to dance with. You’re going to bring them to the dance.”

Biden Administration Reviewing Federal Weed Policy

In 2022, Biden issued an executive order pardoning thousands of low-level marijuana convictions and directed his administration to review the federal prohibition of cannabis. In August 2023, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine called on the Drug Enforcement Administration to change the classification of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. Under the 1970 legislation, the Schedule I classification indicates that a drug has no accepted medical value and a high propensity for abuse. Other drugs currently listed under Schedule I include heroin and LSD.

In January, the Department of Health and Human Services determined that marijuana is eligible for the less strict classification under federal drug laws, according to agency documents. As part of the review, researchers with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined that credible evidence shows that marijuana has legitimate medical uses and fits the criteria for rescheduling under the Controlled Substances Act.

At his Grand Rapids campaign stop, Pritzker noted that Biden is also busy supporting his bid for reelection against former president and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. The president spent much of last week campaigning in the battleground state of Pennsylvania and will be making additional stops to help secure the “blue wall” of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, three states that voted for Trump in 2016 but then switched to Biden four years later.

“Democrats need to win the blue wall states. It’s vitally important, and Joe Biden knows it,” Pritzker said. “One of the reasons we’re having the Democratic National Convention here in the Midwest is because he recognizes how important this is.”

“Michigan sits in the middle,” he added. “If we don’t win Michigan, we can’t win the presidency. And if we don’t win Michigan, this country is going to go backwards.” 

Pritzker referred to criticisms that both frontrunners are too old to be elected, arguing that Biden’s experience and character are attributes that will help him in office while suggesting that Trump is uncaring.

“People sometimes say Joe Biden’s old. But Donald Trump has proven that you can be old and not learn anything,” said Pritzker. “You can be old without having learned, throughout the course of your life, empathy for people across the United States. And that is Joe Biden; he wears empathy on his sleeve.”

Pritzker acknowledged that last week, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy won his bid to be added to the Michigan ballot for the general election in November. But the governor said he was not concerned that Kennedy would be a spoiler candidate that takes votes away from the current president.

“There’s only one candidate on the ballot who can win and beat Donald Trump, and that’s Joe Biden,” Pritzker said. “I don’t think having ballot access for Robert Kennedy is going to change the fact that people are going to go into the voting booths and know that they’re throwing away their vote if they vote Robert Kennedy, and that if they vote for Joe Biden they’re assuring that we’re not going to have Donald Trump as president.”

Pritzker continued his support for the president’s reelection campaign on Sunday, leaning into his belief that Kennedy’s candidacy would not hurt Biden.

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. being on the ballot in Michigan, I think is going to have a little effect on the ultimate result,” Pritzker said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” according to a report from The Hill. “People understand that there are really only two candidates that have a path to victory in this country and in Michigan. And, of course, that’s Joe Biden and Donald Trump.”

Both major political parties have yet to make their choice for president official. The GOP will meet at the Republican Convention being held in Milwaukee in July to nominate the party’s candidate for president, while Democrats will choose their nominee at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.

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A pair of newly opened recreational cannabis shops in Chicago have made history as the state of Illinois’ first two social equity marijuana dispensaries. 

CBS Chicago reports that Ivy Hall Damen, whose ownership team is 61% Black, opened its doors on Monday, while Green Rose Dispensary, whose “management team is two thirds Black and Latinx,” opened this past weekend. 

Ever since legal adult-use cannabis sales launched in Illinois at the start of 2020, “every dispensary that has opened [in the state] has been operated by ownership teams that are mostly white,” according to CBS Chicago. 

“We’ve been working to get a seat at the table for a while now, and we’re finally able to do that,” said Nigel Dandridge, the co-founder of Ivy Hall Damen, as quoted by CBS Chicago. “When this industry first opened up, we didn’t see anyone in our community benefiting, or even being able to participate. So it was kind of hypocritical.”

“I think it’s important that we can show you what we’re doing. We want everyone to benefit. Our staff’s been working hard, and we’re just excited to share it with everyone,” Dandridge added.

Social equity programs have become hallmarks of state-legal marijuana markets, with government officials mindful of the importance of offering economic opportunities to individuals and communities who have been disproportionately affected by pot prohibition. 

But Illinois had come under fire for its failure to provide dispensary licenses to members of the Black and Latino communities, despite the fact that the state had pledged to designate a significant number for such applicants.

In July, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration announced that it was issuing 149 conditional state licenses for adult-use cannabis retailers, all of which qualified as social equity applicants.

“Illinois is leading the way in addressing the War on Drugs as no state has before, and dispensary ownership that reflects our state’s diversity is a product of that commitment,” Pritzker said in a statement at the time. “These licenses represent a significant step toward accountability for the decades of injustice preceding cannabis legalization. Illinois will continue to deliver on the promises of putting equity at the forefront of this process.”

According to Pritzker’s office, of “the businesses selected through the lottery, 41% are majority Black-owned, 7% are majority White-owned, and 4% are majority Latino-owned, while 38% of awardees did not disclose the race of their owners.”

Last week, Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) announced that “$8.75 million in Direct Forgivable Loans fully financed by the State will be made available to all conditionally-approved social equity loan applicants in order to provide immediate access to capital,” and that “pending the completion of a simplified documentation process, forgivable loan amounts between $50,000-$500,000 will be released immediately.”

The Cannabis Social Equity Loan Program, according to Pritzker’s office, “is a first-of-its-kind program” that launched last year.

“Equity has always been at the core of our cannabis legalization process. It’s why we expunged hundreds of thousands low-level cannabis charges and instituted the Cannabis Social Equity Loan Program. But I know that if we want to create a truly equitable cannabis industry in Illinois, we must give our business owners the resources they need to grow—both figuratively and literally,” said Pritzker. “That’s why we are launching this Direct Forgivable Loan Program to provide a much-needed jumpstart for social equity applicants who’ve faced hurdles in pursuit of capital funding. This $8.75 million will help our social equity licensees open their doors for business—a major step towards creating a prosperous cannabis industry here in Illinois.”

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An Illinois judge last week lifted an injunction that barred the state from issuing licenses for recreational pot retailers after a delay that claimed the better part of a year. The ruling from Cook County Circuit Judge Michael Mullen potentially clears the way for state regulators to issue 185 licenses for adult-use cannabis dispensaries, although further legal action could put the process on hold again.

Mullen ordered the stay on issuing new licenses for recreational dispensaries last year after lawsuits against the process were filed by applicants who alleged that they were unfairly excluded from lotteries to award the permits. State cannabis regulators have since authorized a new lottery process to give the plaintiffs another chance to win a license.

Mullen lifted the stay on Friday, clearing the way for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) to award the 185 conditional adult-use cannabis dispensary licenses held up by the order to applicants selected in three lotteries that were held in 2021. In a statement released by the agency after the ruling, the IDFPR said that it would release detailed information on the next steps applicants must take after receiving guidance in a related case in federal court.

“Today is a key development toward our ultimate goal of creating the most diverse, inclusive, and robust adult use cannabis industry of any state in the country,” IDFPR secretary Mario Treto Jr. said in a statement from the agency. “We stand ready to swiftly move forward in ensuring Illinois’ standing as a national leader in the advancement of cannabis equity.”

Creating an Equitable Cannabis Industry in Illinois

Black and Latino entrepreneurs had argued that the state’s process for issuing adult-use cannabis licenses has failed to produce a regulated weed industry that reflects Illinois’ diversity. Under state law, the first 75 dispensary licenses were supposed to be awarded two years ago. But problems with scoring the applications resulted in only 21 applicants out of 700 qualifying to participate in a lottery to award the licenses.

Mullen lifted the stay after one of the plaintiffs in the litigation, WAH Group LLC, asked the court to end the ban on issuing new licenses. The company has won the rights to three licenses, making lifting the ban advantageous to the plaintiff.

Ryan Holz, an attorney who represents other businesses that have also won licenses and some applicants who were excluded from lotteries, praised the judge’s decision to lift the stay.

“People are super excited to move forward,” Holz told the Chicago Tribune.

But he warned that additional businesses left out of previous lotteries may ask for a new injunction. And in its request to the court, WAH Group noted that Cook County Judge Celia Gamrath has said that a separate cannabis business licensing case could take months or years of litigation to resolve.

In March, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that the IDFPR would be enacting new rules to simplify the dispensary application process and remove barriers for social equity applicants. Noting that the agency is required to issue another 50 recreational weed dispensary licenses by the end of the year, the governor’s office said that the “Pritzker Administration is committed to ensuring the new legal cannabis industry reflects the diversity of the state.”

“From day one, Illinois has been dedicated to leading the nation in an equity-centric approach to legalizing cannabis, and these proposed changes to the application process will make it much easier for social equity applicants to pursue licenses,” Pritzker said at the time. “I appreciate all the feedback we have received from stakeholders since the start of the cannabis program, whose work informed this proposal and is continuing to make Illinois’ growing cannabis industry the most equitable in the nation.”

The IDFPR noted in its statement last week that the department is working to finalize plans for three corrective lotteries to award cannabis business licenses, one for each of the lotteries held in 2021, that are scheduled for next month. Details on those lotteries will be released on the agency’s website once plans are finalized.

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