The top official overseeing Illinois’ cannabis policy is leaving the public sector to join the weed lobby. 

Toi Hutchinson, who has served as a senior adviser to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker for cannabis control, announced this week that she will be taking a job with the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), billed as the “the number one organization in the U.S. dedicated to legalizing cannabis,” as the group’s new president and CEO.

“I’m pleased to be joining the team at MPP, where I will continue my years-long effort to develop and support cannabis legalization legislation that centers on equity and repairing the harms of the past,” Hutchinson said in a press release on Wednesday. “We are incredibly proud of the hard work and lessons learned in Illinois, standing up programs to invest in equity entrepreneurs, reinvesting in communities and clearing hundreds of thousands of arrests and criminal records.”

Pritzker, a Democrat, saluted Hutchinson on Twitter.

“For over two years, Toi Hutchinson has been my foremost advisor on cannabis: making Illinois’ industry the most equitable in the country,” Pritzker said in a tweet on Monday. “While I’m sad to see her go, it was an honor to have her lead this charge. Toi, Illinois is a better state because of your public service.”

A former Democratic state senator in Illinois, Hutchinson, was appointed to the cannabis advisory role in Pritzker’s administration back in 2019. The Chicago Tribune reported at the time that the governor’s administration had initially defined Hutchinson’s role as “Illinois cannabis regulation oversight officer,” which was often referred to as the state’s “pot czar.”

But Hutchinson’s title was eventually changed to “senior adviser to the governor on cannabis control.” As The Tribune reported then, it was “unclear when the decision was made to give Hutchinson the senior adviser title,” but that “appointing her to the job created in legislation she voted on could have run afoul of the state constitution.”

Whatever the reasoning, Hutchinson’s has been an omnipresent figure in the state’s rollout of the recreational cannabis program, which was created when Pritzker signed the historic legislation into law in the summer of 2019.

Illinois Focuses on Equity

Along with clearing the way for cannabis sales, Illinois’ new law has also resulted in thousands of pardons for individuals who were previously busted and convicted on low-level pot charges.

After signing the bill, Pritzker said that the new law would herald an end to “the 50-year-long war on cannabis,” and restore the “rights to tens of thousands of Illinoisans.”

“Illinois has done more to put justice and equity at the forefront of this industry than any other state in the nation, and we’re ensuring that communities that have been hurt by the war on drugs have the opportunity to participate,” Pritzker said last year. 

Hutchinson echoed that.

“I’m proud to work with Governor Pritzker in creating equity in the cannabis industry in a way that no other state has done,” Hutchinson said at the time. “By expunging hundreds of thousands of cannabis-related records, reinvesting the money spent on adult-use cannabis in Illinois into communities that are suffering and making equity a central focus of the cannabis licensure process, the administration is ensuring that no community is left out or left behind.” 

The new program has also brought a windfall to Illinois, with the state reporting that it generated $582,226,511.45 in revenue from recreational pot sales in 2020, its first full year since the new law took effect. 

Hutchinson said that the “successful launch of the Illinois legal cannabis industry represents new opportunities for entrepreneurs and the very communities that have historically been harmed by the failed War on Drugs.”

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Yesterday was the deadline for the comment period on the draft version of the federal cannabis reform bill, the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA), and cannabis advocacy groups did not disappoint—with an avalanche of commentary rolling in before the time was up.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) signed on as lead sponsors for a sweeping bill to end the prohibition of cannabis at the federal level.

The draft version of the measure was released in July, which led to an open public comment period giving people time to weigh in on what will be the revised measure.

Several well-known cannabis advocacy organizations such as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) and the Marijuana Policy Project (MMP) released their comments.

The Marijuana Justice Coalition opted to send a joint letter on the legalization proposal. The Marijuana Justice Coalition is made up of members including the ACLU, Center for American Progress, Drug Policy Alliance, Human Rights Watch, Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights, MoveOn, Students for Sensible Drug Policy and United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

In a 30-page comment document, NORML called for strengthening civic protections to provide justice to those previously wronged by federal marijuana criminalization and revising outdated employment policies. The organization also called for ensuring that small and local businesses can compete both with larger corporations and the illicit market by reducing regulatory and tax burdens. NORML also asked to narrow the scope of the proposed excise tax to exempt medical cannabis consumer markets and balance the roles of the FDA, TTB, ATF and antitrust regulators.

“We appreciate the leadership by Senators Schumer, Booker, and Wyden in their efforts to end America’s failed, unjust, and racially biased experiment with cannabis prohibition. The CAOA draft represents a thoughtful path forward toward ending federal marijuana criminalization. We are confident that similar language, once finalized and formally introduced in the US Senate, will possess bipartisan appeal — as we know that voters of all political parties strongly support repealing the federal government’s failed marijuana policies,” said NORML Political Director Justin Strekal. 

The summary of NORML’s discussion draft can be read here.

MPP also stressed the importance of easing restrictions on medical cannabis patients. MPP outlined two major areas of concern: the possible upending of state licensing and regulatory systems, which does nothing but drive sales underground, and the impact on medical cannabis access, including for those under the age of 21.

“We are grateful for the leadership of Sens. Booker, Schumer, and Wyden to end an eight-decades long policy failure and appreciate the opportunity to provide feedback as the sponsoring offices refine the bill,” said Karen O’Keefe, state policies director at MPP. Federal prohibition urgently needs to end. It has wasted billions of dollars while upending tens of thousands of lives—disproportionately those of Black and Brown Americans—over a plant that is safer than alcohol.

The NCIA stated that the CAOA presents a “thoughtful foundation for comprehensive cannabis policy reform that clearly illustrates the authors’ engagement with stakeholders during the drafting process.” Read the NCIA’s full draft of recommendations here.

“Ending nearly a century of disastrous prohibition policies is a monumental effort and one which should not be taken lightly,” said Aaron Smith, co-founder and chief executive officer of NCIA. “We appreciate Senate leadership for taking a big step toward that goal which a significant majority of Americans support. There is a lot of work left to be done and it is vital to include those most impacted by both prohibition and the proposed legislation in this process.”

The wave of commentary represents the importance of the bill and how the industry hinges upon those fine details.

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