{"id":333,"date":"2021-07-30T19:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenentrepreneur.com\/article\/378938"},"modified":"2021-07-30T19:30:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T19:30:00","slug":"everythings-coming-up-green-in-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/?p=333","title":{"rendered":"Everything’s Coming Up Green In Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From Lollapalloza sales to even more dispensary licenses going out, there’s more legal marijuana in the Land of Lincoln than ever. <\/p>\n

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Free Book Preview<\/span> Cannabis Capital<\/em> <\/h2>\n

Learn how to get your business funded in the Cannabis economy!<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur<\/em> contributors are their own. <\/p>\n

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With sales expected to spike<\/a> for the Lollapalooza \u2014 this is the first time in the Chicago music festival\u2019s history that weed is legal in the state \u2014 and 55 new licensees getting the go-ahead to open dispensaries, it looks like everything’s coming up green in Illinois this week.<\/p>\n

Recreational weed became legal in Illinois<\/a> on January 1, 2020. Back then there were only a handful of marijuana retail stores, but that\u2019s steadily increased. <\/p>\n

In fact, 55 new licenses were recently awarded<\/a> as the result of a statewide lottery. There were more than 626 applicants in 17 different regions. That\u2019s on top of the 110 approved in 2020. Even if it was a bit of a messy process<\/a> making marijuana legal in the Land of Lincoln \u2014 the law went into effect right before COVID-19 shutdowns, which caused delays in licensing by the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation \u2014 it’s a success story. <\/p>\n

According to the Chicago Tribune<\/i>, \u200btotal sales reached $1.03 billion<\/a> in Illinois last year, including $669 million in recreational weed and more than $366 million in medical sales. Through June, the state is on pace to generate $1.65 billion in sales for 2021.<\/p>\n

Chicago dispensaries have stocked up for the big Lolla weekend, increasing both product and staff to take on the extra business. While people are technically prohibited from smoking and vaping by the Chicago Park District, there\u2019s little doubt cannabis will be as popular as the music lineup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t speak to what the rules for Lolla are specifically,\u201d Jason Erkes of Chicago-based Cresco Labs, a large multistate cannabis operator, told the Tribune<\/i><\/a>. \u201cBut I can tell you that cannabis and music festivals go as far back as Woodstock over 50 years ago. And I wouldn\u2019t expect that this year\u2019s Lolla will be any different.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Lollapalloza sales to even more dispensary licenses going out, there’s more legal marijuana in the Land of Lincoln than ever. Free Book Preview Cannabis Capital Learn how to get your business funded in the Cannabis economy! July 30, 2021 2 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. With sales expected to spike for the Lollapalooza \u2014 this is the first time in the Chicago music festival\u2019s history that weed is legal in the state \u2014 and 55 new licensees getting the go-ahead to open dispensaries, it looks like everything’s coming up green in Illinois this week…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marijuana_information"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}