A rocky transition between administrations is causing further delays in issuing medical marijuana licenses to patients. Under the 2013 state law legalizing medical marijuana in Illinois, state agencies were required to score and rank applications for the 21 facilities that would be allowed to grow medical marijuana and 60 of the retail stores that would be licensed to sell it.
Recently released internal documents show that the former administration of Governor Pat Quinn evaluated and ranked license applications for growers and dispensaries before leaving office, but for unknown reasons never announced their choices. The internal documentation revealed a sometimes dysfunctional selection process that critics have called secretive and open to favoritism.
Quinn’s administration left the licensing process for Rauner to complete, but the new governor says that his office will need to perform a legal review of how Quinn’s administration evaluated applications before it can complete that process.