State officials have identified areas of Illinois where applicants to grow and sell marijuana legally would get preference under the law's social equity provision.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker's administration on Monday released a map showing 683 Census tracts considered "disproportionately impacted" by past marijuana enforcement. Two million people live in these areas that had higher-than-typical rates of arrests, conviction and incarceration for marijuana, along with poverty.
Those areas include the Carbondale, Murphysboro, Marion, Mt. Vernon, Harrisburg and Olney areas.
The state on Tuesday begins accepting a new round of applications for marijuana cultivators, dispensaries and more. Applicants with majority ownership of the proposed enterprise who have lived in one of these areas for five of the past 10 years or have been arrested for certain marijuana offenses will get additional points when the applications are scored.
