Illinois is the latest state to legalize Cannabis

Illinois, USA, 2019-Jul-14 — /EPR Network/ — Illinois, has become the 11^th state to officially legalize the use of recreational cannabis as of Tuesday, after Governor J.B Pritzker signed into power the regulatory bill that legislators passed at the end may this year.

Legal sales of recreational cannabis are set to commence on the first of January 2020. The difference in Illinois than most other US states, is the fact that other states have left the decision to legalize cannabis through a voter referendum, and have then finalized the details after the fact. However Illinois are the first state in the country to complete the legalization through the legislative process.

Governor Pritzker commented on this monumental move for cannabis by saying “We did something that no other state in the nation has been able to do.” Other states who are also looking to replicate the legalization method that we have seen in Illinois have so far been unable to pass a successful bill, leaving a large majority of people wondering who will become the next state in line to legalize cannabis.

Big names in the cannabis sector have had their say on who they believe will be the next to make the move with many different opinions. Canopy Growth CEO Bruce Linton alongside Acreage holdings CEO Kevin Murphy both agreed that New York will most probably be the next state to finalize a legalization bill, while CEO of Curaleaf Joe Lusardi has argued that New Jersey would be the next in line to change the state laws.

Lusardi said in a recent interview that “The electorate is going to go to the ballot box and continue to vote for cannabis laws, it’s going to get more popular every single month and I suspect we’ll have more medical states, more recreational states in 2020 and the pressure will mount on the federal government to address this issue.”

Jane Freeman – IEC International