In this episode of The Cole Memo, host Cole Preston sits down with fellow advocate and friend, Phillip. They spark up a candid conversation about Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s recent speech at the International Cannabis Bar Association, dissecting the claims of progress in Illinois’ cannabis industry. Specifically, they discuss the stark realities behind the state’s touted achievements, the unfulfilled promises of the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (CRTA), and the ongoing challenges faced by social equity applicants.
- Watch the episode on Patreon here
- Watch the episode on Youtube here
- Stream the episode on Soundcloud here
- Stream the episode on Spotify here
- Stream the episode on Apple Podcast here
- Stream the episode on X here
Links mentioned during show
- ColeMemo.com/MiniDoc
- Cannabis Law Institute 2024 Keynote – Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker
- “Craft Growers” in Illinois Struggle to Cultivate Their Dreams
- Disparity Study
- Automatic Marijuana Expungement A Complicated Matter
- Exclusive: State data shows 77% of Illinois’ cultivation market controlled by six companies
- The Dales Report episode that I referenced
The auto-generated transcript is available below.
thank you for tuning into the cole memo I’m sitting back down with my friend Phillip how’s it going Phillip going well how are you doing good man doing good just about to roll up some weed um GNA crack open a River Bluff punch pop who uh is the first sponsor of the cole memo so uh super tasty super cool and you can order at riverbluff collective.com so there’s the plug um what you smoking on dude uh some white truffle mixed with some punch cake that sounds good that sounds good and I’m assuming that weed is from Illinois it’s from Michigan hell yeah I am uh smoking on some jack 47 right now um from farms I’m going to see family this coming weekend so like this is like like I always keep a little log of the Harvest dates of the stuff I have in the house so like this is the oldest weed I have right now so I’m like I’m not like excited to really smoke it anymore I just need to like get it out of the house hell yeah hell yeah well thank you uh again for sitting down with me today we’re g to be sitting down and watching a speech that Illinois governor JB pritsker gave at the International cannabis Bar Association it looks like they had the Cannabis law Institute there um it’s I think it’s like a school named after his family too yeah true a Northwestern pritsker School of Law I’m seeing that now so probably a probably a sign Society might be in trouble if your Governors are showing up with a school named after they’re like super wealthy family that they’re the heir of that’s hilarious you might you might be living in a Gilded Age if that’s happening yeah yeah U let me try to get this into full screen and that’s what we’re going to do today we’re g to watch this speech and Phil as we go through this let me know if you want to pause it and uh because you know the point of this is that I feel like in the media right now I’m curious to see what you think about this there’s some good cannabis coverage noou like the block Club Chicago just posted a really good article on the hemp Cafe what is it called the uh prohibition THC CA prohibition THC Cafe yeah I’m glad you know there’s there’s still you know definitely some good coverage out there I think Southside weekly has had some good coverage on like the GT pretty much these days pretty much these days you see like the Lo like super local people will report or like you know if a dispensary is open in a certain neighborhood there might be a story in the Tribune there isn’t very much about like you know I mean there’s not really much else happening I guess right yeah and I mean my biggest thing is I don’t see anybody like you know watching like the footage we’re about to watch and then kind of giving pointed uh you know feedback or commentary on what is actually going on usually it just seems like especially the traditional media just kind of Ls the same talking points as Illinois like yes this is the most Equity Centric law oh yeah yeah like if you see uh bigger story kind of about like the whole State’s progress it’ll be like Illinois celebrates opening it’s 100 and so and so social Equity dispensary but there’s no like context to whether or not that’s like good or bad or they might not include the part where it’s like well you know 90% plus of the money is still flowing to the other shops right right so yeah that’s what you know I try to Hope I I hope to provide balance and that’s what I think we’ll do today again Phil as we go through just speak up I’ll uh pause it and um yeah I would just say I just want to say before we start this I actually like I gen generally speaking like the governor like I think he’s been fine like he’s the best you can ask for for an Illinois governor in some regards yeah but uh God when he talks about canvas man he’s so annoying what do you mean by that like it just like it just doesn’t like it’s not reality like the stuff he talks about like I mean I get it you want to sell what you’ve done as like a success but it’s like like what you’re saying doesn’t match what’s happening yeah and will we see I haven’t watched this whole thing but will we see some of that today in this speech yeah yeah yeah of course because he’s talking about Canabis and social equity in Illinois right right all right well let’s get into it uh but I just wanted to say I generally do like the guy but I’m gonna come across like I hate him because every five seconds I’m gonna be like oh stop that’s [ __ ] yeah and I guess I should say that too like I voted for him and I actually voted for him on the guys of legalization I I didn’t read the fine print on it I mean I maybe maybe would have still taken the incremental step um you know just because I I did I did vote for the other guy in the primary I will say that you voted for rer in the primary no no no Dan biss was the guy the guy that ran against him gotcha I think he was like I think he was the state treasurer maybe okay I I used to do like some photo journalism so I had met Dan bis like in he like used to represent part of Evon I think okay I was like oh this is a guy I met he seems down to earth especially against like the billionaire with the name pritzer just like you can have a normal guy or you can have this like crazy rich guy yeah yeah yeah well yeah I think it was important to lead with that you know generally speaking I agree with Governor pritsker I would say on most policies um there are a few that I do specifically disagree with them on and and cannabis candidly is one of them so um let’s get into it shall we I think the other thing I always say is that this show would probably not be you would not be hearing me right now if it weren’t for the progress Governor pritzker made with regard to cannabis legalization as much as I talk about the shortcomings it did make me comfortable enough to start this show credit where credit is due [Music] [Applause] thank you all very much I I so appreciate that I have to admit coming into this room having been a student at this Law School uh coming into this room gives me the Jitters in fact walking into the building reminds me of all the challenges of being a student at this institution uh but but it is a great institution and and thank you all for coming here uh for this great event thank you David for that in in introduction and invitation uh and of course to Northwestern for for hosting this conference um you know when I first took office as Governor I was intent on working with the general assembly to pass uh a first in the nation Equity Centric law making Illinois the National Standard for cannabis legalization and regulation there had been States before us that had done it but all uh had done it by referendum uh and I knew that uh it would require us to disentangle not just the convoluted and in maybe we pause it for just a second Phil and you know you’ve got you actually taught me a little bit about this like maybe we would have done it by referendum in Illinois if we could but we can’t right oh right yeah we’re one of the states that doesn’t have um like ballot initiatives yeah so which is which is I don’t know I think this is right but it was like a a movement that like came about in the 70s like a bun like a lot of states were making that reform in the 70s to like give people this ability to have like people-powered legislation and I I think Mike madagan was pretty involved with like defeating that type of thing happening here in Illinois interesting I’ll have to look into that you might want to fact check that though yeah def folks definitely look into that maybe I’ll try to Google it on a side window here um while we continue the video um yeah I’ll try to look into that so here we go continuing the video uh and I knew that uh it would require us to disentangle not just the convoluted and ineffective laws that were on our books at the time but the lingering bias IES and misconceptions that put those laws on our books in the first place so that was no simple task as you can imagine uh because you know when you do it in other states by referenda uh the then the legislature gets to work and decides and the executive branch decides what the regulations are and they have to do it quickly because of course the public is demanding you know they just voted for it they want this in place as soon as possible well uh here in Illinois we were Guided by a simple goal which is a safe Equitable and prosperous cannabis industry um because for all the challenges the Cannabis legalization required us to face it presented even more opportunity and it was opportunity to rectify the failures of our past while also building something better for our future during my first four months in office uh I worked closely with the general assembly with legal experts and Community Advocates to do just that to draft and enact the Cannabis regulation and tax act this Landmark new law was carefully crafted to accomplish a model of what common sense Equity forward cannabis policy can look like and again we had seen the other states uh and the direction they had gone and they had failed to in my view get it right and they were kind of trying to play catchup uh afterward and so we wanted to start from the very very beginning trying to get it right from the very beginning as you know in government sometimes you start out with good intentions and there are challenges that you face but always if you kind of press you know sempre Avante you know ever forward uh toward the goal uh we’ll get there so we started with the necessary first step of repairing the harms created stop it for a second by the previous sorry I was on mute um so he’s he was saying there that like the reason reason they wanted to do this social Equity forward crta was because they’d seen the failures in other states but I feel like that’s not really true because when they talked about it here well first of all a lot of the social Equity stuff that they ended up including and The Limited home grow we got didn’t that come from Carol aon’s Bill uh I yeah I I think it’s it it was like people put out that aens bill before this crta so that it like set the stage to be like this is what we should be talking about right from what I’ve heard that ammon’s bill was introduced first to like set the stage and a lot of the things that ended up going into the crta was inspired by it yeah because the crta was going to be even more of a giveway right to existing operators and so here in Illinois like you didn’t need the other states like it wasn’t because of other states that we adopted these things to diversify the industry it was because Illinois had set it up so only rich white people could operate in this industry right so I just it’s like that because think about like what were the rec States before us Colorado Washington Washington I mean were there many more than that I mean we we’re apparently the 11th state to do adult use right I mean I know Massachusetts yeah um anyways though to your point I mean Michigan right around the same time but like if you’re going to use if you’re going to use States like Colorado and Washington as an example it’s like I mean what percent of those States is actually diverse like I feel like there’s a lot of white people in all those States right so yeah but it’s just like the medical industry was dominated by wealthy white men because that’s how the state set it up so the idea that we were ever going to get the legislature to fix like like they did that it should have been taken out of their hands to remedy that situation okay anyway we can continue no it’s all good I appreciate you making that point and like one thing that we sort of that I just want to go back for a second where at 3:30 there’s just like you know I know that he’ll make this point again later I’m pretty sure he made this point again later because I’ve not seen this full thing but I remember like about seven minutes in he kind of makes a similar point but I don’t want to gloss over this so again we’re at 3:30 but I’m just going to kind of bump us back to 132 for just a moment um so uh and I knew that uh it would require us to disentangle not just the convoluted and ineffective laws that were on our books at the time but the lingering so the idea that we that we did disentangle the convoluted and ineffective laws that were on the books at the time is just laughable and you made this point they literally they literally didn’t touch the canvis Control Act canas Control Act is the same as it existed since the 70s right and those are the convoluted and ineffective laws that were on the books at the time well and then he mentions like uh disparities and enforcement and it’s like well yeah and that still exists because a lot of cannabis [ __ ] is still illegal exactly yeah okay cool we will uh continue on yeah when he gets to that I’ll have a I’ll have a clip from the University of Illinois uh as a fact check so by the previous legal regime and that meant clearing uh cannabis related uh records of nonviolent low-level offenders and um doing that with automatic expungement and with gubat torial Pardons and individual Court actions I remember a meeting specifically with a bipartisan group of legislators there weren’t that many that on the other side of the aisle pause pause it for a second that the more stoned I get during this that guy that’s like peering in an out of the doorway behind him feel like it’s gonna give me weird Vibes I didn’t even notice that I G keep my eyes on that that’s funny that is funny keep your eyes on him people there some that were real advocates for for getting you know an equity Centric piece of cannabis legalization legislation passed but I remember uh sitting with a group of them who who were you know really well- intended and when we got to this subject of expungement and you know and trying to write the wrongs of the past and I said well why don’t we do you know something in legislation that would just do a broad automatic expungement and uh the response from across the table was oh no no we don’t want to be responsible for that um we want you to take all the heat for that uh and so that there was some conversation about that but in the end it was you know um I basically said okay well I’ll be the person who’s uh issuing Pardons and who’s you know putting expungement forward and making sure that we’re doing it in the in the agency processes and I’ll just say that for the first two years and I can actually uh play something to back this up but for the first two years of legalization you could not get your record expunged uh for cannabis related offenses unless you could pass a cannabis drug test well and uh none of them were automatic right correct I’ll have to find uh there’s a good video on that that I actually just recently found um like not only were n like none of them were automatic you had to go to the state and say I want my record expunged but then also if it was over a certain amount like wasn’t it if it was over 500 grams yeah I’ve actually got a you like weren’t you was it that you weren’t eligible at all or were was there like a lower level where you had to like get more permission you had to like petition the court or something to yeah there was like a different process for like levels so he makes it sound like he just gave automat automatic expungements to a ton of people but those people who actually qualified had to app like petition the state to get it then that next step up under 500 grams you had to like go through an extra step to like the courts or something right and then over 500 grams you just weren’t eligible for it yeah I believe so and I’ve actually got since it’s short I’ve got a quick two-minute report that we can watch on the subject let’s play it it’s about it’s called automatic spun expungement in Illinois a complicated matter I think this might might answer some of our questions here and then we can continue the clip hundreds of thousands of dollars of marijuana rather hundreds of thousands of marijuana convictions could be expunged under Illinois’s new state law but cbs2’s Vince Jeri found out it’s not quite that simple or fast how many minor marijuana violations could be cleared away almost automatically the number is large an estimated 700,000 Statewide but this is important automatic is not when the law kicks in it’s when a case is identified and processed and both the state and Cook County are going about that differently each start with the Illinois State Police with officers reviewing databases for eligible cases individually to date the tedious process totals only 116,000 in the end State Police and local law enforcement will be responsible for dedicating Personnel to wiping away the records your automatic expungement doesn’t have to be approved until January of 2021 if it dates as far back back is 2013 a lowlevel marijuana conviction does not mean that someone is a threat to Public Safety in August State’s Attorney Kim Fox outlined cook County’s process starting again with State Police but the nonprofit code for America is using Volunteers in special software to help more quickly identify cases following a judge’s approval local law enforcement or the state police must actually clear the record we’ve had to do it on a caseby Case basis and that was labor intensive and came at a price says Ashley Kilroy executive director of Denver’s office of marijuana policy we’ve had to uh you know incur additional cost unlike Illinois Colorado’s 2014 legalization didn’t provide automatic expungement she warns Illinois will still need to budget for locating those with expunged records you need to make sure you notify the individual to let them know that this conviction has been vacated cases of marijuana possession of less than 30 grams qualify for automatic expungement as long as they aren’t associated with violent crimes but several police sources told us today the Manpower needed to follow through with reviewing records will be a challenge in The Newsroom Vince Jeri C so that didn’t act answer totally your question you know because we were talking about tears and if it’s a different process if it’s more than you know 500 grams or whatever um but I might be able to Google that as we continue this video but I just I wanted to make that quick point that you know some people were denied the expungement because they you know they took a drug test and they’re like they weren’t even thinking about it because cannabis is legal now it’s like yeah I’ll take a drug test probably fail for THC but that’s legal I was GNA say so for possessing or dealing 30 GRS or less before June of 2019 you were eligible for expungment gotta okay I can’t read through this whole thing I guess but well people you know take take what we’re talking about and run with it look into it deeper especially if it affects you um because it can be complicated from what I understand and maybe somebody I can ask about it in the future is the folks from can Equity Illinois because they help people through the expungement process and actually the only reason I have a concept of the fact that there is like these stages to it is because somebody asked a question about that well it says here if your conviction was for possession of 500 grams or less or dealing less than 30 gram you can still have your record expunged so so that implies if it was over 500 grams you can’t have your record expunged yeah sounds about right which is [ __ ] up so I think what I originally said was like kind of right yeah I think so think you’re right on target well cool uh let’s keep this JB train rolling of state government as opposed to writing it right into the law uh so uh we started you know by focusing on how to write those wrongs and and that meant um uh going after the 800,000 arrest records and convictions and that’s by the way what we did in total we cleared over 800,000 arrest records and [Applause] convictions and that as you know opened the doors for hundreds of thousands of illinoisans to erase records that had held many of them back from getting jobs and obtaining housing you hear a lot about you know ban the Box you’ve heard that over the years um this was one of those things where you know if if you had to admit to on a form uh that you’d been arrested or convicted of anything right and this is a would be a low-level conviction uh or arrest uh that it really did affect people’s lives in a terribly negative way uh and so this was one way to you know to make sure that you’re giving people a real opportunity to succeed in life uh but it it it wasn’t just enough to clear people’s records the war on cannabis had done tremendous Untold damage to families and to neighborhoods across the state particularly in communities color all right I want to deposit there we didn’t end the war on cannabis yeah and uh he talks about he talks about it like in the past tense right why don’t we just play a clip from the University of Illinois to uh prove that point they did some research uh they were actually contracted by the state of Illinois to do this research here’s what they found whoops volume is not playing I think we’re parked man the fact that arrests are still happening that does point to the fact and you looked at this as well the illicit Market remains strong and and a lot of people different depending on the demographic but a lot of people are still turning to that illegal Market to obtain their cannabis right that’s correct the Tribune did a nice story a couple years back their angle on this was that the arrests in Chicago were occurring in places where there weren’t ensor so we took another look at that again we updated that information and found that that’s still the case and that suggests that one reason that people turn to the illegal Market is that it’s it’s just uh more convenient for them they don’t have a dispensary near where they live and unfortunately at least is true in Chicago the lack of dispensaries happens to be in neighborhoods that are uh primarily ethnic minorities and poorer neighborhoods so the arrests continue in areas that were always disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs according to research not only by the Chicago Tribune but by the University of Illinois and followup so and uh that was also a sneak peek at my upcoming mini documentary uh which is available now at Co memo.com minid do or you can catch a public screening coming soon near you let’s watch the rest of unless you had any other thoughts on that Phil just the guy the guy looming in back is still there he is still yeah I can’t I can’t help but wonder if that’s like security or just like a guy that really he’s like a fan but that’s the best spot he could get you know I don’t know I would I would imagine he’s security yeah interesting well here we go so we created a a fund that was focused on restorative justice called restore reinvest and renew we call it R3 uh that takes revenue generated from the cannabis industry and it puts it back into communities that were most harmed um cannabis sales in Illinois today wait wait stop uh have provided the R3 money does not come from the Cannabis industry it comes from Cannabis consumers correct it’d be one thing if they were like oh all you companies that are profiting a bunch we’re going to take money from you to reinvest in these communities no you are taxing people who used to be I mean for the most part A lot of them used to be victims of the War on Drugs you’re claiming to have ended right now you are taxing them more to make up for the arms but you’re making them foot the bill I can’t like I don’t hate I mean I do hate taxes I’m self-employed how can I not hate taxes but like just whenever they talk about the R3 program as being some great success I’m like [ __ ] that that money comes from us right like we shouldn’t have to pay for the state’s persecution of cannabis users for decades right right and then they’ll take money from the medical cannabis fund uh to fund the businesses as well it’s like so the only place you can get the money is from victims of the war on drugs or literally medical cannabis patients right yeah yeah because I mean those are the easiest places to take it from obviously right crazy man crazy well thank you for making that point because it’s important when whenever someone talks about the R3 I’m just triggered hell yeah hell yeah hundreds of millions of dollars already for Community organizations who are doing the work of rebuilding communities that were torn apart by the ill-conceived War on Drugs with uh grants to civil legal aid organizations to economic development organizations a re-entry from the criminal justice system addressing those challenges violence prevention which is so badly needed and had been severely defunded before I became governor and uh and Youth Development just broadly making sure we’re providing jobs and opportunity for kids who might otherwise not get it yeah and although I don’t want to go through every piece of this if if anybody else is hearing like a pounding by the way it’s him hitting his hands on the podium I was like is there like somebody playing like bass next door or something uh it’s the bass is him pounding his hands every once in a while legislation which was you know crafted finally by a lot of great people because it would take me too long but I’ll just say the final really big plank of the Cannabis uh plan was uh something particularly novel that I believe will help Define the legacy of this law and said a national standard for the Cannabis industry and that’s the Cannabis social Equity program uh we knew that like in other states that had legalized before us that we were setting up a multi-billion dollar industry I mean never existed before and unlike in other states though we wanted to make sure those who had been historically disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs substantially benefited from the wealth that would be created by this new cannabis industry that is something that did not happen in again because of the speed with which many other states had to move I think there was intent by many of those folks to to try to make that happen but uh but they just couldn’t finally craft the legislation in the way that I think we had and I want to remind you and give credit where credit is due there were some legislators in our general assembly here who had been working on this for a couple few years before I ever got to to be governor of the state they didn’t have a governor who would work with them on it uh and so when I got there there was already a movement and and some real experts in the general assembly uh and I uh some ways was the beneficiary of their great work and then you know we had to you know take it over the Finish Line once I took office but um you know the Cannabis social Equity program uh provides licenses it provides uh low interest interest loans it provides training programs and other resources to cannabis entrepreneurs who might not have otherwise had a chance at success they they may not have ever started a business before they may not been certainly not in this industry um and wait pause pause pause just so much that he’s talking about I’m like it just just first of all why would you ever promise someone generational wealth where they have to start and run a business if they’ve never started or run a business before sorry you’re I think you’re muted oh sorry I was just saying right thank you though I mean yeah no it’s a br point but I mean I’ve heard other people talk about it it’s just just this whole premise of we’re going to get people licenses then you’re going to have generational wealth from these licenses like it’s just a false promise yeah you had no way to guarantee that not if it’s based off the idea that like these people are going to have to operate businesses that are like going to be competitive and successful right like you could have told people people hey we’ll get you a license and we’ll get you started up and it’ll be your chance at generational wealth but I feel like they they like pitched it so much as like a guarantee almost and then you know the overall thing about how these slots were just so limited from the beginning right how many victims of the War on Drugs he just say 800,000 how many social how many social Equity licenses are open maybe a couple dozen MH it’s just insane like if anything you should have sent you should have just let the industry run wild no restrictions or anything at all and then just taken a bunch of that tax money and sent it as uh cash checks to people who had cannabis convictions in Illinois how about that right or I like this point that was made on uh high at n you know he calls it a social Equity program I could be wrong but doesn’t that doesn’t that sound like it’s almost something for like people with special needs yeah like it’s a it’s like in like it sounds insulting just the name of it like like if you’re talking to like people who are going to be entrepreneurs like sure you’re trying to give them opportunity and give them a leg up but cannabis social Equity program like and I would just argue that it’s not even really a program like I I think if I’m not mistaken they like make sure not to call it that in the disparity study I could be wrong people search the disparity study uh We’ve posted it on my website but you know these were social Equity licenses and it’s funny like to call it a social Equity program would be incorrect and you know like here this clip I’m about to play from high at nine I think would be the closest thing to a social Equity program I when he says program he might also be talking about just the like legs of the stool or table like licenses funding training like that kind of thing right right um but yeah I think this uh point I’m about to play from high n both that addresses the point that you brought up but also like the idea of what I think if if you’re going to have a social Equity program what it would look like so here we go social Equity is not a guarantee tour of success what social Equity is it’s the opportunity to fail like everyone else and not to be kept out of a business opportunity because of socioeconomic or criminal history etc etc it’s a chance to stand up and fail just like everyone else or they would say hey social Equity applicant here’s your store we’ve already built it here’s the money to run it have a great [ __ ] day this so yeah exactly yeah like I would use like like the business I’m in Pet Care like it’s socially Equitable because there is no licensing for the most part you pretty much just have to get insured and then conduct yourself in a good enough manner that people are going to refer you to other people like you know it’s like delivery of your good business practices like so the like literally if you made no licensing required at all that would probably be the most socially Equitable way to approach Canabis licensing yeah um I have one other definition that I’d like to play of social uh Equity um will play yeah it’s funny at the end she said like otherwise you’d like build these people’s stores out hand them a bunch of money and go here you go it’s like well that is actually what I think New York tried to do right yeah they were like we’ll we’ll we’ll contract with these people and like build out the actual stores like you won’t have to even do that yeah yeah but that that’s a thing I feel like if there’s if you’re gonna like try to say it it would it would look something like that if you’re going to call it a program you know because otherwise it’s like but I think you know yeah so here I think is what the definition of social Equity is and you’re going to love this Phil this is uh from one of our favorites um here we go representative ‘s what would a truly Equitable cannabis program look like to you I think we would start by fulfilling the promise that was made when you pass legalization in the first place I think a truly Equitable program has to remove all criminal penalties in relationship to the legal substance that you allowing to be sold and taxed in your state and so for you to do anything less than that creates the disenfranchisement of certain people in the process and it certainly does not lend to a truly equable social Equitable program that we sold to the people of Illinois you know so right which if we’re not if we’re not talking about like business and Licensing real social Equity is Right fairness before the law which is not charging someone with not potentially giving someone jail time for something that it just requires a license to do because they’re not like endangering anyone’s safety or anything yeah yeah well said so just another selfish plug some of these Peaks you’re getting are from that mini documentary you can purchase now at Co memo.com Min do or you can catch it at a screening near you uh let’s continue on JB’s speech huh let’s round it out we’re almost done so there’s a lot of security that you have to put in place you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the right location you got to fill out a whole lot of regulatory forms and uh and then make sure you’re following it along the way and and the way he said that is if it was like a good thing I’m sorry that was just hilarious well the way he says it I was like oh this is just the way it is it’s like well no that’s like the way you guys set it up yeah I mean was he it almost seemed like he was laughing when he said that you know um he’s like you have to fill out all these forms and you know just anyways there were some people who just didn’t have that expertise on their own uh but who nevertheless deserved an opportunity to become small business people um indeed uh you know if you got a license and you could open your doors you’re probably becoming a millionaire and that is the best quote for I have to stop it again I’m sorry for that’s the quote of the video that’s where I had to stop I want to play that part again you just really hear how he phrases that it’s like if could there’s some other word but it’s all like maybe you know it’s no guarantee which is again as Philly you’ve pointed out that’s really how they pitched it a guarantee well Play Play that quote again yep here we go there were some people who just didn’t have that expertise on their own uh but who nevertheless deserved an opportunity to become small business people um indeed uh you know if you got a license and you could open your doors you’re probably becoming a millionaire and uh that’s you know a big change for people that this program was designed to address um so in just a few short years um I would also just say like I don’t I don’t know if his perspective is a little skewed because of just how wealthy he is but a whole lot of small business people out here are not millionaires so like I I this this hold over from just seeing people make tons of money during the black market days it’s like I mean you had to pitch it like everyone who owned a cannabis dispensary was going to be some kind of millionaire like they’re going to make millions and millions of dollars it’s like what if they’re just pulling in 200,000 a year and they have to pay a couple employees like that’s a small cannabis business right yeah you know a lot of these social Equity licenses here they have like they’re going for the same like 10 dispensary plus some craft license that you know yeah that’s like that’s beyond like small business scale in my mind yeah well said well said yeah that that like I said I think that that moment and it was just just an interesting one anyways we’ll continue I think the past this I’ve not seen anything so we made tremendous progress a you know and and we stumbled and made some mistakes along the way but not not intentionally just you know uh it’s hard to to get this done in the right way but and and of course we launched the program I just want to remind you there was a medical cannabis program before we had our adult use uh program and recreational and uh and the beg you know some of the negotiation was hey we should allow the medical owners to be able to open an adult use uh recreational dispensary first because they already have the expertise um they’re ready to go they just need to have extra more space where they are or maybe another location and but they had the expertise um the challenge of that was every medical uh dispensary was owned by uh a person who wasn’t a person of color uh and there were no yeah so stop it there remember so he’s kind of like contradicting himself a little bit like I was saying earlier where he was like saying well other states clearly didn’t get this right so we wanted to do the social Equity here it’s like really they wanted to give those existing operators that first mover advantage and like it was too much of a political liability to Democrats in this state to do that because a lot of their constituency in Illinois and specifically in Chicago is black and brown people who had been excluded from the canabus industry right so it’s us it’s our problem yeah yeah no that’s it’s it’s also crazy how you know when you consider that competing proposals would have made it so it’s like all right you know you dominate like isn’t it weird to think about what it could have looked like if they just continueed to own the medical Market but the adults adult use Market just kind of took a while to come online because it would only be social Equity licenses quote unquote you know well yeah I mean if they had I mean you want to talk about market share well if they had said like only social Equity dispensaries can operate for the first three or four years you probably would have seen a lot more effort to get those people up and running sure true or like a lot more shady kind of buyouts and Arrangements that we’d never find out about because all that information is confidential yeah yeah it all always comes back to that well you just always need to remember that it’s like do we really even know what’s going on who knows yeah straight up I mean it came up today in an online debate that that we just had where somebody was saying in Florida that you can only own like 5% of a license and I was like yeah well they kind of say the same thing in Illinois but how do you really prove that you know and that’s the whole thing so well like only own like up to a certain percent until you’re like named on the license right yeah isn’t that like part of it yeah something like that but you know back to like the point you’re were making like even in Illinois you just can’t even see that information so it’s like yeah you can like try to sleuth it out uh but you can’t like go to the state and get that information right which is bizarre right especially bizarre when you consider that like some Regulators from Illinois have told me on the show that uh you know they rely on people like myself and the public uh to to spot different things you know where there there could be well and you have to wonder what access they have to that information right yeah or like if they have any uh motivation to look into any of it right why would you have any desire to do that if you’re just like trying to be good at your job and like get [ __ ] done you don’t want to like make waves and be like oh this person secretly owns 20 dispensaries the state yeah why would you come out and do that and then also you know when you consider that most like a lot of The Regulators in Illinois have all found really awesome jobs in the industry like you know um Jeff Cox you know Danielle Perry unfortunately left I loved her as a cannabis regulated uh race well she’s not sorry she’s not in the Cannabis industry she’s like in banking but toy Hutchinson she’s a mppp um like I said Jeff Cox he’s now at pts you remember he was at inmi management for a while which had like Leonard maylor and the the guy from pts and uh you know stuff on it as a work around to the Illinois um law it doesn’t let you do that but now he’s like straight up at pts as the VP of compliance um former head of a idfpr you know we could go on and on but it’s crazy so I guess to your point oh and then we should have also say real quick that one of the most recents that I’m aware of is a one of the Cannabis regulation oversight officer a deputy out of that office becoming the head of the Cannabis business Business Association oh yeah so like you know you just like keep it in the pocket and then maybe you can get a really awesome job in the industry you know yeah I mean I I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the people that are currently there go and do that eventually yeah and by keep it in the pocket I meant what you said earlier uh don’t make waves you know like a chill regulator well I would I would say Danielle Perry made some waves and that’s why she probably works in banking yeah I’m sure she still gets paid very well but yeah but when you question things like license limits or possession limits yeah that’s like all of a sudden get out of here yeah yeah all right well here we go uh and so here you’re allowing people to go into business first who aren’t the target of what I consider to be very important part of the purpose for for legalization so um but we had to address that it took us some time time to get that right as we’re issuing the licenses but let me tell you where we are today we we uh well a study was published an independent study um that the state paid for an independent agency to do um not part of the government and we needed it a disparity study so we knew how far along really are we uh in this process and that came out just two weeks ago and I have to tell you I honestly didn’t know how far we had come I mean I could guess but I I just didn’t know and so when I saw this pop up in my email inbox that oh here’s the study I was honestly trepidacious about clicking on it because I just I mean maybe I’m going to find out we have you know five more years of work to to get where we want to be or you know we’re nowhere close or something but here’s the here are the results between January 1 2020 which is the date we legalized and January 31 of 2023 so that’s three years and a month um 59% of adult use dispensary licenses were issued to minority or women-owned businesses pause what the [ __ ] does that mean right you could give out 500,000 licenses and say 99.9999% of all the licenses we gave out are to minority or women-owned companies who’s making the money who’s operational like if this is the metric we’re going off of right I think all of this is like nonsense it should all be like relatively free market for the consumer but I don’t if your metric is we’re like diversifying and making right the wrongs to the war on drugs like all of this money is still going to the people that were owning the medical Market originally and actually here’s the study that he just referenced to back up exactly what you just said so these first two numbers here uh show that if I believe if you do the math yeah like 88 so these first two numbers here are all sales for the original lenses this is all and this is dispensary sales by the way you’ll notice oh so it’s so it’s TW so social Equity uh applicants are getting 12% of the industry right now yeah uh but here’s my thing I really think that for the longest time it was this number because I think this is the most recent number you know how there’s been spurt if you will of uh licenses opening up like but it’s crazy that it’s crazy that the second site like the recre sites that they got to set up is still getting 50% of the market yeah and let’s consider this 11.9% what are they say selling yeah the other people’s stuff yeah and even the the craft cultivated products they are like let’s say they do have some Craft products which are the new cultivation licenses for people that don’t know I call them small scale cultivation licenses instead of Craft um but anyways that’s the legal term for it um not a lot of them are actually growing their own cannabis right now I mean the number is slowly but surely increasing but I’m willing to bet it’s from what I see on Reddit what there’s probably like three or four of them I think three or four are growing their own cannabis then you’ll see though this is where it gets confusing because some people will say well you know there’s the this product or that product and it’s like yeah look at the label or just depending on I don’t know if everybody puts it on their label but a lot of it is repacked cannabis from the original licenses because they’re lot of these craft cultivation centers especially at my last check which I wrote an article about they’re not really growing cannabis yet they’re more like manufacturing centers and infusion centers that buy product from the original lenses um and that could have changed but from what I hear not a lot has changed so just an important point to use their own data you know yes this number exists but what are they selling he will not be citing that number in the speech yeah and then the other thing you’ll notice again just I wanted people to look through this and please fact check me but I don’t think there’s any cultivation data in here and I’m sorry but the last time we saw some cultivation data was from grown in and it suggested that I think 75% I can find the headline we’ll get the video started and I might Flash the headline um 75% came from six people and all I’m saying is I don’t 75% the Cannabis and the Illinois cannabis Market came from like six people and I’m just saying I don’t think it’s much different today it’s probably different but I don’t think it’s much there was there was another stat there was another stat from like that headset group that analyzes like biotrack data or whatever and they were saying I think it was like close to 80% of sales were like just 10 brands yeah so probably fewer than 10 companies even yeah I mean Charlie backel just said today on a live stream that uh Cresco is number one in Illinois um in terms of market share I could try to find the when he says it but we’ll we’ll get uh the uh Governor pritzer clip going again and if I can find that I’ll play that small clip so here we go and most of the those people went into business I mean there’s some that had we had about a 100 licenses that hadn’t been utilized uh wait wait go back a tiny bit he’s talking about just a tiny bit like to before where you started here yeah and most of those people was that right where we started sorry yeah go back a tiny bit more it was I just want to hear him end that yeah thought because I just I mean maybe I’m going to find out we have you know five more years of work to to get where we want to be or you know you have at least five more years of work but no keep going results between January 1 2020 which is the date we legalized and January 31 of 2023 so that’s three years in a month um 59% of adult used dispensary licenses were issued to minority or women-owned businesses [Applause] and most of those people went into business I mean there’s some that had we had about a 100 licenses that hadn’t been utilized uh yet because people couldn’t find the capital remember this is all during a period where interest rates are going up and up and up and if you’re starting a business and you need to borrow money uh it was a very diff difficult period for people to do it in so there’s no there’s no way that most of the people that got a license are in business yeah I don’t I don’t not yet right right and I think at my last count that I heard that most of the craft cultivators that are due for this next they’re not operational yet you know so they’re at risk of losing their license I mean we even saw somebody with their dispensary license they had one of the coveted golden tickets and they could barely get their dispensary open in time for the deadline you know what I’m saying mhm so yeah I just that just seemed like a wild overstatement yeah yeah and just because I have it up I and it is only like 30 seconds I’m just going to play the quick uh clip from Charlie backel earlier with this is from today where I believe he basically says that we’ve got they’ve got number one position in Illinois dollarars adjust a gross margin jumped to 52% sgna was uh slashed also by 14% and uh there’s a $51 million net loss but thanks to a one time with $61 million tax it adjusted iida up 33% to 54 million sorry a lot of tax stuff or stock stuff uh you pulled in $17 million in cash flow and kept top spot in Illinois so all in all it seems like it’s just another quarter where you continue to and it further defines I guess what you’re building here but how would you best describe your latest earnings I think you did a great job of describing him but we also held on in so I guess it wasn’t Charlie that said that and I think I think they’re still losing money overall right yeah I think the report that one that I read recently I think maybe you had sent it to me I’m not sure but not I you know what is it I I just know whatever I’ve heard is that GTI is the only one who’s like actually in the black like profitable Cashwise that’s what I was working up to yeah so so even being number one in Illinois screwing all these other people out of their opportunity to make money you still can’t make your company profit yeah which is CRA you know not to go on a tangent but it’s crazy when they really fight for these state-based programs it’s like but they’re [ __ ] you so hard well and I mean I remember see even the big people like even Cresco is kind of getting [ __ ] by this you know I I know they’re making out better than everybody but still I feel like this statistic is right like GTI they they are profitable but I remember at one point reading a thing I’m grown in like maybe two years ago that was like at one point their Illinois dispensaries were like 20% of their overall profits like a fifth of their whole profits that’s pretty crazy so yeah like having this moat and this limited license Market here it definitely it definitely benefited them and still benefits them even if they’re one of the companies that’s all still losing money right right so anyways it was nice to be able to pull out that disparity study since he referenced it it’s really tremendous result more uh minority and women-owned businesses held 63% of craft grower licenses 61% of infuser licenses 74% of Transporter licenses and then they hold them lastly I also love that he doesn’t mention that hey you know who holds 100% of craft gr licenses veterans because get a license if you weren’t veteran owned yeah and I think that’s true of the dispensary ones too or at least one of the first rounds uh because everybody that got in got in I think it was true I don’t think it was true for the subsequent corre but it was they like adjusted it yeah so anyways and then this thing about transporter licenses that he just mentioned it’s like all right who’s [ __ ] actually making money off of that like I’ve heard like there’s like maybe two active licenses in the state I mean that could be I could be wrong in that but I I’ve heard one who who are the 16% that aren’t women or minority owned were those just nonresponses or yeah what demographic do they fall into because all because all those white owned companies were just default had transport they didn’t even apply for these licenses yeah I don’t even think they actually what I mean I don’t mean to getting tickets on a tangent but I don’t even think they actually have a license and if they did it’s like that yeah like you said they kind of like just got grandfathered into it like some piece of paper you know but because it wasn’t a concept when they started you know what I mean yeah it’s like 84% or minority or women owned but 100% of the business is not with them yeah that would be a better way of putting it yeah although I think there’s a couple of them that have gotten found ways to get business the Transporters yeah no for sure like I said I heard I’ve heard of at least like two you know um and that whole transport lawsuit a few years ago didn’t just come out of nowhere like that got brought up because of you know people that have acted you know they’re trying to do it the right way and um they had heard about this activity and they brought it to the media you know what I mean so uh I bring that up to say that you know they’re active right and they were like pissed off and that’s why it came up so keep playing the clip oh yeah cool our Direct forgivable Loans went to minority and women-owned cannabis [Applause] businesses so so uh of course I was very interest I’m a competitive sort uh and I want Illinois to win always and so uh I asked that we compare it to all the other uh States and they did that in the study for us so so that’s great um it turns out Illinois at at with all of those licenses and dispensaries and infusers and so on 60% you know minority and women owned for Illinois the next State uh next to us second was Maryland at 37% so we’re at 60 they’re at 37 and you know down from there to to you know smaller numbers um great for them better for us us uh you know but uh uh you know like I said I’m a competitive sort love uh Maryland and Governor Moore love Illinois more um I’m I really am incredibly proud of the progress that we’ve made it hasn’t been easy um we have more work to do there’s no doubt uh I’m not satisfied with where we are we have a long way to go to repair the damage of the War on Drugs that was Unleashed on so many communities and I’m really hopeful that the Cannabis industry will continue to bring opportunity and wealth to communities of color for decades to come that’s going to take work and we all have to be attentive to it uh and I believe that we have a general assembly and an Administration that is going to stay on it every day we have an actual agency that we created that does this every day focuses on it and wait pause are great they don’t have an agency yeah they don’t that’s kind of weird to hear them say that [ __ ] was that yeah seems like he maybe just showed his cards um also just like you want to create a cannabis industry that’s going to provide income to like communities of color in lwi income areas legalize cannabis farmers markets yeah give people give people like pedders licenses yeah I also just think it’s like I get what he means when like it’s like the irreparable harms of the War on Drugs but like I don’t know I just totally I keep getting caught up and like how like why are we acting like we’ve we’ve made the point well you well yeah not only is cannabis still criminalized all the other drugs are still criminalized right so if if you’re referencing the the whole War on Drugs not just the war on cannabis yeah and you know I was listening back to um a conversation sor you just have to wonder when this like stick of his kind of gets tired like I feel like it already is like watching the speech it’s like man we’ve been hearing this since 2019 yeah nobody calls them out on it nobody call look at what we exist I think it’s part of like the hyper partisanship we exist in you know yeah yeah it’ just be crazy to hear him get a question about like like just to put it on his radar like I don’t even know how you’d phrase it but just like what do you have to say about the continued criminalization of cannabis in Illinois just like say it that way because it’s like I mean it’s not hard there’s like news stories that exist of people being arrested for having over a 100 grams and getting charged with a felony yeah yeah a lot for a lot of people like myself you sometimes find yourself in that situation right yeah same that’s I don’t I don’t think of myself as a criminal I don’t think a lot of people like us do yeah we simply just like when you do anything like when I go to the store I buy and bulk because I like I don’t want to like run back and forth to the store you know so well I mean the the app comparison is like you know I buy my weed in Michigan and I illegally get it home and it’s usually in the LI you know over that limit I also buy all the like meat that we eat in Michigan because there’s like this Farm I like to go to to buy like really great meat and it’s like the price that it is in like a grocery store here in Chicago yeah so it’s like I load up on a ton of meat and I bring that back like it’s no different it shouldn’t be any different we’re not banned from buying the meat in Michigan and bringing it back here to Illinois right yeah it’s well said very well said yeah so I just get caught up in that point when he acts like the War on Drugs is not currently ongoing but like you say hopefully that shtick will get tired and maybe somebody will ask him about it in the future I’d love to um let’s continue the clip on it every day we have an actual agency that we created that does this every day focuses on it and and uh you know our great leader of that agency is here and I thank her for the work that she’s done yeah a crew has been I mean just outstanding so um crew is the Cannabis regulation I guess he talking about crew but that’s not agency yeah it’s not a state agency and that’s what like if people are wondering right now what we’re talking about um you know there’s been this debate over cannabis agency versus commission and um in the past the state of Illinois specifically Danielle Perry the Cannabis regulation oversight officer had suggested perhaps we do a commission um because currently like the Cannabis regulation oversight office like is doesn’t have any like real regulatory power they like oversee these different agencies I guess but it’s a mystery to me what they actually they’re also legally not allowed to communicate with them yeah something about that right yeah well I have learned that part of what they’re saying is uh apparently their systems literally just don’t even communicate you know like and which you know because I’ve always just wondered like oh we’re not allowed to legally communicate I’m like what do you mean you can’t just send a [ __ ] email email or call but like sometimes they mean literally like to like I guess from what I’ve heard to make certain decisions like literally this agency can’t do some communication with that agency because like even if cro is directing it like they like literally there’s a technical barrier where the the systems don’t talk um I mean sounds so stupid right yeah but the fact that the state uses biot TR makes me believe that’s entirely possible yeah yeah I mean yeah so so anyways they probably licensed biotrack to handle their like internal Communications too yeah that’s so crazy that in this clip I’m gonna have to send that to one of my good friends that he says that uh there’s an agency because again folks it’s not an agency yet state is currently pushing for an agency but from what I understand I mean he could create was that even was that even in the most recent legislation no actually I I don’t remember that being I don’t believe it was from I asked about that I asked somebody probably because there wasn’t any consensus on it right and also they just created a new state agency like the Early Child Development uh agency and from what I understand you know it’s like this whole idea of bloated government you know you don’t want to maybe make too many create too many agencies in one year you know what I mean even you get what I’m saying though yeah I mean we probably do have way too much government in Illinois we do that’s why I was kind of laughing halfway through my point but you know just the Optics of like oh create this and then we’ll create that and it’s like maybe we do one a year I from what I hear that’s like from what I hear on the inside if you will the hesitation to like really push for that is not so much that it’s not support Ed by him I mean he’s saying it as if it’s already the case um he uh yeah from what I’ve heard it’s just hesitant to like do another one you know right now so anyways he’s talking about crew and how Aaron Johnson it looks like has done an outstanding job I’ll back it up just a bit I thank her for the work that she’s done yeah a crew has been I mean just outstanding so um we we are uh in process so uh stay tuned about all the progress that’s yet to come but our success ought to inspire other states maybe other countries to pursue their own cannabis Equity agenda uh perhaps even bringing it to the federal level in the United States uh sometimes yeah boo now I want you to know and I do believe we ought to do this on a federal level but every day that goes by that hasn’t been done on the federal level benefits hits the taxpayers of the state of Illinois because as it turns out and I hear these things uh that that people from Indiana people from Iowa people from Wiscon oh Kentucky drive across the border and buy something at buy their weed in Michigan no people from people from Wisconsin for the most part are going to Michigan these days yeah straight up for sure at least the like the People Like Us who buy the majority of the weed like sure you get a bunch of people from like the Border area Wisconsin who go down to these Northern Illinois dispensaries those are not people that like smoke every day right yeah one of the best points you made and I’ll those people would drive to the up exactly one of the best points you’ve made and like I said I’ll get this going again it’s like the people that are going to Illinois dispensaries are usually people that like I don’t mean to paint with a broad brush because this isn’t true in all cases but didn’t already have a good source figured out or didn’t learn about Michigan you know what I mean or they just don’t smoke enough and so Illinois came dispensaries are fine you know because it’s like I’m just buying a small amount you know don’t have access to transportation that kind of thing true those are the other things absolutely I again I don’t mean to paint with a broad brush um but yeah here we go something at a dispensary in Illinois now they’re not supposed to drive back over the border into their states with it um so I assume they’re just staying in Illinois um but it it but you could tell when you look at the sales tax numbers and and the Cannabis uh Revenue that’s coming to the state of Illinois that it’s about 20 to 25% of of all of the revenue that we get in the state and that’s at the state level and the local level uh comes from people who come from out of state sort of cannabis tourists if you will um so uh I’m I’m pleased about that but I I do believe that that Equity demands that we go at this at the federal level and do it the way that Illinois has done it uh and apparently I’m [Applause] done I’m not yeah it’s pretty funny it’s the first time I’ve been set off stage like that um he’s he’s very likable sometimes yeah yeah he is thank you all really for being here for the work that you do for committing yourselves to a modern Innovative and Equitable cannabis industry and enjoy the rest of the conference today yeah that that guy behind him was definitely security he walked out after that thing was like what the [ __ ] going on [ __ ] is going on yeah yeah I will say I did not appreciate his joke about people uh taking it out of state you know because that would violate the Cole memo um sorry well it’s also like you know people do get in trouble for that and it’s not really that funny yeah it’s not funny at all yeah Indiana still has like really bad laws so does but also like the state of Illinois if they hadn’t overregulation cannabis industry they would probably be selling like over half the weed they sell to out ofate people and we would probably be doing like three billion a year because we’ve got more easy access to this state from surrounding states than a place like Michigan and Michigan sells over two billion a year right yeah yeah dude we would own the South everybody from the south would come up to Illinois I mean well and those if they didn’t make it so that like only a certain number dispensaries can be in these like by population kind of um you would have dozens of shops in like Southern like Southwest Southeast Illinois like New Buffalo is where they had like 35 dispensaries to apply to open like that’s what you know and the state just isn’t it doesn’t see that kind of development of dispensaries in those areas yeah well and you know you would be like yeah you would be drawing people sending them home and if the purchase limits like weren’t such a thing right well and one of the things we found out just you know I think it’s important to bring up I think we’ve made it on the podcast like once in the past but it’s an interesting point that we learned because we you know constantly kind of rail against license limitations which is really what I feel the whole Illinois Legacy is about you know it’s cannabis generation license limitations and overregulation I think it’s other problem overregulation absolutely or is they like to say compliance focused um but uh yeah um the talking about license limitations so we always spoke holes and license limitations and one of the things we learned again I know we already made it hell this will be the third time I guess we’ve made it because we made the point earlier in this podcast um but just to kind of dwell on it for a moment license limitations already play out at the local level and these state license limitations seem to be like really redundant you know because again we saw people with one of these coveted golded licenses and they could barely get it through like a Township you know well and you know like only a certain number of only a certain percent of the population smokes weed but everybody eats food and only a certain number of restaurants can exist in any town no matter how big it is yeah you’re going to find your saturation level eventually right and that that’s that’s like I mean you get it because we’ve talked about it before but just for the folks that are listening like that’s the point I want to make is like I don’t know I guess I’m not opposed necessarily to license limitations but at the state level yeah it seems redundant like maybe at a community level if you decide you only want this amount of smoke shops in your community or this amount of restaurants or well yeah because like we went to that we went to that we went to that town hall meeting and they brought up like someone was complaining about the dispensary coming and they’re like we already have all these smoke shops and the mayor was like look we capped the number of smoke shops yeah so local communities can cap these things if they want to like the state doesn’t need to do it exactly that’s the that’s the point I’m trying to make you know it’s just yeah so and and I guess what I’m saying too with that and I think you’d agree with this and if you don’t it’s okay uh I’m like I am okay with a local community making that decision and hashing that out at a local level yeah for sure and if they don’t want in their Community like although I might disagree like if let’s say that didn’t go through but you also have the freedom as like a business owner on at that point to go to the community next door that’s what I was gonna say or to go to one two two over like right yeah well said so yeah I think that’s that’s could be the way but you know we we just can’t you almost we should like let’s get like a contingent of Republican lawmakers all from the down state and like border areas of the state and be like what about our social Equity we should have four times the number of dispensaries that we have down here yeah I bet the enforcement was I mean I’m not saying it wasn’t high in Chicago because it still is uh just proportionate in Chicago but I mean I don’t even I just don’t even know what you know because you would need some other you you would need an opposing party to advocate for a more free market in Illinois it’s like what I don’t you know the Republicans in Illinois what do they even do right they nominate that one guy like Darren Darren Bailey yeah Darren Bailey like come on guys yeah like he could actually run against pritzer on the Cannabis issue but right apparently not not big enough of an issue right and if uh the point hasn’t been made enough already I want to just play this uh short clip that kind of illustrates uh Phil you and I’s point and it also gives me another chance to give a plug for my new Min documentary here we go the push to legalize marijuana in Illinois gets a huge boost as it’s supported by the state’s next governor after legalization came to be I started a podcast I am Cole Preston and I quickly learned we still have more ways now to get in trouble criminal trouble for cannabis than we did before 2020 I will be releasing a retrospective manyi documentary that details how Illinois fell short of achieving meaningful reform in its cannabis policy this plan would make marijuana legal but would not remove all of the consequences explain that for us why why are they busting in my door after midnight over something that Illinois says is legal things are legalized but it’s not legalized completely screening so yeah you can find that at Co memo.com many do um and the whole thing is uh like that there’s you know footage uh that makes those points so if you don’t want to hear me make those points uh plenty of other people have because uh the criminalization of Canabis continues and everything’s [ __ ] up so hey it’s slowly getting better right and we are stepping in the right direction you know as we started the podcast off I think that’s a good way to end the podcast as well you know I’m happy and even Carol Ammons you know uh who we’ve referenced a few times throughout the show she said in her I want to say famous speech I hope it becomes a famous speech uh it’s the speech that I include in my mini documentary it’s famous to us it is world famous for me um she is happy and I’m happy with the progress we’ve made but I don’t believe we’ve done enough um to guarantee Justice and equity in cannabis and I think that’s that is well put we’ve not done enough it’s a good start but to pretend it’s done and and one point we didn’t make sorry Phil uh but the governor made the point like legislators are working every day on this cannabis issue okay I said in 20 yeah they passed like one additional round of legislation right right some I think LESA Ford got something through with like maybe a lottery Carol Ammons got her expungement thing through that we were talking about um and then the only other thing I am aware of is when uh you could argue the larger companies um or let’s just say the the cannabis companies um got their 280e thing through and then stole them the medical Canabis um fund yeah there’s been like maybe three rounds of additional legislation not any of them really like changing all that much yeah and the main point that was made when we made this law was that there will always be like trailers and fixes and it just doesn’t seem like even by the people that were sponsors and and you know really highly involved in it all um that are still in the legislature are really like yeah you know it’s just like anything else it just doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of energy behind legalization because it’s done already right um there’s a kink the kinky got to work out but for the most part it’s done what’s the big problem you know yeah I mean that’s why Hey whenever I find some story about someone being charged with some cannabis I posted on Reddit just to be like hey while you’re looking at these cannabis reviews just remember people still going to jail yeah be careful out there or at least getting stuck in the criminal justice system with some regard yeah exactly exactly well Phil um it was a pleasure to do this with you I always enjoy chatting with you especially when we’ve got some solid new Illinois cannabis content to uh break down oh of course yeah so thanks for sitting down with me and smoking fun all that so I I worked my way through a whole two gram joint yeah dude I saw you were puffing on that thing a second ago so looked boss well I told you it’s the oldest stuff I have I got to get through it [ __ ] yeah cool man well folks I hope you found value in this conversation we’ll see you in the next episode of the Cole memo take care
The Cole Memo 
Leave a comment