A little more than a month after recreational cannabis sales became legal in Illinois on January 1, Lake County has decided to put a hold on adult-use businesses for one year.
The Lake County Board (Board) voted on Tuesday to impose a one-year moratorium on recreational cannabis businesses in unincorporated Lake County, effective immediately through February 12, 2021.
The moratorium prohibits all adult-use dispensaries, cultivation facilities, craft growers, infusers, processors, and transporters within unincorporated Lake County.
Lake County will also not be accepting or reviewing applications for recreational cannabis businesses during the moratorium.
“We will use this time to get a better understanding of the potential outcomes of allowing recreational cannabis businesses in the unincorporated areas,” says Lake County Planning, Building, and Development director Eric Waggoner. “Staff’s research will include assessing community impacts around existing cannabis businesses elsewhere in the area, taking a deeper dive into the statistical information already available from other states that have legalized cannabis, collecting data from health and public safety organizations, and gathering input from the public.”
The Board says that it chose to delay its decision to allow the production and sale of recreational cannabis products until the impact on law enforcement and revenue implications of cannabis legalization could be researched.
In 2021, the Board will consider the information gathered during the moratorium as it weighs future regulatory options for adult-use cannabis in the county.
According to the Board, Tuesday’s decision to implement the moratorium stems from a series of meetings that took place after Governor Pritzker signed the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act into law in June of 2019.
The Board also assembled a task force to study and analyze the new law.
More prohibition on a plant even though the people have spoken…I’m sure if mostly white lake county had their way we’d be back in Jim Crow era.