A years-long dispute over a cannabis cultivation license is headed to the Illinois Supreme Court as Curative Health Cultivation LLC and Medponics Illinois LLC battle over a license to grow cannabis for the state’s medical and adult-use markets, according to an NBC Chicago report.

Curative, which is based in Aurora, Ill., and owned by multistate cannabis operator Columbia Care, won the cultivation license in 2015, lost it following a dispute in a lower court and ultimately won it back on appeal, NBC Chicago reported.

Medponics wants to establish operations in Zion, Ill., and has been backed by the city in its bid for the license, according to the news outlet.

The license could potentially be worth $100 million, NBC Chicago reported, and the arguments in the case focus on the vetting process used to issue the initial cultivation licenses in 2015.

Medponics has argued that although Curative received the highest score on its application, it should have been disqualified because its operations would be too close to a residential area, according to NBC Chicago.

In lower court, Judge Michael Fusz sided with Medponics in a 2017 lawsuit, ruling that the state did not properly apply state law when awarding the license to Curative, the news outlet reported. However, Fusz also said in his ruling that the license should not necessarily go to Medponics, which received the fifth highest score on its application.

Fusz’s ruling was partially overturned when an appeals court later ruled that the zoning issue was more complicated than the lower court found, and the license was reinstated with Curative, NBC Chicago reported.

The Illinois Supreme Court is now expected to take up the case in early 2021.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Dec. 31 that he would expunge nearly half a million cannabis records and issue pardons for thousands more low-level cannabis convictions, according to a Chicago Sun-Times report.

The Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act, which passed in 2019 to legalize adult-use cannabis in Illinois, mandated that 47,000 cannabis-related arrest records between 2013 and 2019 be expunged by Jan. 1, the news outlet reported.

Pritzker’s New Year’s Eve announcement pardoned 9,129 low-level cannabis conviction records and expunged 492,192 cannabis arrest records, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Alabama Sen. Tim Melson (R-Florence) plans to reintroduce a medical cannabis legalization bill this year, according to an Alabama Public Radio report.

Medical cannabis legislation passed the Alabama Senate during the 2020 session, but failed to clear the House.

Melson’s bill would create a new board, the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission, to license and regulate the industry, Alabama Public Radio reported.

Currently, only industrial hemp is legal in the state.

Missouri Rep. Shamed Dogan has filed legislation that would place an adult-use cannabis legalization measure on the state’s 2022 ballot, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The measure, House Joint Resolution 30, is a constitutional amendment. It would leave Missouri’s medical cannabis program intact, but would repeal the text of the 2018 constitutional amendment that legalized medical cannabis, which would ultimately scrap the state’s controversial licensing process and limited license structure, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Instead, Dogan’s proposal would set up a cannabis licensing process that is similar to licensing any other business in the state, according to the news outlet.

The measure also directs the state to release anyone incarcerated for “non-violent, marijuana only offenses that are no longer illegal in the state of Missouri,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, as well as to stop monitoring those on probation or parole for those offenses.

In addition, the proposal would require Missouri courts to expunge civil and criminal records related to “all non-violent, marijuana-only offenses that are no longer illegal” within 60 days of the ballot measure’s passage, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The measure would levy a 12% tax on adult-use cannabis and a 4% tax on medical cannabis, the news outlet reported, and the revenue generated would be directed to the Smarter and Safer Missouri Fund, which would support the Missouri Veterans Commission, infrastructure projects and drug treatment programs.

Meanwhile, Missourians for a New Approach has announced plans for a 2022 ballot initiative to legalize adult-use cannabis after an unsuccessful signature campaign to get the issue before voters in 2020.