Editor's Note: With a $5,000 application fee for medical marijuana dispensaries, and 211 applications reported in so far, that's already more than $1 million generated in Illinois. When the 60 selected dispensaries pay the required $30,000 licensing fee, that will bring in another $1.8 million. Cultivator applications are generating even more. Check out Cannabis Business Times' article "Illinois to Rake in $11 million From Marijuana Applications and Initial Licenses, and Another $3.7 million From Annual Renewals" for more details on the total estimated financial windfall from the medical marijuana program in Illinois.
A total of 60 dispensaries will be licensed to fill prescriptions statewide, and 211 have applied so far
The clock is ticking on the state’s first decisions concerning the licensing of medical marijuana in Illinois.
“We’re a locomotive moving down the tracks and nothing is going to stop us,” says Marla Levi, who has submitted an application for a patient card. “I can’t wait!”
Levi suffers from multiple sclerosis, one of 40 debilitating illnesses that are eligible for medical marijuana treatment. She says marijuana, which she consumes in brownies, has done far more to alleviate her symptoms than other prescription treatments.
“It relaxes the whole body,” she says. “It alleviated my pain, lets me sleep better, and pain is part of the MS.”
