Grow Life 420

Consumers who buy cannabis products in Illinois may help reduce the number of carjackings, shootings and other forms of violence that occur in parts of Chicago, the south suburbs and other areas of the state.

That’s the theory behind a groundbreaking program billed as the nation’s first of its kind. The innovative concept in restorative justice is about to get its first infusion of cash, more than a year after Illinois began allowing people to buy cannabis for recreational use.

“No other state has done this,” said Christian Perry, community development manager for Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. “No other state has said, ‘We’re going to take a portion of this revenue and put it right back into the community.’”

– Read the entire article at Chicago Tribune.

Despite promises that cannabis legalization in Illinois would fund more minority business participation and neighborhood improvements, the state has yet to spend $62 million collected for those purposes.

Part of the delay in awarding the money is due to problems with the state’s system to award new cannabis business licenses. The other reason for the holdup, officials say, is because of an outpouring of requests for funding.

The lack of help for communities and entrepreneurs who need it badly is another reason for state officials to issue new licenses as soon as they can, said state Sen. Heather Steans, co-sponsor of the law that legalized marijuana and taxed it to help people in the state’s most desperate areas.

– Read the entire article at Chicago Tribune.

The year 2020 dawned with thousands of people lined up, some overnight, waiting to be among the first to buy legal recreational marijuana in Illinois.

As the long, strange year comes to an end, people are lined up at food banks, to get coronavirus nasal swabs and in some cases, to be among the first to receive a vaccine that may mark the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And people are still buying weed. Lots of it.

Despite the massive economic disruption wrought by the pandemic, 80 recreational cannabis dispensaries have opened in Illinois and business is on pace to top $1 billion in 2020, including medical marijuana sales.

– Read the entire article at Chicago Tribune.

While inflammation is the cause of many maladies, it’s also sometimes the remedy. It accounts for back pain, arthritis flare ups, headaches, bowel disorders and even an increase in heart disease. Alzheimer’s is yet another affliction associated with inflammation. And cannabis? It’s a known anti-inflammatory.

As studies show, not only does cannabis have a positive effect in taming inflammation and a myriad ailments associated with inflammation, the entourage effect created by the combination of cannabinoids, including THC, gives a person an even better result. When this synergy takes place, inflammation is greatly relieved, and thus so are the diseases and pains that go with it.

– Read the entire article at Chicago Tribune.

Now that recreational pot is legal in Illinois, marijuana enthusiasts may feel like it’s finally time to emerge from hiding.

But people with jobs — or looking for them — might want to stay in the shadows for now as companies figure out how to handle employees who partake.

In Illinois, employers are allowed to fire workers who bring cannabis to the office, show up impaired or fail random drug tests, according to the state’s new law legalizing recreational marijuana use, which was amended in December to clarify employers’ rights. Companies also are able to reject job applicants who don’t pass drug screens.

– Read the entire article at Chicago Tribune.