“These things seem to be simple, and that’s what we’re learning: Everything isn’t simple.”
While Illinois’s cannabis market is booming and the state has made progress in diversifying new licensees, significant hurdles remain for businesses hoping to enter the expanding market, according to an independent review of the industry.
Celebratory news releases have marked several industry successes in recent months—the state saw the opening of its 100th social equity cannabis dispensary and surpassed $1 billion in cannabis sales in 2024.
Gov. JB Pritzker (D), since signing the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act in 2019, has often repeated that social equity is at the core of Illinois’ cannabis program. In July, he praised a newly commissioned, independent diversity report regarding the industry that identified progress—and hurdles—for the stated diversification goal.
The independent diversity study—commissioned by the state at a cost of $2.5 million by Peoria-based Nerevu Group consulting firm—found that while the state has awarded more licenses to women and people of color than any other regulated market in the United States, white men are still the demographic most likely to have a cannabis license in Illinois.
But the Department of Agriculture’s most recent licensee
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