Illinois cannabis applicants fighting injunction against new licenses

Cannabis license applicants and Illinois officials are scrambling to change a court order after a judge prohibited the state from issuing up to 60 new craft grower licenses that were due out by Dec. 21.

Cook County Judge Neil Cohen issued an injunction Nov. 22, preventing the Department of Agriculture from issuing the licenses “until further order of the court.”

The order follows a similar order from Cook County Judge Moshe Jacobius preventing the awarding of 185 new marijuana retail store licenses until litigation over some of the licenses is resolved — which could take months or years.

Cannabis licenses had already been delayed more than a year by the state after complaints that the application scoring process had been badly mishandled by contractor KPMG. Some identical applications had been scored differently, applicants said, and many applicants had not been told additional information they needed to provide, as had been required by the law.

Those applicants filed a request for the judge to modify his court order to issue the remaining licenses by Dec. 21, as required by state law.

“There’s a deadline people have relied upon that needs to be respected,” Holz said. “It’s just a massive holdup. ... Every day that goes by, these people are going to fall further and further behind.”

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office argued in court briefings that the order should be modified so that the Department of Agriculture could announce new licensees, but not issue them. That would make clear the winners and losers, and clear the way for any other unsuccessful applicants to join the litigation.

“While the issuance of those licenses remains on hold due to a court order, the administration remains committed to helping applicants from diverse backgrounds enter and remain part of the state’s cannabis industry,” Greene said.