The state organization representing local units of government is asking leaders in the General Assembly to make clarifying changes to the recreational marijuana law before it takes effect Jan. 1.
Brad Cole, executive director of the Illinois Municipal League, said the 1,298 cities, villages and towns in the state need guidance on four aspects of the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act, signed into law by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker in late June.
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SPRINGFIELD — The state organization representing local units of government is asking leaders in the General Assembly to make clarifying changes to the recreational marijuana law before it takes effect Jan. 1.
Brad Cole, executive director of the Illinois Municipal League, said the 1,298 cities, villages and towns in the state need guidance on four aspects of the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act, signed into law by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker in late June.
There is confusion, he said, about how law enforcers will know a person who is growing cannabis in their home is doing so legally as a prescribed medical marijuana user. Municipalities also are uncertain how they may regulate the drug.
Cole is asking legislators to write what is known as a trailer bill, a companion measure that clarifies a statute. The idea has bipartisan support.
Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, one of the statute’s framers and her chamber’s sponsor, said, “We are likely to be doing a trailer bill.”
Republican Sen. Jason Barickman, from Bloomington, said he thinks his colleagues spent “a lot of time on the legislative language,” and any subsequent bill should be consistent with the goals of the original negotiations.
“I understand and support the idea of a trailer bill to make clarifications that the various stakeholders have brought forward. I think it’s very likely we’ll see one for multiple reasons, and we may see it as early as this fall,” he said. “I anticipate hearing from many stakeholders about clarifications they would like to see. By and large, that’s what the IML is seeking here.”
In a letter to lawmakers, Cole highlighted four points the league’s members would like the General Assembly to address. Each one, he said, was mentioned in his testimony before a panel of legislators in late May before the recreational marijuana bill became law.
“These are common sense issues” to determine what is legal and what is no, Cole said.