CHICAGO (AP) – Illinois’ first day of legal recreational marijuana generated nearly $3.2 million in sales, state officials announced Thursday.
There were 77, 128 transactions on New Year’s Day, when the law legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes took effect, according to Toi Hutchinson, senior adviser to Gov. J.B. Pritzker on cannabis control.
Dispensaries reported long lines the first day of sales and expected them to continue through the weekend.
“Those lines actually show there’s an incredible opportunity to grow this industry, Hutchinson told reporters Thursday in Chicago. “There’s new room for new people to come in.”
By comparison, neighboring Michigan, which made recreational marijuana legal starting Dec. 1, generated $3.1 million in the first two weeks of sales. First-day sales in Colorado, the first state to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use, were over $1 million on Jan. 1, 2014.
Hutchinson said Thursday marked “phase two of the Illinois legalization law, with the day being a deadline for applicants under the so-called social equity provisions of the law to apply.
Designed to help minority applicants who’ve been most adversely affected by law enforcement efforts to fight the drug, the provisions include ways for qualified applicants to pay lower licensing fees and get business loans and technical assistance.
Also under the law, some marijuana sales revenue will be earmarked for neighborhood development grants, and low-level marijuana convictions will be expunged. Pritzker granted more than 11,000 such pardons Tuesday.
People began lining up on Wednesday at 6 a.m., the earliest that Illinois’ new law allowed such sales.
Among those who bought on the first day was Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton who purchased edible gummies in Chicago.
“I’m here to celebrate a big day in Illinois,” Stratton said.
Illinois already allowed medical marijuana, but it is now the 11th state to allow its use and sale for recreational purposes. The law approved by the Democratic-controlled Legislature and signed byPritzker allows people 21 or older to possess of up to 30 grams (1.06 ounces) of cannabis flower and up to 5 grams (0.17 ounces) of cannabis concentrate.
