Medical marijuana should be on sale for the first time in Illinois in the next two weeks, officials said, if the state clears the last remaining hurdles.
The first crop of medical marijuana in Illinois has been grown, harvested, processed and packaged, industry leaders said. But three major obstacles must be removed before getting it to patients. The product must be tested for purity and potency. Dispensaries must have access to a statewide database to verify patient registration. And patients must receive their identification cards.
To address those issues, regulators said they started sending the first of 3,200 IDs to patients Friday. Four laboratories have been certified by the state to begin testing. And the database is already tracking the product at the warehouses where it is being grown.
Those developments leave entrepreneurs and patients optimistic that the program will begin any day now, more than two years after state lawmakers approved it.
Read Robert McCoppin’s “Medical marijuana stores to open in Illinois within 2 weeks”: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-illinois-medical-marijuana-dispensaries-met-20151101-story.html
