Medical marijuana rules would require about $500K to open for business

Medical marijuana rules would require about $500K to open for business


Illinois regulators have come out with proposed requirements for opening medical marijuana grow centers and dispensaries — and they come with a steep price tag that advocates say could be costly for consumers.


For dispensaries to sell the pot, state officials proposed a $5,000 nonrefundable application fee, proof of $400,000 in assets, a $30,000 permit fee and a yearly permit renewal fee of $25,000.


For cultivation centers, the Department of Agriculture proposed a $25,000 nonrefundable application fee, $250,000 in liquid assets, payment of $200,000 upon approval of a permit and a renewal fee of $100,000.


The costs are sure to eliminate a lot of potential entrepreneurs, said Joseph Friedman, a pharmacist from Lincolnshire who hopes to open a dispensary.


"Probably 50 percent of the wannabes are now out," he said. "This is going to bring out just the serious players who are well-capitalized and well-credentialed."


The 71 pages of proposed regulations for dispensaries, released Friday, are daunting even for established businesses and will likely require close to six figures in additional fees to attorneys, auditors and engineers, said Nick Williams. He is general counsel for Normal, Ill.-based HW Holdings, which owns a chain of eyeglass stores throughout Illinois and is looking to get into the medical marijuana business.


Williams' firm favors strict regulations to establish a reputable business, and he anticipates it may take a year of losses before dispensaries turn a profit.


"A lot of people are going to say, 'My good Lord, this is a lot to come to the table with,'" he said.


Chris Lindsey, legislative analyst for the nonprofit advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project, warned that those expenses will be passed on to consumers.


"The costs appear excessive for cultivation centers," he said. "I would hope regulators will consider what negative impacts these fees would have."


Dispensary applicants will be scored on a long list of requirements for their business and security plans, including fingerprinting and criminal background checks on owners, operators and patients, and 24-hour video surveillance that must be viewable online by state police and regulators.


A new Illinois law took effect this year to allow medical marijuana for patients diagnosed with any of about three dozen specific medical conditions. But because of the lengthy regulatory process, industry watchers do not expect marijuana to be available to the public until sometime in 2015.


The law allows for 22 grow centers and 60 dispensaries spread around the state. Proposed rules call for 13 dispensaries in Chicago; 11 in suburban Cook County; three each in DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will counties; one each in McHenry and DeKalb counties; and one shared between Grundy and Kendall counties.


The rest of the state would get >one dispensary >>per Illinois State >Police district.


http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-79251209/

and 24-hour video surveillance that must be viewable online by state police and regulators.

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Don't you dare touching that mariguana!

wow. those who believe its a dangerous drug and not a plant will stop at nothing to keep it a lucrative drug instead of a plant easily harvested and distributed. Anyone else think they might be squeezing the compassion out of the market with this price tag? Got to be sure the cruel spineless money hungry fucks that run the health care industry are the only ones in the pot game. Cant have any kind of affordable health care with these fuckers running the show.

I think these fees are being proposed to limit smaller competition. This is a market share grab by the big players no doubt. They're probably selling it as a way for the state to ensure "professionals" are the ones with the permits.

Marijuana advocacy is going to get to the point where people are going to fight for the right to grow their own. Medical or not.

Lost of basement grows will still be in action.

True enough, they might be able to take my money away but they can never stop my personal. None of that is surprising though.

Why not simply demand your natural born rights to grow plants?
who would stand against such truth? (let such fools stand and show themselves and show the rest what they really are about)
if such was your front line artillery it would change everything about this fight...
such would be like turning on a light in a room full of light sensitive hypocrites...
these regulation laws popping up everywhere are adding insult to the injury that we already are burdened with in the absence of our most basic human rights...

It's intimidating when they'll throw you in prison

Rrog said:

It's intimidating when they'll throw you in prison

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i hear ya, but it need not be that, its simply a matter of shifting the question in folks minds from 'legalese weed or not' to 'are we endowed with certain rights' etc and to do that you need not go to prison, just insist that the most relevant question is that of your human rights and how avoiding such an obvious common truth erodes the rights of all people no mater if they are growing carrots or cannabis and goes strait to their ability to feed themselves etc...

Only 22 grow centers will not be enough for override price gouging. The no homegrows and 25k "license fee"
bit is trash also but, everything else could have much worse. CT & MA were both much more costly and restrictive.
I can see getting 10+ people to put in 60k or 5 people to put in 120K a piece for an all employee owned and operated
dispensary that would not be that bad.

CT was the most recent state to write new rules and they were horrible. They only allowed 5 dispensaries and three producer
licenses. You needed to put several million in escrow before applying for a 200k? license. Patients are going to get robbed for
60+ dollar 1/8th's. Not that politicians give a fook about the most important people in this equation. The older I get the more sick
I get thinking about 90% of those scum.

They all use CA laws for an example. "We don't want it to become like CA" How dare we make easy for sick people to get
a card and then be able to find quality and affordable medicine within a 20 minute drive.

slumdog80 said:

Only 22 grow centers will not be enough for override price gouging. The no homegrows and 25k "license fee"
bit is trash also but, everything else could have much worse. CT & MA were both much more costly and restrictive.
I can see getting 10+ people to put in 60k or 5 people to put in 120K a piece for an all employee owned and operated
dispensary that would not be that bad.

CT was the most recent state to write new rules and they were horrible. They only allowed 5 dispensaries and three producer
licenses. You needed to put several million in escrow before applying for a 200k? license. Patients are going to get robbed for
60+ dollar 1/8th's. Not that politicians give a fook about the most important people in this equation. The older I get the more sick
I get thinking about 90% of those scum.

They all use CA laws for an example. "We don't want it to become like CA" How dare we make easy for sick people to get
a card and then be able to find quality and affordable medicine within a 20 minute drive.

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cali passed the only law that even remotely resembles a reach for human rights with 215 and everything has gone backwards from there with ever law in every state including cali thanks to the controlled 'legalization movement' ie norml, mpp and dpa etc...if such groups were honest and truly fighting for truth and justice and human rights etc they would most definitely have been putting forward a different message all these years, instead they have said and done things that could only really benefit the corpsgov when the smoke clears...and yet somehow 'we' still continue to think its a good idea to let such speak for us all...?
beg for regulations like a slave and the corpsgov will reward you with a bone...
stand up like humans and restore your natural born rights and the corpsgov will fall like a house of cards...

Rrog said:

It's intimidating when they'll throw you in prison

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Rrog here is an example of how to spark different and more legitimate critical thinking about the so called 'marijuana' issue...

Short URL: http://wh.gov/lnb4s
Save and Share this URL: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/recognize-naturally-endowed-human-right-grow-and-use-plants-pursuit-life-and-effort-live/yPP7lQxX

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:

Recognize the naturally endowed human right to grow and use plants in pursuit of life and in effort to live

Restore the natural human right to grow and use plants.
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
Humans are naturally endowed with the fundamental right to partner with the soil and posses the seeds of, and partner with, and grow the plants of this earth for their own uses as individuals in pursuit of life and in effort to live, and that such basic human rights exist and are held in perpetuity outside of the constitutional responsibility of government to protect an individuals right to engage in commerce.
Created: Feb 08, 2014
Issues:Agriculture, Human Rights, Natural Resources

such is only one example, one stone hitting the water where there should be a title wave caused by mountains of rock hitting the same...and so far only 2 sigs on the above petition which makes it very hard to accept that going to prison is keeping folks from standing up like humans...

LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE...there should be a button for this.....

its il,,that whole state is fucked,i still have a dui on me record there from 1980,they wont remove it
i havent lived there since 81,its the only state in this country i cant drive in or get a dl,
been trying for 10 years to get that removed,and they wont remove it,even after over 30 years
so none of that shit supprizes me at all,hell thats where our famouse idiot pres is from,lmao

JoObJoOb said:

its il,,that whole state is fucked,i still have a dui on me record there from 1980,they wont remove it
i havent lived there since 81,its the only state in this country i cant drive in or get a dl,
been trying for 10 years to get that removed,and they wont remove it,even after over 30 years
so none of that shit supprizes me at all,hell thats where our famouse idiot pres is from,lmao

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Not all states have criminal records expunged, particularly back in the 80 s. If you are serious on getting it expunged, hire a good attorney, especially if you've never caught another case since.

And that "idiot president" has more education, life experience, and successes than probably anyone on this board. I'm not exactly his biggest fan, and have my issues with him, but I assure you he's far from an idiot.

500K is chump change.
It's only a few measly dollars.

Milovan said:

500K is chump change.
It's only a few measly dollars.

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the catholic church once sold tickets to heaven and many chumps fell for it...
exercising your natural born rights to grow any plant species shouldnt be dependent on being permitted to do so by any standard of regulation unless your intent is to engage in commerce and then all bets are off cuz what is caesars is caesars lol...