Companies That Lost Out On Lottery For Marijuana Dispensary Licenses To Get Second Chance At Passing Grade

CHICAGO (CBS/AP) — After a barrage of complaints that only 21 companies made the cut for the upcoming lottery for 75 new marijuana dispensary licenses, Gov. JB Pritzker has announced companies that missed out will get a second chance at making the grade.

Earlier this month, the state announced only 21 of 700 applicants for up to 75 new dispensary licenses would move forward to the upcoming lottery process, after they received perfect scores on their applications.

With so few applicants making it into the lottery, the Illinois Legislative Black and Latino caucuses want Pritzker to pause the lottery process until the public can learn more about how and why the 21 finalists were chosen. They have questioned if the process was truly fair.

Although Pritzker has repeatedly said he does not plan to delay the lottery, it has yet to be scheduled, and now the governor’s office said applicants who didn’t receive the maximum score of 252 points will have the opportunity to amend their applications, or challenge their scores. The lottery could have started as early as Sept. 18.

The governor’s office said applicants who did not get perfect scores on their applications will receive a “supplementary deficiency notice,” along with a score sheet indicating each part of their application on which they lost points. Those applicants will then get a chance to respond to the notice, and amend their application exhibits, or ask the state to rescore their application if they believe there was a mistake in scoring. [Read More @ CBSN Chicago]