Illinois becomes 11th state to allow recreational marijuana.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois' new governor delivered on a top campaign promise Tuesday by signing legislation legalizing small amounts of marijuana for recreational use, making the state the 11th to do so and the first to implement a statewide cannabis marketplace designed by legislators.
Under the measure, residents can purchase and possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana at a time. Nonresidents could have up to 15 grams. The law provides for cannabis purchases by adults 21 and older at approved dispensaries, which, after they're licensed and established, may start selling Jan. 1, 2020. That means possession remains a crime until Jan. 1, a spokesman for Senate Democrats said.
The marketplace portion of the Illinois law also addresses what critics have complained is the decades-long war on drugs' disproportionate impact on minority communities. Pritzker said that while blacks comprise 15 percent of Illinois' population, they count for 60 percent of cannabis-possession arrests.
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