In our six-part series, “Part 2: What Illinois cannabis patients really want,” we discussed the absence of safe on-premise spaces in Illinois for legal consumption of cannabis. Now, cannabis consumers and medical patients who have been asking for these rights for years have an advocate in the newly founded Illinois Cannabis Consumption Association (ICCA).
The Purpose of the Illinois Cannabis Consumption Association is to promote the legality of on-premise cannabis use and provide safe spaces to consume cannabis in the State of Illinois. The currently board includes three members: President Nathan Scanlon, Vice President Dipesh Sharma, and Secretary-Treasurer Madeline Scanlon.
“Our main action right now is engaging with other political organizations to shape existing legislation and work to pass new laws at the State level,” Nathan said. “We have had some opportunities recently to give a lot of input, but it’s still a work in progress.” The ICCA is building up its following and presence and asking fellow advocates to become members and help grow the organization’s strength.
The CCA is working to legalize the Illinois “Cannabis Hospitality Industry” and plans to lobby Illinois legislature and municipal governments to pass laws and ordinances to legalize on-premise cannabis use in as many business models as possible by creating a new exemption to the Smoke Free Illinois Act. “We hope this new exemption will be flexible enough to apply to all potential on-premise businesses,” said Nathan. “We are seeking to legalize on-premise smoke lounges and restaurant or coffee shops plus so much more: bed and breakfasts, private event venues, fitness studios, educational facilities, and so much more.”
The ICCA also is pursuing decriminalization of public consumption, a universally ordinance for all municipal, and a legal exemption to allows for on-premise cannabis consumption at a class of businesses. “Municipalities could zone these potential ‘Cannabis Hospitality Venues,’ as we like to call them, in the same manner they zone liquor consumption,” Nathan said. “We want the highest degree of flexibility here, allowing on-premise into as many potential business models as we can with as low of a barrier to entry as possible. A key mistake, we believe, of Illinois’s cannabis laws, was over-restricting the market. This has caused it to be nearly 1-billion less in value than initially projected. We don’t want to repeat that.”
After attending community events, talking to potential business owners, political organizations in the cannabis space, and many more consumers, ICCA board members saw that there was a demand for political organizing on this issue. “I saw people jumping up to their feet demanding the State do something, Nathan said. “And really that’s the key thing. This is a State issue. The barrier is the Smoke Free Illinois Act. Everywhere we go, people want to smoke up, and they can’t. Why can’t all these parties and events be made into legal business is the simple question.”
The ICCA can be contacted for more information on LinkedIn and Instagram @meet.icca or by email at [email protected]. The petition to “Demand the Chicago City Council pass an ordinance legalizing Cannabis Consumption Lounges” can be signed here. For more Illinois cannabis industry news, visit here.
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