SPRINGFIELD –The Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) approved two cultivation centers this week to grow cannabis for adult-use purposes in advance of adult-use cannabis becoming legal on January 1, 2020.

Wellness Group Pharms, LLC in Anna and GTI Rock Island, LLC are now licensed to start growing for adult-use purposes. Currently only cultivation centers licensed to grow medical marijuana can apply for early approval adult-use growth. Social equity applicants will have additional opportunities to open cultivation centers in an upcoming phase.

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“The addition of these cultivation licenses brings our total adult-use cultivation centers to nine,” says Jeff Cox, IDOA Medicinal Plants Bureau Chief. “These centers are already hard at work in advance of legalization in January and the department looks forward to continuing to review additional applications as they come in.”

In addition to Wellness Group Pharms and GTI Rock Island, seven other cultivation centers have been licensed for adult- growth:

• Cresco Labs, LLC- Lincoln
• Cresco Labs, LLC- Kankakee
• Cresco Labs, LLC- Joliet
• Curative Health Cultivation, LLC- Aurora
• PharmaCann, LLC- Dwight
• PharmaCann, LLC- Hillcrest
• Revolution Cannabis, LLC (DBA Ascend Illinois)- Barry

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Craft growers, infusers and transporters license applications will be available through IDOA on January 7th.

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