Home grow of cannabis for certain Illinois residents with their medical marijuana card begins on January 1, 2020 – here’s how Home Grow in Illinois works.
How many plants can you grow in Illinois?
Illinois home grow of cannabis is available to medical cannabis patients in their primary residence – with a limit of five (5) cannabis plants over five (5) inches tall – per household & not per person.
Text of the bill regarding the home grow for Illinois medical marijuana residents for their primary residence is below, along with the transcript of the video & article on the law itself.
In fact, with the recent legalization of home growing marijuana for medicinal purposes in the state of Illinois, more growers than ever are turning to the Internet for advice.
Knowing how to grow cannabis in Illinois involves being aware of this state’s unique requirements – and finding ways to work with what you have.
Fill Out an Application and Get a Medical Cannabis Card
Unfortunately, not just anyone can grow their own cannabis in Illinois. You need to be planning on using cannabis for medicinal purposes, and you need to apply for a medical cannabis license – or card. To get a license, you need to apply – used to take up to ten months to a year to be processed in 2015. However, by 2020, you can get your medical cannabis card in Illinois in only a day or less.
Not all prospective growers will receive their licenses, either. However, it is the first (and necessary!) step you must take.
Benefits of Growing Indoors
The Illinois climate is such that growing cannabis outdoors is not widely recommended. Therefore, you’ll be the most successful growing cannabis indoors.
There are plenty of benefits to doing so. Not only will you be able to control your temperature, air, light, and humidity, but you’ll also provide your plants with a more stable growing environment. This can enhance your productivity over the long term.
Pay Attention to Your Environmental Requirements
If you’ve gardened in the past, you probably know how finicky certain plants can be! Cannabis is no different. You’ll need to adjust the lighting for every stage of growth and provide at least 40 to 60% humidity. You’ll need temperatures of 70 to 85 degrees (when the lights are on) and 58 to 70 degrees (when the lights are off).
You’ll also need to maintain the ideal air quality with a vent, airport, and filter, and you’ll need to avoid overwatering as well.
Start Small
If you’re lucky enough to get a license to grow cannabis in Illinois, you’ll probably be chomping at the bit to get started. Don’t let yourself get carried away.
Make sure you have the proper equipment and know-how before you get started. There are all kinds of materials you will need to invest in, and the better quality you can afford, the more well-off you will be later on.
At a very basic level, you will need:
A grow room or grow box
Lights
Mechanical timer
Fan
Carbon filter
Thermometer
Hygrometer
Get the Right Seeds
In addition to the equipment mentioned above, you’ll also need to invest in the right seeds. If you’re growing marijuana for medicinal purposes, you’ll want to choose a strain with the largest amounts of cannabinoids. Otherwise, the best type of cannabis will vary, but options include sativa, indica, and hybrids.
Master the Grower’s Timeline
Once you have all of your equipment, you’ll need to acquaint yourself with all of the steps involved in growing marijuana. Of course, you’ll start by planting your seeds and waiting for them to germinate, but then you’ll have to exercise some patience as your plants move through the seedling, vegetative, flowering, and then finally – the harvesting and curing stages.
Be patient, though, and your hard work will pay off. Learning how to grow cannabis in Illinois is not only personally rewarding and enriching but can be highly profitable for you, too.
Illinois Home Grow Statue is Article 10 of the CRTA for Personal Use
(b) Cultivating cannabis for personal use is subject to the following limitations: (1) An Illinois resident 21 years of age or older who
is a registered qualifying patient under the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Program Act may cultivate cannabis plants, with a limit of 5 plants that are more than 5 inches tall, per household without a cultivation center or craft grower license. In this Section, "resident" means a person who has been domiciled in the State of Illinois for a period of 30 days before cultivation.
(2) Cannabis cultivation must take place in an
enclosed, locked space.
(3) Adult registered qualifying patients may purchase
cannabis seeds from a dispensary for the purpose of home cultivation. Seeds may not be given or sold to any other person.
(4) Cannabis plants shall not be stored or placed in
a location where they are subject to ordinary public view, as defined in this Act. A registered qualifying patient who cultivates cannabis under this Section shall take reasonable precautions to ensure the plants are secure from unauthorized access, including unauthorized access by a person under 21 years of age.
(5) Cannabis cultivation may occur only on
residential property lawfully in possession of the cultivator or with the consent of the person in lawful possession of the property. An owner or lessor of residential property may prohibit the cultivation of cannabis by a lessee.
(6) (Blank). (7) A dwelling, residence, apartment, condominium
unit, enclosed, locked space, or piece of property not divided into multiple dwelling units shall not contain more than 5 plants at any one time.
(8) Cannabis plants may only be tended by registered
qualifying patients who reside at the residence, or their authorized agent attending to the residence for brief periods, such as when the qualifying patient is temporarily away from the residence.
(9) A registered qualifying patient who cultivates
more than the allowable number of cannabis plants, or who sells or gives away cannabis plants, cannabis, or cannabis-infused products produced under this Section, is liable for penalties as provided by law, including the Cannabis Control Act, in addition to loss of home cultivation privileges as established by rule.
(this is a transcript of the video and podcast above.)
Oh, good morning everybody. I thought it’d be a good idea to maybe get closer to the microphone. But come on here and go over what happened last night in Springfield, Illinois. You see, Illinois actually legalized marijuana. Now, when I say Illinois legalized marijuana, I guess I should qualify that. Illinois’ senate voted and passed legalization of marijuana. And Illinois’ legalization of marijuana was HB1438. And some people were asking,
“Why HB1438 and not SB007?”
So I’m going to share my screen really, really quick. And then you’ll be able to see these, the bill.
So if you google cannabis lawyer, that’s how you can find me. My name’s Tom Howard. I’m a … This is my website Cannabis Industry Lawyer. Currently only the Chicago address is up there. I’m having an issue with … Google my business. But you know how that is.
So anyway, this is a copy of the bill. And if I hit control find again, you’ll see that I was searching for resident. The reason for me searching for resident … And I believe it was if you do a control F at this domain here … And this domain, don’t worry, I’ll drop that in the description of this video once I get done. You’ll be able to see what the Illinois Senate passed yesterday. And some people are saying, “No home grow?” Actually that’s what I was just showing you.
So home grow will still be there. However they have made sure that it is going to be somebody, it’s limited to an Illinois resident, 21 of age or older, who is a qualifying patient under the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis pilot program. Those may cultivate without limit of five plants that are more than five inches tall per household. Without a cultivation center or craft grower license. And then in this section, resident, means a person who has been domiciled in the state of Illinois for a period of 30 days before cultivation.
Illinois home grow cannabis
So as people are telling you that there’s not any home grow in Illinois’ legalization of adult use. Partial credit, there’s not home grow for people who are not medical marijuana patients. If you’re a medical marijuana patient in Illinois then you still do have home grow. What does it mean when I say … Okay it’s a little misleading. I said Illinois legalized marijuana which technically is true. This is the first time that Illinois has ever voted to legalize marijuana at the state level. It’s just that states of course, except for Nebraska, are bicameral. And so the Senate has passed. But that’s weird because the Senate bill is SB007. But that’s not the bill they passed. Instead they pass HB1438. And HB1438 of course is House bill. And so that House bill was what was introduced to our … And then changed by Cassidy in the House to qualify as to the home grow to be only these medical marijuana patients. The other thing that I’m going to then jump in back to the screen share here real quick. I’m going to not only share you the … So go to, again it’s right there, page 40 of the Illinois Med …
Term 2020 appears 32 times in Illinois Adult Use Cannabis Law
Well it’s not medical marijuana, it’s adult use marijuana now. That’s where you can find your home grow if you are a medical patient. But let’s talk about the 2020 year. That should of … 2020. Why is my keyboard not responding? Okay, that’s responding. Control find … Okay now it’s working. Small technical issues always happen. So let’s look for the term 2020. And the term 2020 will appear 32 times in this law. Why are we looking for the term 2020? Because if this passes we’re going to go into an interesting time in Illinois’ history where a lot of applications are for specific types of licenses of adult use marijuana will come online in the year 2020. At least that’s when those applications will be due. The first red letter date is going to be May of 2020. But actually let’s start with the real first letter date, January 1st of 2020. January 1st of 2020 will be the date that you can actually go and buy adult use marijuana. It also may be the date that is the effective date of this.
Now yesterday we were on the show with me talking about the cannabis legalization news. Subscribe now to join us. Every Wednesday at 2pm we go over the cannabis legalization news for the week. And then they usually have some very big cannabis legalization news as soon as we get off that broadcast. Vis-a-vis the Illinois Senate passing marijuana. Sorry. I don’t have anybody to throw to that can fill time. So January 1st of 2020 you will have legalized marijuana and it should be legal to buy. But it will not be legal to buy from everybody. Instead it will only be legal to buy from the early approval adult use dispensary organizations. So here I am. So these are going to be basically the medical marijuana companies are going to grandfathered in. And those will be the ones that can begin selling cannabis to purchasers on that first date of 2020.
Now of course, that time 2020 appears 32 times. And I’m not looking … There it is. Here we go, here we go. That’s what I was looking for. This May 1st, 2020 deadline, awarding of conditional adult use dispensary organization’s license prior to Jan. 1, 2021. The departments, the department of course means the department of agriculture, shall issue up to 75 adult use organizational licenses before May 1, 2020. And then they will make the adult use application, yes, the application will not be until October 1st, 2019. Maybe you guys, well you probably know this about me. I represent a lot of hemp companies. And the hemp application was not made public until April 30th of this year. That’s right, one month ago to today. And at that time my phone exploded and I’ve been helping a lot of people.
But now we’re going to have a very similar thing. Where a lot of people are going to want one of those 75 licenses. And they’re going to want to apply for one of those licenses before May 1st of 2020. But this isn’t going to be as easy as a hemp license which is very user friendly and great to get to. Jeff Cox and the department of medical plants down in the Illinois Department of Agriculture did a great job on that application. But you have a longer window. Why is it going to be the applications won’t available until October 1st and they will not be accepted after January 20th? And then you’re not going to issue those applications until May 1st. So think about that. October 1, Jan 1, May 1 … Phone call from South Carolina. May not be the first client to call me today.
So you have January 1st of 2021 is when your applications are due. You don’t get the application until October 1st of 2019. And there’s not going to be 75. There’s going to be a lot more than 75. They’re trying to get their foot in that door. But then they aren’t going to announce who wins them for five months. And these are the types of applications that there’s going to be scoring. And the applications are going to be huge because you have to put together this team to check off all these boxes that will be forthcoming in these applications. So you understand, if you are trying to get up to the 200 and there may be 212 points in this. We aren’t going to do a video right now because I have a meeting in about 45 that I have to get to.
And so we can talk a little bit about timing and that home grow is still there for medical marijuana patients. Let’s jump back into the screen share and you will see some other interesting red letter dates. So this one, to insure the geographic dispersion of [condotional 00:08:58] adult use organization license holders. The following number of licensees shall be awarded in each BLS region as a blah, blah, blah. And so I actually live here in Peoria, we’re going to three. That’s pretty freakin cool. The St. Louis area will get four, Chicago of course gets 47. And this is quite sparse. I mean there’s a lot more to Illinois … I mean Rock Island’s only getting one for crying out loud. But Peoria’s getting three. Yeah, way to do that [Jehan 00:09:24]. Good one.
And so the other ones, there’s the January 21st cultivation. Let’s see, the department eight … Oh I’m not even sure what that one is. The program license community college cannabis vocational pilot program. Oh that’s really cool. That’s something that I did not even know … I didn’t even know that was in there. Article 25, Cannabis College, Cannabis Vocational pilot program. That’s right Illinois, go to community college and major in cannabis. Fuck I might even sign up. The thing about that is these are two separate bills. The bill that was SB007 that the Senate did not pass, instead the Senate passed HB1438 as was introduced in the House. That bill is 610 pages longs. So the … There being a community college cannabis vocational pilot program being in there that nobody’s talking about. That doesn’t surprise me all that much. But it looks like coming to Illinois, major in cannabis. It’s pretty sweet.
And I’m sorry about that. I just had to tick through all these 2020s. There’s 32 of them in the act. And now I’m going to zoom back over to that and we’re going to talk really quickly about what might be the most exciting aspect of the Illinois adult use legalization passed yesterday by the Senate. And hopefully we’ll talk about what would be an ideal case. And I don’t know if it’s going to happen. We’ll talk about it real quick. But 40 craft grow license by July 1 of 2020. And then they cannot sell until after December 21st of 2021. And then December 21st of 2021 they are [inaudible 00:11:19] up to another 60 craft grow licenses. So there’s going to be 100 at least, well 100 for now, craft grow licenses coming up. And then there are restrictions on those craft growing licenses. And I’m going to … And then here’s another one of them. And that no time craft grower license exceeds 150 and other restrictions. And then here’s the application stuff that we’ll go over as well.
The craft growers are interesting in the sense that that’s going to be the way that people can get back into the cannabis space. And there’s limitations on who and what may own all of them. There’s going to be a lot of log jam in there for the dispensing, for the craft growing. And then after those get in play, Illinois stops … Because like okay, you grow, you process, you dispense. Right? Who is driving the pot? That’s going to be a new license that will be coming up, transportation. So after such, one of these dates, one of these red letter dates that’s in there, you’ll be able to get a different type of license. And the dispensary and the cultivation center and the processor won’t be able to transport the cannabis. They’ll have to hand it off to the transporter that’s licensed to transport that cannabis. So I’m going to wrap this up because allergies are killing me.
As you may not be aware, Illinois is suffering through, well the whole country’s suffering through what may be one of the worst floods since The Great Flood of like 1927. Or whatever the heck they said on the news. The corn is not really in the fields. The fields are basically marsh. You could probably grow rice. That’s … We have like rice paddy levels of water out there in Illinois. And I think that’s actually set back the hemp crop quite a bit. Who cares? Yesterday, the Illinois Senate voted to legalize marijuana. Hopefully what happens now, because the Illinois Legislature adjourns on Friday, tomorrow, May 31st. Today the House will pass it’s own bill, HB1438. Tomorrow J.B. Pritzker will sign it into law. But maybe that’s too quick. Maybe they need time to, you know, exploit these types of headlines. And that would be an amazing one month from him coming out the first weekend of May and then holding this press conference. Where he produced those nine pages that I created a page on. And this will be a page as well. But this one will be a truncated page to very much focused on home grow for adult use marijuana in Illinois. And then some other ancillary matters.
All of these 610 pages, provided that it passes, will make my content creating job somewhat easier. But also somewhat more daunting. Because as I make this content then you rank on the internet and then people call you. And then people want you to help them put together these applications. And of course you absolutely are onboard for that. And then it’s a lot of … It’s going to … I might be gray in a year. We’ll see. Hopefully I can sleep. So tomorrow, hopefully they pass their own bill and then J.B. Pritzker has a great press conference. Everybody says what an amazing thing this is going to be for the state of Illinois. And it will be. And then we move forward into. However, I don’t know if that’ll happen today. It wouldn’t surprise me. That’s really amazing if Illinois does become to the first legislative state to legalize marijuana. And to do so they needed both, not the President, the governor and both Houses of the State Legislature. And then they still needed … And I can just …
To end this I’ll share the end of the Illinois adult use bill. It ends with miscellaneous article 999. I believe this one was drafted by [Herman Cane 00:15:21]. As you can see it’s 610 pages long. No acceleration or delay. Oh gosh. Yeah. Because they probably put that … Okay. Now my coder in India needs something. All right, well that’s just kind of how it is being me. You get some time and then people want stuff. All right, I got to get to the office. I have somebody coming in.
ARTICLE 10.
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PERSONAL USE OF CANNABIS
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Section 10-5. Personal use of cannabis; restrictions on
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cultivation; penalties.
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(a) Beginning January 1, 2020, notwithstanding any other
7
provision of law, and except as otherwise provided in this Act,
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the following acts are not a violation of this Act and shall
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not be a criminal or civil offense under State law or the
10
ordinances of any unit of local government of this State or be
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a basis for seizure or forfeiture of assets under State law for
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persons other than natural individuals under 21 years of age:
irrational or unusual behavior, or negligence or carelessness
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in operating equipment or machinery; disregard for the safety
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of the employee or others, or involvement in any accident that
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results in serious damage to equipment or property; disruption
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of a production or manufacturing process; or carelessness that
15
results in any injury to the employee or others. If an employer
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elects to discipline an employee on the basis that the employee
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is under the influence or impaired by cannabis, the employer
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must afford the employee a reasonable opportunity to contest
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the basis of the determination.
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(e) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to create or
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imply a cause of action for any person against an employer for:
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(1) actions, including but not limited to subjecting an
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employee or applicant to reasonable drug and alcohol
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testing under the employer's workplace drug policy,
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including an employee's refusal to be tested or to
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cooperate in testing procedures or disciplining or
10100HB1438sam002
– 62 –
LRB101 04919 RLC 61359 a
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termination of employment, based on the employer's good
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faith belief that an employee used or possessed cannabis in
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the employer's workplace or while performing the
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employee's job duties or while on call in violation of the
5
employer's employment policies;
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(2) actions, including discipline or termination of
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employment, based on the employer's good faith belief that
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an employee was impaired as a result of the use of
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cannabis, or under the influence of cannabis, while at the
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employer's workplace or while performing the employee's
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job duties or while on call in violation of the employer's
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workplace drug policy; or
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(3) injury, loss, or liability to a third party if the
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employer neither knew nor had reason to know that the
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employee was impaired.
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(f) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to enhance or
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diminish protections afforded by any other law, including but
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not limited to the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot
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Program Act or the Opioid Alternative Pilot Program.
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(g) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to interfere
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with any federal, State, or local restrictions on employment
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including, but not limited to, the United States Department of
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Transportation regulation 49 CFR 40.151(e) or impact an
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employer's ability to comply with federal or State law or cause
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it to lose a federal or State contract or funding.
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(h) As used in this Section, "workplace" means the
10100HB1438sam002
– 63 –
LRB101 04919 RLC 61359 a
1
employer's premises, including any building, real property,
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and parking area under the control of the employer or area used
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by an employee while in performance of the employee's job
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duties, and vehicles, whether leased, rented, or owned.
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"Workplace" may be further defined by the employer's written
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employment policy, provided that the policy is consistent with
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this Section.
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(i) For purposes of this Section, an employee is deemed "on
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call" when such employee is scheduled with at least 24 hours'
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notice by his or her employer to be on standby or otherwise
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responsible for performing tasks related to his or her
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employment either at the employer's premises or other
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previously designated location by his or her employer or
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