Governor JB Pritzker made Illinois history on Tuesday. Governor Pritzker signed the recreational marijuana bill into law making Illinois the first state to legalize marijuana through legislation. With the bill being signed into law, roughly 700,000 records will be eligible for expungement under the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act. Out of those 700,000; 400,000 will be automatically expunged as long as it’s under 30 grams. Pritzker says change is hard but necessary and with marijuana being used equally across racial lines, it has never been a more important time in the state’s history to make this change.

The new allocation of state revenue from the legalization of marijuana is projected to generate over $57 million in tax revenue in 2020 with that figure jumping to $375 million in 2024. Governor Pritzker has budgeted at least 20% of it to address substance abuse and prevention along with mental health issues.  10% will go towards paying the backlog of unpaid bills. Governor Pritzker says Illinois is tired of paying money towards enforcing cannabis regulation.

Recreational marijuana will go into effect on January 1st, 2020. Residents of Illinois will be allowed to have up 30 grams of the flower, 5 grams of cannabis concentrate and no more than 500 milligrams of THC contained in a cannabis-infused product.