State begins taking marijuana business applications

SPRINGFIELD - Entrepreneurs wanting to cultivate or dispense medical marijuana under a new Illinois law are getting their chance to be considered, but few, if any, have come forward on the first day the state began accepting applications.

Hours after the state began accepting applications on Monday, Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said that by noon not a single application had come in and she had not heard if any came in later in the day.

A law enacted last year authorized a four-year pilot project that will expire in 2017, but so far, not a single marijuana seed has been planted. State officials have said the first products may be sold next year.

The health department announced last week that more than 2,000 people registered for Illinois medical marijuana identification cards in the first three days applications were accepted. Officials had expected just a few hundred applications.