Former Illinois drug czar joins cannabis lobbying sector

The top official overseeing Illinois cannabis policy is leaving the public sector to join the cannabis lobby.

Toi Hutchinson, who has served as senior cannabis control advisor to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, announced this week that she will accept a position on the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), recognized as “the number one organization in the US” is referred to as the legalization of cannabis, ”as the group’s new President and CEO.

“I am excited to join the MPP team where I will continue my years of efforts to develop and support cannabis legalization laws that focus on justice and repairing the damage of the past,” Hutchinson said in a press release on Wednesday. “We are incredibly proud of the hard work and lessons we learned in Illinois, the equity entrepreneur investing programs, community reinvestment programs, and resolving hundreds of thousands of arrests and criminal records.”

Pritzker, a Democrat, greeted Hutchinson on Twitter.

“Toi Hutchinson has been my primary advisor on cannabis for over two years: making the Illinois industry the fairest in the country,” Pritzker said in a tweet Monday. “While I am sad to see her leave, I was honored to have her lead these charges. Toi, Illinois is a better state because of your public service. “

A former Senator from the Democratic State of Illinois, Hutchinson, was appointed to the cannabis advisory role in the Pritzker government in 2019. The Chicago Tribune reported at the time that Governor Hutchinson’s administration originally defined what was often referred to as the state’s “Pot-Tsar” as the “Illinois Cannabis Regulation Oversight Officer”.

But Hutchinson’s title was eventually changed to Senior Advisor to the Governor on Cannabis Control. As The Tribune reported at the time, it was “unclear when the decision was made to confer the title of Senior Advisor to Hutchinson,” but that “her appointment to the job created in the legislation she was voting on would have been created could have violated the state constitution ”.

Whatever the reasons, Hutchinson was a ubiquitous figure in launching the state’s recreational cannabis program, which was created when Pritzker’s historic law went into effect in the summer of 2019.

Illinois focuses on stocks

The new Illinois law not only paved the way for cannabis sales, it also resulted in thousands of pardons for those previously arrested and convicted on minor charges of cannabis.

After signing the bill, Pritzker said the new law would herald an end to the “50 year war on cannabis” and restore the “rights of tens of thousands of Illinois people.”

“Illinois has done more to put justice and justice at the forefront of this industry than any other state in the nation, and we are making sure that communities harmed by the war on drugs have an opportunity to participate,” said Pritzker last year.

Hutchinson repeated that.

“I’m proud to work with Governor Pritzker to create equity in the cannabis industry like no other state has,” Hutchinson said at the time. “By deleting hundreds of thousands of cannabis-related records, reinvesting the money spent on adult cannabis in Illinois in suffering communities, and making justice a central focus of the cannabis licensing process, the administration ensures that no community is left out or left behind. ”

The new program was also a godsend for Illinois, as the state reported that it generated $ 582,226,511.45 in revenue from recreational pot sales in 2020, the first full year since the new law went into effect.

Hutchinson said the “successful start of the legal cannabis industry in Illinois opens up new opportunities for entrepreneurs and the very communities that have historically been harmed by the failed war on drugs.”