Illinois Public Media News

Now that farmers are wrapping up their first year of growing hemp, we learn whether anything has changed for hemp growers since the legalization of recreational marijuana in Illinois. 

Now that recreational cannabis is legal in Illinois, there’s a growing interest from the industry to find candidates qualified to work in the business. Some college campuses in Illinois are stepping up and creating programs to prepare students to be competitive for these jobs. 

Millions of dollars in sales of recreational marijuana this month means some dispensaries have experienced shortages of certain cannabis products and placed caps on how much people can buy. We explored how this and other changes to the law affect the tens of thousands of people in Illinois who are licensed to use cannabis for medicinal purposes.

Now that recreational cannabis is legal for adult use in Illinois, many parents may be wondering, how do I talk to my kids about this? And what does it mean to use marijuana responsibly as an adult?

Today on the 21st: We continued our “State of Cannabis” series with a discussion about how to talk to kids about marijuana, now that it’s legal for adults in Illinois. We also spoke with patients who use cannabis for medical purposes about what changes for them in the era of legal recreational weed, learned how some colleges are stepping up to help prepare students to break into the cannabis industry and explored the challenges Illinois farmers are facing when it comes to growing a plant related to marijuana: hemp.