Illinois’ Cannabis Transport License Process Discriminates Against Minority-Owned Businesses, Lawsuit Says

Seven marijuana transport companies have sued the Illinois Department of Agriculture, citing discriminatory practices that favored larger majority white- and male-owned companies.

The Chicago-based plaintiffs, in a lawsuit filed Nov. 1 in Sangamon County Circuit Court, include ACC of Illinois Transportation, Runway Logistics Services, Hands to Heart, Reliavan, Fade Express, Piff Patch and Moetta’s Transports. The small businesses are majority-owned by women and/or minorities.

Transportation companies require a special license to drive cannabis products from manufacturers to retailers.

The lawsuit said the agriculture department in July 2021 released custom “quickie” transporter license applications with lower compliance criteria to medical cultivation centers that were already licensed to grow and manufacture cannabis in the state. Those larger companies are majority white- and male-owned.

But that happened before the department had licensed any independent transporter company. The expedited application for large companies was a “nail in the coffin for the minority and/or women-owned independent transporters, including the plaintiffs,” the lawsuit said.

It took the plaintiffs at least a year to get approval to start operations because they had a longer application process. By then, the larger players “who were quickly approved for operations, were already transporting their own cannabis around the state … and had been doing so for well over a year.”

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