Marijuana Business Magazine November-December 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | November-December 2019 40 Industry Developments | International & State Florida MedMen and Surterra each contributed $545,000 to a campaign to legalize recreational cannabis in the state. The two cannabis companies are backing Make It Legal Florida, which is seeking to collect the 766,000 signatures needed to put a constitutional amendment on the 2020 ballot. Surterra, based in Atlanta, has the second-largest market share in THC/CBD sales per milligram among Florida’s med- ical marijuana businesses. California-based MedMen paid a reported $53 million to acquire a vertically integrated medical marijuana license fromTreadwell Simpson Partnership and recently opened its first dispensary in Florida. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration released a map Sept. 30 showing 683 Census tracts considered “disproportionately impacted” by past marijuana enforcement. Officials identified these as areas where applicants who want to legally grow and sell recreational cannabis would get preference under the law’s social equity provision. Applicants with majority ownership of the proposed enterprise who have lived in one of these areas for five of the past 10 years—or who have been arrested for certain marijuana offenses—will get additional points when their applications are scored.