Illinois would substantially expand its efforts to repair the harms of marijuana criminalization enforcement under a new bill that seeks to give cash payments directly to people impacted by prohibition laws.
The legislation, filed on Thursday by Rep. La Shawn K. Ford (D), would create a new Illinois Freedom Program “for the purpose of issuing direct cash payments to eligible individuals who have been disproportionately impacted by historical cannabis enforcement.”
The effort would supplement the state’s existing Restore, Reinvest, and Renew (R3) program, which uses marijuana tax revenue to support community reinvestment in areas harmed by the war on drugs.
The cash payments would be administered through a new Illinois Freedom Fund, which the bill says would “consist of the incremental growth in cannabis tax revenue.”
The legislation specifies that the existence of the cash payments program “shall not reduce, reallocate, or otherwise diminish” the amount of cannabis revenue distributed to grantees under the existing R3 program.
“The Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Program Board shall ensure that the distribution of funds to R3 Area grantees is neither reduced below base year levels nor delayed as a result of the Illinois Freedom Program,” it says.
That board, in cooperation with the
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