By Steve Summers and Kevin Haas
ROCKFORD — City Council members this week used funds generated from marijuana sales to award $10,000 grants to six community organizations.
The REGROW (Reinvest. Energize. Give. Restore. Opportunity. Win.) grants are meant to strengthen communities and individuals who have suffered from the negative affects of more than 80 years of cannabis prohibition laws.
The organizations to receive grants are:
- Awaken Foundation
- African-American Resource Center at Booker Washington Community Center
- Discovery Center Museum/National Society of Black Engineers-Rockford Chapter
- Rockford Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
- Christian Union Church/Concerned Citizens United for Self Improvement
- Acclimated
"These organizations will in-turn make an impact into distressed areas or into individuals who have been most impacted by the failed war on drugs," Mayor Tom McNamara said on This Week in the Stateline with Steve Summers.
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Recreational marijuana sales in Illinois have reached $1.12 billion over the first 10 months of the year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Tuesday.
That tops last year's $669 million in recreational sales with two months still to go.
Illinois is one of 18 states that have legalized cannabis for recreational use, which remains illegal under federal law.
In Rockford, the city imposes the maximum 3% local tax on cannabis sales.
The revenue collected goes toward the REGROW grants and reentry programs designed to help former prisoners make a new, productive life after incarceration.
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McNamara said when the state legalized marijuana, the council opted to tax the highest amount it legally could and use "that revenue in a really meaningful way."
"We want to take something that some people look at as a real negative and make it into a real positive for everyone in our city," he said.
Later in the interview, McNamara hinted there could be news coming next week on A Hard Rock Opening Act, the interim casino slated to open this month in the former Giovanni's Restaurant and Convention Center.
"Hopefully we'll have some good announcements about our casino," he said.
Listen to the full interview below. It airs Saturday on 95.3 The Bull, a partner of the Rock River Current.
