A bill approved by the Illinois Senate on Wednesday to legalize possession and sale of recreational marijuana for people 21 and older would create history-making “social equity” to repair damage done by the nationwide war on drugs, sponsors of the legislation said.

Several of those sponsors embraced amid applause after the 38-17 vote, which paved the way for House consideration of the proposal — modified in several ways over the past two weeks — that would make Illinois the 11th state to legalize recreational cannabis.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s willingness to eventually pardon potentially hundreds of thousands of people convicted of lower-level marijuana offenses was key to easing constitutional concerns about House Bill 1438 and winning several Republican votes, according to Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields, one of the bill’s co-sponsors.

“I would say that this is the largest piece of expungement in a criminal-justice reform aspect in the country — I would probably say in the world,” said Hutchinson, who is president of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

“There’s been nothing that’s been attempted to be this big in one piece of legislation, ever,” Hutchinson said. “We are standing on the steps of history.”

Recent changes in the legislation, which received “yes” votes from three Republicans and not all Democrats in the House, would limit home growing of marijuana to patients in the state’s medical-medical program. The maximum would be five plants per household, regardless of the number of patients in a household.

The changes also made it easier for municipalities with leaders who oppose recreational marijuana to ban legal sales. And the legislation specifically allows employers to maintain “zero-tolerance” workplace policies for marijuana use by employees.

Heather Steans, a Chicago Democrat and the 610-page bill’s main Senate sponsor, said the Democratic governor’s cooperation on the expungement piece of the bill — the “toughest needle to thread,” she said — “played a very important role in all of this.”

The legislation resulted from two years of study and multiple town-hall meetings throughout the state. The process, which Steans called “really reflective of a good approach,” included input from law enforcement groups that still oppose legalization.

The bill, taking effect in January 2020, would allow adults living in Illinois to possess up to 30 grams of marijuana, or about one ounce. Non-residents could possess half of that amount.

And additional entrepreneurs, beyond those who already operate medical-marijuana dispensaries and cultivation centers, eventually would be allowed into the recreational marijuana market, under the legislation.

Pritzker, who campaigned on his support for marijuana legalization, is expected to sign the bill into law if it passes the House.

The bill was tweaked in recent weeks to narrow the scope of convictions that would be eligible for an expedited expungement process. The changes also clarified that convictions taking place after the legislation takes effect wouldn’t be eligible for expungement.

Under the proposal, misdemeanor convictions dealing with amounts of cannabis up to 30 grams and not associated with arrests for violent crimes would be compiled in lists by law-enforcement officials and submitted to the governor in an expedited process for pardons.

State’s attorneys would have the right to dispute whether certain people would be eligible for these pardons and the resulting expungement of records.

For convictions involving between 30 and 500 grams — which could be misdemeanors or felonies — the bill creates a clearer process for state’s attorneys or individuals to petition courts to reverse a conviction. If convictions are reversed, individuals can ask for records of those convictions to be destroyed.

Steans said the expungement of records, as well as provisions to send marijuana-related tax revenues to disadvantaged neighborhoods in the form of grants and provide loans and other assistance for minorities to start cannabis-related businesses, are part of the bill’s “social equity” goals, Steans said.

When asked to comment on Pritzker’s role in carrying out the legislation’s intent regarding expungements, Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said: “From day one, the governor has been committed to negotiating cannabis legalization with stakeholders, and we are very encouraged by the progress being made. The governor looks forward to working with the sponsors to pass this bill, creating the most equitable recreational cannabis approach in the country.”

Pritzker later issued a statement that said Illinois is poised to become the first in the nation to “put equity and criminal-justice reform at the heart of its approach to legalizing cannabis.”

The governor said he is “grateful that the Senate has taken this important step with a bipartisan vote.”

Robert Berlin, president of the Illinois State’s Attorneys Association, said the bill’s sponsors took the association’s concerns into account in the amended version. “It’s a very fair process they’ve created,” said Berlin, the DuPage County state’s attorney.

Among the Springfield area’s senators, Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, and Steve McClure, R-Springfield, voted for the bill. Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, voted against it. The other Republicans who voted for the bill were Sens. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, and Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia.

Barickman said he was satisfied with provisions in the bill to prevent minors from using marijuana and to protect the general public from any hazards.

“Cannabis use is largely a personal choice,” he said, adding that government should give people “freedom over their life decisions.”

However, several Republican lawmakers said the bill would lead to more marijuana use by adults and teenagers alike and will lead to more impaired driving-related crashes.

“More people are going to use, and that will create more hazards for the public, not less,” said Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, adding that studies indicate marijuana use is associated with an increase in certain types of mental illness.

He said young people will think marijuana use is safe if lawmakers legalize its use for recreational purposes.

Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said commercialization of marijuana sales will result in a concentration of dispensaries in low-income neighborhoods and efforts by “a bunch of corporate, big pot vendors” that want “to keep poor people stoned.”

Steans said the bill would prevent clustering of cannabis businesses by mandating a certain amount of distance between them.

If enacted, the legislation would generate $170 million for the state budget, through cannabis license fees, for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Fees and taxes associated with recreational marijuana could generate an estimated $350 million to $700 million for the state and local governments each year when the system is fully operational.

Hutchinson said the legislation would allow the state to reduce the negative public-health impact of marijuana.

“Every public health concern I’ve ever heard, every criminal concern I’ve ever heard, brings me to why the government should get in the middle of this,” she said.

“Your neighborhood drug dealer is not asking your kids for ID,” Hutchinson said. “This is really a smart approach to drug policy. … I understand there’s fear. But I am more afraid of the dangers of being in the shadows and what my kids have access to right now unfettered, unchecked, laced with God knows what, without us getting in the middle and making sure we stop that.”

Contact Dean Olsen: 217-788-1543, dean.olsen@sj-r.com, twitter.com/DeanOlsenSJR.