Village President Jared Anderson is excited to be growing marijuana in town. On Monday, Gov. Bruce Rauner awarded licenses to dozens of medical marijuana businesses across the state, which included one in Dwight.

Rauner named the locations after his staff finished conducting an internal review that found flaws in the never-completed license award process under former Gov. Pat Quinn.

A single cultivation center will be allowed to operate in each of the 22 Illinois State Police districts under the state’s four-year pilot program, the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act, which was signed by Quinn on Aug. 1, 2013, and went into effect on Jan. 1, 2014.

In addition to the cultivation centers, up to 60 separate dispensary sites will provide medical marijuana for people with eligible medical conditions statewide.

For District 6, which covers DeWitt, Livingston and McLean counties, the cultivation license was given to PharmCann, an Oak Park-based company, for use in its Dwight facility.

Although the initial facility will only employ an estimated 25-35 full-time workers, Anderson said the company pledged to give Dwight 5 percent of its profits. A recent estimate from ArcView Market Research, a California consulting company, says medical marijuana could be a $36 million industry by 2016.

“Everyone expected the announcements to go out before Quinn left,” Teddy Scott, CEO of PharmCann, said. “When they didn’t, people became pessimistic. But I would see the language that was coming from the releases provided by Rauner and his staff. Although they did not say much, the little bit they were saying kept me excited.”

For Anderson, the process of getting a cultivation center in town has been ongoing since last summer. The mayor said representatives from PharmaCann initially contacted him to inquire if Dwight was interested in a cultivation center and, over a few administration meetings, Anderson said he and his staff talked loosely about it.

“Amongst ourselves, we thought it would be a unique opportunity to generate jobs for the community,” Anderson said. “ When they contacted me, they wanted to know not only whether I was interested but they didn’t want to have a bunch of negative publicity. I told them we’re trying to create work opportunities our community and it wouldn’t be an issue.”

Once the idea was agreed upon, the next step was finding a location. The company has its own stipulations regarding proximity to schools and residential districts and after some discussion the decision was made to contact Al Sinew, who owns the property surrounding New Lenox Machine Shop.

Anderson said Sinew has a building the cultivation company is going to lease from him for office and shipping needs and they also have agreed on land for a separate property where they are going to build their greenhouse.

“He has commercial property of about 12 to 15 acres,” Anderson said. “So, his business won’t be shutting down, just getting a new building nearby.”

To Anderson’s knowledge, only the company will hire a few key positions internally before hiring local employees. Presently, the company is working with the VFW and the village to hire a few veterans before seeking employment in the community.

Anderson said these jobs will pay roughly $50,000 annually and will be full-time positions. He added that if the “pilot” designation for the program is dropped in 2017, the business would consider building a second facility, employing 25 to 30 additional workers.

“Naturally, the prison closing took the wind out of all of our sails,” Anderson said. “It was a hit to us and very disappointing in the manner it went down.

“I can’t say this will relieve all the feelings we have towards that matter, but it’s very positive to know that we’re taking a step in the right direction for the community and the county. We have an economic tool being built in our own town.”

Overall, Anderson said feedback he has received on the matter has been positive, with a few comical quips here and there. He hopes people will see the business for its economic stimulation and potential for growth.

“It means a possibility of new homes and new families moving into the community. Everybody I know is looking at the positive,” Anderson said. “Hopefully it will open up the doors to different opportunities for us and for the county, because we’re not solely in it for ourselves. I think this will positively impact the county by broadening the tax base.”

The PharmCann CEO said he wanted the people of Dwight to know two things. The first is that he understands people have grown up in a culture with a social stigma against cannabis. In fact, he said if someone would have asked him a couple of years ago if he would be doing what he is doing today, he would have laughed.

“It doesn’t even seem possible. However, I have a medical research background and as I have looked into medical marijuana research, there is really something here,” Scott said. “I understand people have grown up being exposed to all the negative connotations, but there really is something here to help people. It’s real.”

The second thing he wanted the community to know is that PharmCann is a professional group with the highest ideals.

“We want the people to be able to trust us and look at us as leaders in the community,” Scott said. “I understand it may take time for some people and others may never come along, but I think given the time to show what we’re doing, they’ll be happy to have us.”

Anderson said the next step is partnering with the company to complete its initial employment process. After hiring a few local veterans through contacts in the local VFW, the plan is to have Anderson and his staff look over the company’s employment package to provide feedback before posted the remaining jobs locally.

“Our next step is to help them get some good employees and hopefully we can build that through the Dwight community,” Anderson said. “That doesn’t mean all those people will be working on the first day of business, because I think they said it takes about 90 days for the growing period and then they have to deal with the processing and separation.”



