CHICAGO – While there's a mixed bag of frustration and jubilation over the legalization of recreational marijuana in Illinois, there's never been a doubt about where Illinois Governor JB Pritzker stood on the topic.
As far back as January 2018 – a whole two years ago – the Democrats that control the Illinois House and Illinois Senate were moving towards legalization, and Democrat JB Pritzker – then running for his party's nomination in that year's March primary – proudly declared his support for the next highly-taxed industry coming to Illinois.
Those state lawmakers leading the pot legalization effort also are some of the state's most vociferous gun control advocates. They pushed cannabis as a social justice issue – and since that time JB Pritzker has granted over 11, 107 pardons for "low-level" crimes involving cannabis. His office says over 700,000 arrest records are to be expunged with the legislation.
From Pritzker's Facebook page dated January 12, 2018 – ten months before he was elected:
