Jon Loevy, a notable civil rights attorney in Illinois, says that if his group is allowed to open up a legal medical marijuana farm they will donate half of their earnings to education initiatives around the state.
“Illinois has created a real opportunity for profits, and a lot of the groups chasing this are hedge funds and private equity firms trying to get rich,” Loevy told the Chicago Sun-Times. “We see this as an opportunity to reroute millions of dollars to education in Illinois when it’s really needed.
Loevy and his partners with Effingham Medical Farms have proposed a 20,000 square-foot grow facility in tiny, 400-person Edgewood, Illinois. He estimates the build out will run between $5 million and $7 million and will also include an edibles kitchen and infused product lab.
Officials in Edgewood say they would welcome the jobs to their otherwise stagnant local economy. Other towns weren’t so welcoming. The original plan was to locate the farm in Effingham (hence the name), but the town leaders freaked out and voted against it.
“We push drug-free in the community,” said Effingham Commissioner Don Althoff. “We try to teach the kids that and that’s what [the people of Effingham]believe in.”
They don’t believe in helping out people who are sick and in need of medicine, in other words.
Loevy didn’t have concrete details, but said that he would help fund charter schools in the state and help improve the education of poor communities. Clearly, this is way of sweetening his deal with the state, though it’s not clear if it will actually pay off.
“I think the opportunity to be part of a new business is exciting and, more importantly, the opportunity to make such an impact on education funding was very exciting,” he said. “We feel our application is going to be successful. We like our chances, and if it works we’re going to be able to donate millions of dollars to education in Illinois at a time when more funding is really needed.”
The state will eventually issue 22 licenses around the state, whittling down from more than 350 applicants.