Buyers line up for legal marijuana in Collinsville on Day 2. State sales stats released
The line of customers at the Illinois Supply and Provisions dispensary Thursday started small, but grew throughout the morning on the second day of legal recreational marijuana sales in Illinois.
Half an hour before the doors were scheduled to open, less than 100 people were waiting close to the entrance. But as the morning progressed, more customers continued lining up to buy marijuana products.
On New Year’s Day, the line wrapped around the parking lot at 1014 Eastport Plaza Drive in Collinsville and down a nearby street, Executive Drive, before the store opened.
The dispensary had 1,500 customers by 5 p.m. Wednesday. Demand was so high that some products sold out before the store closed at 9 p.m.
On Thursday, a worker told people in line, “There’s plenty of inventory.” An estimate of the number of customers who visited the store Jan. 2 wasn’t immediately available in the afternoon.
Sales figures from the historic first day of legal purchases at Illinois Supply and Provisions also weren’t available, according to Chris McCloud, a company spokesman. But Toi Hutchinson, who advises the governor on cannabis policy, announced a total of $3.17 million in sales from 77,128 transactions across the state.
The Collinsville store is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for the rest of the week. It is the only dispensary in the metro-east, though state law said the region could have up to four eventually.
Jeremy Sheppard, a restaurant manager from Rosewood Heights, said he got in line at 5 p.m. Wednesday. After he learned there was an estimated five-hour wait, he left and decided to try again early Thursday.
Sheppard wanted to find out what products were available and ask the staff about the effects, both for himself and for his fiance. She has spinal stenosis and takes opiates for the back pain she experiences, according to Sheppard. He would like to see her use marijuana for pain management instead.
“Honestly, I think it’s overdue,” he said of weed legalization.
Illinois became the 11th state to legalize marijuana sales for people other than medical cannabis patients on Jan. 1.
Customers lined up at many dispensaries across the state, from Chicago to small towns in Southern Illinois, the first day of the new year. The day before, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced thousands of pardons for minor marijuana convictions, including 1,004 for metro-east residents.
This story was originally published January 2, 2020 at 9:23 AM.
