There’s plenty to keep track of in the New Year for the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Jeff Cox serves as the agency’s bureau chief for medicinal plants. First, a lesson in the difference between industrial hemp and recreational marijuana, which became legal on Jan. 1 in Illinois.

There’s also the state’s medical cannabis program, which has grown to be about 100,000 patients.
There are a total of 21 cultivation centers in Illinois and all have now been approved for adult-use cultivation of recreational cannabis in addition to medical marijuana.