What will Chester decide on the marijuana question?

With Steeleville, Red Bud and Sparta all rejecting marijuana-based businesses, Chester is the largest community in Randolph County still to decide what to do about adult recreational cannabis.

When that decision will be made is not known. People in town are certainly talking about it, but the issue has not yet been brought up at the city council level.

Mayor Tom Page knows the pros and cons. The biggest pro argument is money - each municipality can level a 3% tax on marijuana sales in their communities and potentially collect hundreds of thousands of additional dollars each year.

He also knows this is a hot-button issue, one that will upset people whichever way the council decides to go. It is rumored that a local Chester business is thinking about submitting an application, if the Chester council votes to allow it.

Chester's proximity to Missouri would make it an attractive location. In Harrisburg, the number of Indiana and Kentucky license plates in the Thrive dispensary parking lot frequently outnumber the Illinois plates.

Retail stores have all kinds of marijuana products to sell - from marijuana flowers, to edibles, to tinctures and more. Customers must be 21 or older to buy and there is a 30-gram limit how much they can purchase. Out of state customers are permitted to buy half as much as Illinois residents.

Right now, the only retailers that have been granted licenses for recreational marijuana are ones that were already in the medicinal marijuana business. That will change in May, when another 75 licenses will be approved.

On Jan. 1, Illinois became the 11th state to legalize recreational use. Thirty seven dispensaries opened on Jan. 1, including those in Harrisburg, Anna and Marion.