CHICAGO (AP) — Officials say Illinois patients legally purchased nearly $1.7 million worth of medical marijuana during November and December Program director Joseph Wright on Monday announced sales figures since Nov. 9, when Illinois launched regulated sales with the opening of the state's first licensed cannabis dispensaries. Wholesale sales — what growers sold to dispensaries — totaled more than $1.5 million. That indicates Illinois has collected roughly $107,000 in taxes in the pilot program. Marijuana wholesalers pay a 7 percent tax to the state. Wright says licensed dispensaries have served 2,815 unique patients. By the end of 2015, there were 20 dispensaries licensed to operate in Illinois. The retail price per gram on average was roughly $14 to $15.

As the country moves closer to legalizing marijuana, the NCAA is slowly being forced to make decisions. A new investigation done by the Associated Press took a look at how athletic departments in major universities handle marijuana cases.

The study showed that Illinois, along with a number of other Power Five universities, treats a positive test for marijuana differently than tests for other drugs.

From the AP:

Illinois has a separate pot policy that has become more strict but isn’t as punitive as its policy for drugs like cocaine or heroin.

Illinois’ medical marijuana industry has grown far more slowly than prominent boosters had hoped, but there are still plenty of people trying to profit off the new business, in particular, former law-enforcement officials.

When Mindy Segal decided she wanted to work with marijuana, the James Beard award-winning pastry chef knew she could do so much better than that tired cliche — the brownie.

Instead, she'll tap her understanding of transforming sugar into tempting treats to launch a line of chocolate brittles, granola bites, eventually even a hot chocolate — and all of them laced with butter infused with cannabis oil. In the process, she'll become one of the first celebrity chefs to lend her name and brand to the budding edible marijuana industry.

CHICAGO (AP) - Edible medical marijuana made its Illinois debut Saturday, ending a wait for patients who prefer eating to inhaling. To some, cannabis-infused foods seem milder than smoke or vapor, but the products carry their own risks.

It takes longer to feel the effects when marijuana is eaten, so it's easy to eat too much with unpleasant - or even dangerous - results.

"As exciting as bringing edibles to market is, we want to make sure that every patient takes small portions, and wait at least an hour before taking more, until you understand and get comfortable with consuming medical cannabis in its edible forms," said Ross Morreale, owner of Ataraxia, an Illinois company with marijuana chocolates hitting the market.

A shortage of doctors willing to sign medical marijuana cards has put the program in trouble in Illinois, barely before it gets off the ground.

Only 3,600 patients statewide have obtained them, according to David Friedman, who heads a firm that invests in and reports on the medical cannabis industry. Friedman had predicted that Illinois would have 30,000 patients with medical marijuana cards by now, and that 70,000 would have them by the end of 2017.

"By any stretch of the imagination we are well under those estimates," said Friedman, who heads up MJIC Inc. in Chicago. "Even with 30,000 or 70,000 patients, we're going to struggle to break even" before the pilot program ends.

Illinois medical marijuana patients will soon have a line of decadent chef-crafted products to choose from with the announcement of James Beard Award-Winning Chef Mindy Segal's new edible line. Segal, owner of Chicago'sacclaimed Hot Chocolate Restaurant, is the first high profile, award-winning celebrity chef to attach her personal brand to products in the cannabis industry.

For those of you familiar with the process of applying for a medical cannabis card, here in Illinois, you know that the biggest hurdle is finding a doctor willing to recommend. No prescribing here, heaven forbid...because, the doctors are fearful of losing their licenses or criminal reprisals or they are ignorant of its medicinal value or they think it is a joke or all of the above. Hey docs, no one is asking you to consume cannabis...just let your patients have access to it. So, when an article about an Australian doctor, Dr. Andrew Katelaris, who was willing to risk everything to provide cannabis oil to epileptic kids and adults, popped up on my FB newsfeed, I thought...we need a doctor like this in Illinois!

Medical marijuana is now legal in Illinois, and more and more patients are starting to sign up as patients now that medical marijuana sales have begun at dispensaries. It took a long time, and a lot of hurdle jumping, but there is finally legal safe access to medical marijuana in Illinois. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still bumps in the road, proven by the recent mailing of erroneous letters telling medical marijuana patients in Illinois that they would have to give up their guns because they are medical marijuana patients. Per PJ Star: