Connected marijuana lobbyist to push for program’s future

CHICAGO (AP) — A new group has formed to push for policies in Springfield favorable to the medical marijuana industry with a well-connected former Illinois Department of Agriculture employee as its top lobbyist.

Bresha Brewer stopped being a state worker just ahead of new ethics rules imposed by Gov. Bruce Rauner that would have prevented her from immediately going into lobbying and becoming part of a “revolving door” of former state employees who leave to become lobbyists. Brewer is now executive director of the Medical Cannabis Alliance of Illinois, which launched this week.

With Brewer’s involvement, the group hopes to play an influential role as lawmakers determine whether medical marijuana has a future in Illinois.

The alliance represents 39 companies — the bulk of the businesses that hold state permits to grow and sell marijuana in a pilot program that expires after 2017. Extending the program’s end date, or preferably achieving its permanence, will be one of Brewer’s most urgent objectives.

As executive director, she brings fresh insider knowledge, nearly 15 years of state government experience and a long list of connections. Brewer has worked for several state agencies as a legislative liaison, most recently for the agriculture department, which regulates marijuana growers.

Brewer will try to influence lawmakers, the governor’s office and her former agency on behalf of the industry, according to the alliance’s lobbying registration with the secretary of state.

Brewer’s new job doesn’t violate Rauner’s “revolving door” restrictions because she left state employment two weeks before the governor’s order took effect. In his first day in office, the Republican governor tightened rules preventing state employees from going directly into lobbying jobs, but the order didn’t go into effect until Feb. 15, said Rauner spokesman Lance Trover. Brewer left state employment Jan. 31.

But her move still raises questions for some legislators.

“There’s a reason Gov. Rauner closed the revolving door and lawmakers like myself applauded him for doing it administratively with an executive order,” said Sen. Dale Righter, a Mattoon Republican who voted against the medical marijuana program and doesn’t want the sunset date changed. “It can drive policies the wrong way.”

Brewer made $83,000 with the Illinois Department of Agriculture in 2014, according to state records. The Medical Cannabis Alliance would not release Brewer’s salary information.

Besides pushing to make the pilot program permanent, the alliance will lobby for eliminating fingerprint background checks for patients, which the industry sees as an obstacle that is keeping patient numbers low, said spokeswoman Kim Morreale McAuliffe. The group will do more than lobbying and will undertake public education about medical marijuana throughout Illinois, she said.

Brewer was unavailable to comment beyond printed remarks in a news release, McAuliffe said.

In that news release, Brewer said the group was looking forward “to working with lawmakers, the public and physician community to make Illinois’ medical cannabis program a model for the nation.”

The leader of Illinois NORML, a group that supports legalizing marijuana, was cautious about the new alliance’s influence.

“A potential problem is if they work against (Illinois) NORML’s legalization efforts and do not want to see other businesses get an opportunity in this new industry,” Illinois NORML executive director Dan Linn said.

The Medical Cannabis Alliance of Illinois is the largest marijuana industry association in the state, but not the only one. The Illinois Cannabis Industry Association has 18 members and includes businesses that supply products and services, said its president, Mark Passerini, who hopes the two groups will work together.

“There’s going to be a lot of crossover between the two groups,” Passerini said, adding that his association plans to hire a lobbyist “within the next few months.”

“It was definitely a lot of work to pull everybody together,” McAuliffe said of the Medical Cannabis Alliance. “All of the members of this association have really one goal: that patients have access to a good quality product.”