PEKIN, Ill. – There’s a new businesses officially open in Pekin, and it’s making history.
Krown is the first cannabis infuser in the state — approved through a social equity application. It’s also a veteran- and woman-owned business.
“With my background in science and engineering, I’ve always been really interested in food chemistry. I’ve always wanted to
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start my own business,” said Allison Dries, co-owner. “After reading how the state was laying out all these tremendous opportunities, it seemed like a really great fit.”
Dries is transitioning out of a job with what she said was a Fortune 500 company to become a cannabis infuser. As is the spirit with the social equity-related cannabis-related licenses, she says she wants to make sure people adversely affected by previous cannabis laws are helped by her business.
“We’ll be focusing on hiring practices, specifically to people who have been disadvantaged by the past war on drugs — maybe it’s a minor conviction for cannabis, an arrest or family members who have been arrested, or people who live in a real estate tract that’s been determined as disproportionally impacted from the areas that they live,” said Dries.
Dries says seventeen people are in the process of being hired now, with seventeen more in the coming months.
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Krown will be manufacturing its own line of “Enliven” edibles, which should start to roll out in the first quarter of 2023. Prior to that, it also will be working with Wyld — described as the number one cannabis gummy brand in the country — to make and distribute their products. Those should start to be made by this December.
The Illinois Department of Agriculture joined in Tuesday’s opening and ribbon-cutting.
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