Naperville's First Recreational Marijuana Dispensary Opens

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The newest recreational marijuana dispensary in Illinois is opening its doors on Thursday.

Rise Naperville is now the first in Naperville to offer both recreational pot and medical marijuana.

Business leaders held a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday along with the mayor.

In March, Naperville passed a referendum allowing the sale of recreational marijuana, and Green Thumb Industries got approved to open Rise Naperville, formerly known as the 3C Compassionate Care Center.

3C has been operating in Naperville since 2016, serving medical marijuana patients. It will continue to do so under the new rebranding as it now begins recreational pot sales as well.

Rise Naperville created 20 new jobs and 15 construction jobs as the dispensary expanded to make room for new customers.

We didn't see any long lines this morning because of the COVID-19 restrictions in place

"We definitely have some things in place. Social distancing is obviously of the utmost importance for us. We have a virtual waitlist, so if you are planning on coming down to the store, you can go to our website ... sign up for our virtual waitlist, and then we'll text you when it's time to come into the store, and that will help avoid the large crowds as well," Rise Illinois district manager Derrick Levy said.

One customer said the process to purchase was pretty easy. She placed an order online, went inside to pick it up, and felt safe.

"They walked me right in, made sure like we were all socially distanced, and everyone was in the proper spot. Of course, there's a lot of hectic craziness going on," Donna Suchecki said.

Officials said profits from the first day of sales will go to Loaves and Fishes, a non-profit fighting poverty and hunger in the community.

The recreational marijuana industry in Illinois has been booming despite the pandemic, setting new records for sales virtually every month since becoming legal in January.