Illinois will become a regulated legal marijuana state on January 1st. For the first time, residents in the Land of Lincoln will be able to possess and consume cannabis as a legal recreational product. Nonetheless, in most public places, users will not be allowed to smoke.

Unless you explicitly allow it to be smoked in your house or its use is approved by your landowner, you’ll be left  open to fines and other possible consequences. It isn’t all about smoke, though.

The new state legislation will also allow businesses to market consumer goods flavored with the psychoactive ingredient Cannabis, popularly known as “edibles”. By Illinois regulation, no food will produce more than 100 milligrams of active THC. For contrast, around 10 mg is the initial dosage of THC in an edible.

Be vigilant before using weed. Though an addendum or two has been applied to existing workplace legislation (to clarify what qualifies as “intoxication” regarding marijuana), employers can still terminate employees for positive drug tests. This is because it is still federally illegal and the Illinois law still allows “fair workplace policies.”

There’s actually a little-used police method to check and see if someone’s “high” when driving, but cops say they’re going to be listening in on signs. The pace of driver motions, their voice, what their eyes look like and if their car smells like weed are some of what they will search for.

Illinois State Police have posted on Facebook, saying it is essentially illegal to smoke cannabis anywhere in a public place. Despite not being allowed to smoke in public, adults 21 and older may ingest cannabis in parks, on streets or sidewalks, on grade school grounds, or while in a car (just not while driving, of course).

There will be some limits on driving while in possession of cannabis. The drug must be in a child-resistant, odor-proof jar and be out of sight of the driver. You also can’t “knowingly use marijuana in near physical proximity to anyone under the age of 21.” There is no definition of precisely what “proximity” entails.

Additionally, federally subsidized homes will not be allowed to smoke pot, including family housing on Iowa Road, South Street, and McKnight Street in Galesburg.