Former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn left behind a list of businesses poised to land the coveted licenses to grow and sell medical marijuana when his term ended this month, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

His administration was still working to push through the licenses as the media headed to Springfield to witness Gov. Bruce Rauner’s inauguration.

The evening before Rauner took office, Quinn’s staff was still passing around electronic drafts of a press release that would have announced the awarding of 12 cultivation center licenses.

But Quinn left office without taking action — disappointing seriously ill people waiting to legally use marijuana and angering applicants who had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars seeking the state’s permission to get into the legal marijuana business.

Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office released the documents from the prior administration Sunday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. They list the companies recommended by the Department of Agriculture to operate 21 medical marijuana farms and those recommended by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to operate 56 medical marijuana dispensaries. Rauner isn’t ready to act on those recommendations, though. [Read more at the Chicago Sun-Times]