Urdedpal
New Member
Although an Illinois law has allowed the use of marijuana as medicine since 1978, the statute has sat on the books unused.
Now a Chicago lawmaker has won the chance to take a practical medical marijuana bill to the Senate for a floor vote for the first time in three decades.
Under Sen. John Cullerton's legislation, people with debilitating illnesses such as AIDS or cancer could use marijuana to ease pain or spasms or jump-start a sluggish appetite.
But whether the Democrat can find enough votes from conservatives for the prickly measure when two-thirds of the Senate faces voters this fall is another matter.
"It would be better if it wasn't an election year, but we have to move forward," Cullerton said at a news conference Wednesday after the Health and Human Services Committee approved a revised version of his bill.
It would allow sick people, with a doctor's permission, to have up to eight cannabis plants in their homes and 2 1/2 ounces of "usable marijuana" at a time. It would limit the number of places eligible users could buy the drug to 15 in Chicago and one in each metropolitan area of 50,000 or more people.
Transferring the plants would not be an option. It would carry tougher penalties than current law on possession charges.
People have found smoking or eating marijuana eases nausea brought on by chemotherapy, stimulates appetite dampened by AIDS drugs, relieves glaucoma-induced eye pressure and reduces pain and spasms in people with multiple sclerosis, said Dr. Christopher Fichtner, an associate psychiatry professor at the University of Chicago and mental health director for the state Department of Human Services from 2003 to 2005.
"We're certainly not advocating cannabis as a first-line treatment for any of these conditions," Fichtner said, "but there are some for whom other alternatives have failed or were not as effective as whole-plant cannabis."
Lawmakers approved medicinal use of cannabis nearly 30 years ago but left authorization to the Public Health Department, which has never taken action. House measures requiring a marijuana-treatment option for people who can't get relief from traditional drugs have failed the past two years, doomed by anti-drug groups' fear that the plant's therapeutic approval would fuel its abuse.
"What we're telling our kids is it's medicine, it's safe," said Judy Kreamer, president of Educating Voices of Naperville, which is working against Cullerton's bill. She said each plant produces a pound of marijuana and can be harvested quarterly.
"This is not about giving sick people medicine," Kreamer said. "No sick person could smoke that many joints."
Advocacy group IDEAL Reform of Chicago countered that a plant produces only four ounces - the equivalent of two pounds a year if a user has eight plants.
Eleven states allow the use of medicinal marijuana, Fichtner said. Another 11, including Illinois, are considering proposals.
Chicagoan Julie Falco, 40, who has had MS for two decades, said she endured intolerable side effects from more than two dozen prescription medicines, from antidepressant-related nightmares to a muscle relaxant that lowered her heart rate. Even smoking marijuana didn't ease her headaches.
For two years, she's eaten three or more marijuana brownies a day, bringing her "phenomenal relief."
"I'm able to stand here right now today and talk to you because I've eaten brownies, I've had them today and I do it," said Falco, helped from a wheelchair to the news conference podium by Cullerton and Fichtner. "I live in fear that I'm going to be arrested for taking a medicine that helps me. That terrifies me."
Cullerton said a Senate vote could come as early as Thursday.
---
The bill is SB2658
On the Net: Illinois General Assembly Home Page
JOHN O'CONNOR Associated Press
Belleville news, sports, jobs, homes, cars
Now a Chicago lawmaker has won the chance to take a practical medical marijuana bill to the Senate for a floor vote for the first time in three decades.
Under Sen. John Cullerton's legislation, people with debilitating illnesses such as AIDS or cancer could use marijuana to ease pain or spasms or jump-start a sluggish appetite.
But whether the Democrat can find enough votes from conservatives for the prickly measure when two-thirds of the Senate faces voters this fall is another matter.
"It would be better if it wasn't an election year, but we have to move forward," Cullerton said at a news conference Wednesday after the Health and Human Services Committee approved a revised version of his bill.
It would allow sick people, with a doctor's permission, to have up to eight cannabis plants in their homes and 2 1/2 ounces of "usable marijuana" at a time. It would limit the number of places eligible users could buy the drug to 15 in Chicago and one in each metropolitan area of 50,000 or more people.
Transferring the plants would not be an option. It would carry tougher penalties than current law on possession charges.
People have found smoking or eating marijuana eases nausea brought on by chemotherapy, stimulates appetite dampened by AIDS drugs, relieves glaucoma-induced eye pressure and reduces pain and spasms in people with multiple sclerosis, said Dr. Christopher Fichtner, an associate psychiatry professor at the University of Chicago and mental health director for the state Department of Human Services from 2003 to 2005.
"We're certainly not advocating cannabis as a first-line treatment for any of these conditions," Fichtner said, "but there are some for whom other alternatives have failed or were not as effective as whole-plant cannabis."
Lawmakers approved medicinal use of cannabis nearly 30 years ago but left authorization to the Public Health Department, which has never taken action. House measures requiring a marijuana-treatment option for people who can't get relief from traditional drugs have failed the past two years, doomed by anti-drug groups' fear that the plant's therapeutic approval would fuel its abuse.
"What we're telling our kids is it's medicine, it's safe," said Judy Kreamer, president of Educating Voices of Naperville, which is working against Cullerton's bill. She said each plant produces a pound of marijuana and can be harvested quarterly.
"This is not about giving sick people medicine," Kreamer said. "No sick person could smoke that many joints."
Advocacy group IDEAL Reform of Chicago countered that a plant produces only four ounces - the equivalent of two pounds a year if a user has eight plants.
Eleven states allow the use of medicinal marijuana, Fichtner said. Another 11, including Illinois, are considering proposals.
Chicagoan Julie Falco, 40, who has had MS for two decades, said she endured intolerable side effects from more than two dozen prescription medicines, from antidepressant-related nightmares to a muscle relaxant that lowered her heart rate. Even smoking marijuana didn't ease her headaches.
For two years, she's eaten three or more marijuana brownies a day, bringing her "phenomenal relief."
"I'm able to stand here right now today and talk to you because I've eaten brownies, I've had them today and I do it," said Falco, helped from a wheelchair to the news conference podium by Cullerton and Fichtner. "I live in fear that I'm going to be arrested for taking a medicine that helps me. That terrifies me."
Cullerton said a Senate vote could come as early as Thursday.
---
The bill is SB2658
On the Net: Illinois General Assembly Home Page
JOHN O'CONNOR Associated Press
Belleville news, sports, jobs, homes, cars
