When you create an underground market for anything, you create a profit incentive for people to break the law. Once they do, many of society's laws cease to apply.

As the rest of the country moves toward more sensible criminal justice policies by legalizing marijuana and reducing overly punitive sentences, the Chicago City Council seems headed in the other direction. The Council is considering anti-tobacco legislation that would increases taxes on cigarettes and double fines and impose jail sentences for those avoiding taxes by selling loose cigarettes ( loosies).

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America's epidemic of heroin and prescription-pain-reliever addiction has become a major issue in the 2016 election. The epidemic is worse than ever: Deaths from overdoses of opioids - the drug category that includes heroin and prescription analgesics such as Vicodin - reached an all-time high in 2014, rising 14 percent in a single year. But because drug policy has long been a political and cultural football, myths about opioid addiction abound. Here are some of the most dangerous - and how they do harm.

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I am writing in response to the Feb. 19 article by Dean Olsen, titled "Medical marijuana dispensary opens its doors for first time in Springfield."

Opening up a medical marijuana dispensary in Springfield is yet another step in the right direction to make it more socially acceptable and moving marijuana from the bad drug category into the useful medical category. While the steps are very involved to get accepted into the pilot program with fees and a lot of paperwork, they are very much worth all the effort put forth once accepted. This law will help many people in the state of Illinois who are interested in trying out an alternative method to the constant pills and their side effects.

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The opening of the medical marijuana facility in Springfield is proof positive that our state's political leaders are driven by money, not facts. Marijuana continues to be a dangerous drug that has not been proven to have medicinal effect on more than one or two relatively rare conditions. National medical organizations continue to argue strongly against its use as medicine.

It is certainly heartbreaking that many people experiencing serious pain or other severe symptoms are seeking help from cannabis. The sad truth is that marijuana might very well dull the discomfort, but at what cost? Marijuana, as with all mood altering drugs, offers great front-end promises, but then delivers rear-end tragedy. It would be great if everyone who felt bad, either physically or emotionally could be made to feel good with a drug. Every physician with a conscience knows that, when possible, pain relief needs to result in a productive human being. There is little to suggest that treatment with cannabis will produce such results. The more marijuana is promoted as a cure-all, the fewer contributing members of society there will be.

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The legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado and the District of Columbia has led to a so-called green rush of prospectors looking to cash in. Can the commercial potential from this newly sanctioned vice revitalize a newspaper industry struggling in the Internet age?

Documentarian Mitch Dickman's "Rolling Papers" follows Ricardo Baca, marijuana editor at the Denver Post since 2013, to find out. Yet despite slick production values, this look at the intersection of two potentially fascinating subcultures - journalists and stoners - yields only halfbaked results.

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As a Certified Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Counselor, I see first-hand how the number of drug overdoses from abusing opioid pain medications is at epidemic levels.

I believe medical cannabis can help.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2014 there were a total of 47,055 drug overdose deaths that occurred in the U.S., more than any other previous year on record. There has never been a documented overdose death from cannabis.

In an October 2014 study in the American Medical Association's Journal of Internal Medicine, researchers conclude that medical cannabis laws are associated with significantly lower state-level opioid overdose rates. States with medical cannabis laws had a 24.8 percent lower average annual overdose rate compared to states without medical cannabis laws.

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Taboos about drugs are lying shattered across the U.S., like broken debris after a party. But even as some states have begun to decriminalize or legalize marijuana, there is an argument that is making some Americans hesitate.

They ask: Aren't many drugs, even pot, much more potent today than they were in the 1960s, when the boomers formed their views on drug use? Hasn't cannabis morphed into super skunk? Aren't people who used legal painkillers like OxyContin and Percocet sliding into heroin addiction - suggesting that legally accessible drugs are a slippery slope toward the abuse of harder drugs?

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Petition Asks for More Illnesses on Approved List

Medical marijuana advocates are mounting a petition drive and social media campaign to convince Gov. Bruce Rauner to greatly expand the program in Illinois - but the governor hasn't yet given any indication he would do so.

The campaign is driven in part by industry officials who fear their businesses won't survive without more than the current 4,000 patients statewide. Joining them are patients with a variety of medical conditions, including chronic pain and common arthritis, who say they need medical marijuana to relieve their symptoms without the side effects of prescription drugs.

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I have been a practicing physician in the Chicagoland area for more than 30 years with a specialty in pain medicine. A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention draws attention to the fact that Illinois must allow patients the opportunity to choose cannabis over highly addictive and sometimes deadly prescription drugs.

Opioids and narcotics remain the primary drugs for treating chronic pain despite their dangerous side effects. According to the CDC, 44 people die each day from prescription drug painkiller overdose, and health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for painkillers in 2012. This epidemic is disproportionately affecting women, with a more than 400 percent increase in painkiller overdose deaths since 1999.

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Medical cannabis has been available to Illinois patients for nearly two months and we have already witnessed countless success stories about how this natural remedy is helping people live an improved quality of life. In many cases, this improvement comes after all other treatment options have failed.

The medical cannabis industry has invested more than $250 million in Illinois while training a new workforce, employing more than 500 people and becoming an economic engine for communities still reeling from the recession. Local mayors who are happy to see residents back to work, restaurants full and a renewed interest in real-estate development support the program. Operating at about half-capacity, the industry has the potential to change the landscape of Illinois.

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All across America last weekend, panicked drug users rushed to their dealers to stock up on marijuana, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine for fear of running out. The arrest of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, head of the biggest drug cartel in Mexico, was sure to cause a sudden shortage of illegal substances in this country.

That's right. And I'm Queen Latifah. In reality, the capture of the narcotics kingpin is likely to have about as much impact on drug supplies as Martian solar storms do. You wouldn't expect long lines at the gas pump if the CEO of Exxon Mobil were suddenly unavailable because the company, its retailers and its suppliers would go on functioning.

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To the Editor:

I am glad that The Southern gave a "thumbs up" to the cannabis decriminalization bill being reintroduced in Springfield. How long until we end another failed prohibition completely? Keeping a plant illegal seems silly when there are plenty of other crimes that go unsolved every year. However it is easier for police to catch some college kids getting high than it is for them to solve a cold case murder or a rape.

The medical cannabis program has shown that there are investors and businesses willing to open up in parts of central and southern Illinois at a time when other businesses are shutting down or leaving the state. Colorado had to issue a tax refund to its citizens due to amount of taxes that were paid from the legal cannabis industry, both medical and recreational. Personally I would put Illinois farmers above Colorado farmers when it comes to growing cannabis, if only Illinois farmers had the chance. Those who were lucky enough to get a cultivation license to grow medical cannabis in Illinois needed large amounts financial capital and experience, something Illinois farmers just could not admit to when competing against the west coast gardeners. Illinois should legalize cannabis for all adults, not just those who are sick.

Dan Linn

Dan Linn is executive director, Illinois for the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws

[end]

Whether or not re-legalizing cannabis will help Illinois' economy - which it most certainly will - is the wrong reason to end cannabis prohibition ("Make Cannabis Legal To Revitalize Illinois Economy, Dec. 29, 2015").

End cannabis/marijuana prohibition because it's the right thing to do. Caging responsible adults who choose to use the relatively safe, extremely popular God-given plant is anti-Christian, vulgar and one of North America's worst policy failures in history.

Stan White,

Dillon, Colorado

[end]

The state of Illinois collected more than $5 million in fees from more than 350 applications for only 81 licenses to become a cultivator or distributor of medical cannabis.

Rural Illinois saw a surge of interest in creating new jobs and boosting some small-town economies. The reason for this interest is to grow and distribute a plant, but not the usual ones like corn, soy or wheat.

These small towns were approached by developers, investors and local entrepreneurs to try to get a shot at growing medical cannabis for the new pilot program in Illinois. However, because of the limited amount of licenses, some of these business ventures will never get the opportunity to build these multimillion dollar facilities and offer jobs to local residents.

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Big Business

'Who Better Would You Want to Oversee Your Compliance Than a Cop?'

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. (AP) - With fewer than 4,000 approved patients, the nascent medical-marijuana business in Illinois is off to a slow start. Yet it hasn't kept away a cadre of cannabis entrepreneurs who once relied on guns, badges, tough drug laws and lengthy prison sentences to fight pot. STEVE NAGY / BELLEVILLE NEWS-DEMOCRAT Scott Abbott, a retired Illinois State Police colonel, speaks with Mark Lewis, left, and Jeff Greer in September at the new medical-marijuana dispensary being built in Collinsville, Ill.

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The article, "Few Q-C residents OK'd for medical marijuana," highlights how health care organizations are prohibiting physicians from participating in the medical cannabis program and draws attention to a disturbing trend putting politics before patients.

We are hearing stories from patients on how medical cannabis has changed their lives. Cannabis stimulates appetite and reduces nausea for cancer patients. It relieves rheumatoid arthritis pain and allows people to become active members of their families. It helps people live an improved quality of life and with edibles coming to market, even more will benefit from a variety of delivery methods to minimize and in many cases eliminate their symptoms.

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I'm writing about your story, "Chicago area men accused of cannabis possession after hotel search," Dec. 9. I wonder if your police department has solved all your robberies and rapes? If not, why are they wasting their time and resources making petty pot busts?

Why are the pot busts always in poor neighborhoods? Why don't they make pot busts in affluent neighborhoods like Woodside Drive or homes that back onto the Freeport Country Club fairways? Do the police think people who live in affluent neighborhoods don't use cannabis and buy their cannabis from their neighbors?

The real reason is that if the police started busting affluent people for pot, the war on drugs would soon be over. People in affluent neighborhoods have power and influence. People in poor neighborhoods don't.

- - Kirk Muse, Mesa, Arizona

[end]

CHICAGO - Patients bought $210,000 of medical marijuana in the first week it was legal in Illinois, marking what patients and industry officials said was a welcome, if overdue, start.

"By and large, things have gone well," said Joseph Wright, director of the Illinois medical marijuana pilot program.

More than 800 patients have bought 13,000 grams of cannabis since the state's first dispensaries opened Nov. 9. That's about half an ounce per customer, at an average price of $16 per gram, or about $450 per ounce.

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In the wake of more senseless murder on Chicago's streets, add my voice to the growing movement - which includes law enforcement officials - to legalize all drugs. The killings in Chicago, and in low-income areas all across the nation, are about drug sales and drug turf. Let's stop the huge profits to be had by dealing drugs - and stop the killing.

Lawrence Hartmann, Chicago

[end]

Canada was recently ranked the freest country in the world, but newly installed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau isn't about to let it rest on its maple leaves. He won the October national elections after proposing something no major American presidential nominee has ever dared to endorse: legalizing marijuana.

His Liberal Party argued that because of the current ban, "proceeds from the illegal drug trade support organized crime and greater threats to public safety, like human trafficking and hard drugs." Its platform called for legalizing, regulating and taxing cannabis.

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