A state- appointed advisory panel suggested Monday that migraines, irritable bowel syndrome and posttraumatic stress disorder should be added to conditions that may be treated by medical marijuana in Illinois.

But diabetes and anxiety did not receive the backing of the Illinois Medical Cannabis Advisory Board, which met in the Thompson Center. The panel heard from advocates and detractors before board members voted on whether to endorse the use of marijuana to treat each medical condition. A majority vote was needed to garner a recommendation. The state will take the recommendations into consideration before final rejection or approval.

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In Cook County, it's possible for someone to sit in jail for a couple of weeks on a drug charge even if they had no drugs. That's not good, obviously, and cries out for reform.

In every other county in Illinois, police do a field test when they stop someone suspected of possessing illegal drugs. If the substance in question doesn't test positive for an illegal drug, the person who has been stopped is free to go. But in Cook County police departments, including Chicago, a suspect sometimes must wait in jail-if he can't make bail-until the suspected cocaine or heroin is analyzed at a state crime lab and, only then, a probable cause hearing can be held.

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While this proposed policy would save taxpayers over $ 58 million over three years, it may not reduce time waiting in jail.

The Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy at Roosevelt University supports the intent of House Bill 356 because it is vitally important to reduce the number of days that individuals wait for a preliminary hearing. Awaiting results from the Illinois State Police Crime lab creates long delays for defendants and causes overcrowding in Cook County Jail.

But academic literature raises concerns regarding police conducting field testing for suspect narcotics.

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State Advisory Panel Recommends That Drug Be Available for 11 New Conditions

An Illinois panel Monday recommended allowing medical marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, anorexia and migraine headaches, but rejected its use for anxiety and diabetes.

The Illinois Medical Cannabis Advisory Board supported the drug's availability for 11 new medical conditions in all, including chronic post-surgical pain, osteoarthritis and irritable bowel syndrome.

The recommendations, if approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health, would significantly increase the list of conditions for which medical pot can be accessed. As it stands, about three dozen disorders and diseases, including AIDS, cancer and lupus, can be eligible for medical marijuana - though a series of delays have so far rendered medicinal pot unavailable in the marketplace.

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The Cook County state's attorney is assuming legislative authority in her prosecutorial discretion. There is no dispute in her utilizing that discretion, but it is the responsibility of the legislature to make laws and the courts to enforce those laws. She may seek revision of the marijuana laws but not unilaterally decide which laws she will enforce. Narcotic offenders are not genetically disposed to the use of narcotics and will usually start with marijuana or pills and progress to total addiction using other more lethal narcotics.

- - John Culloton, Chicago

[end]

Narcotics Offenders in Treatment Programs Funded by Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act Could Double to 12,000 a Year Under State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's Policy to Reduce Pot Prosecutions

Shoplifting and other petty crime associated with narcotics abuse could decrease because of Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's new policy to stop prosecuting minor drug cases, according to her office and the head of a large drug treatment referral agency.

Under the policy announced last week, Alvarez's office will no longer prosecute most misdemeanor marijuana cases and will send nonviolent offenders charged with low-level felony heroin, marijuana and cocaine possession to drug treatment instead of jail.

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This is in response to "Low-level pot offenders in Rock River Valley offered treatment instead of jail," printed in the Journal-Standard.

I think that it is noble that pot consumers not be sent to jail for using a natural herb that has never killed anybody. But why treatment? Like millions of others, I am addicted to coffee that contains caffeine. Do I need or want treatment for my coffee addiction? No.

How would coffee consumers feel if their nanny-state government criminalized coffee? Probably the same way marijuana consumers feel today.

Kirk Muse, former Freeport resident

[end]

FREEPORT - While the Cook County state's attorney announced Monday that her office won't prosecute most misdemeanor marijuana cases, there's no such policy shift on the horizon for local prosecutors.

State's attorneys in Winnebago, Boone and Stephenson counties said they will continue to offer programs already in place for low-level pot offenders.

Anita Alvarez said in Chicago that she also will steer many facing felony drug charges into treatment rather than locking them up. The policy shift will save the county, that includes Chicago, the money it costs to keep offenders in jail, she said. Those facing low-level drug charges will be routed to treatment programs almost immediately after they are arrested, she said. And she added that by reducing the number of days people spend in jail, those arrested may be able to keep their jobs and homes that they could otherwise lose if they're locked up.

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Would Al Capone have loved drug prohibition? This man thinks so

James Gierach sounded almost giddy when I telephoned him Monday to get his reaction to Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's announcement that she would no longer prosecute misdemeanor marijuana cases and would refer non-violent felony drug offenders for treatment.

"It's wonderful," Gierach said. "It's progress. It's almost like the sun is shining. It's not yet. But maybe we're moving out of the Dark Ages toward enlightenment. It's something to be happy about."

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Claiming that marijuana has a "lethal legacy," as Debbie Leiniger did in her March 7 "My View" opinion is not only specious and spurious, it is akin to declaring that the Earth is flat. Despite all evidence to the contrary.

History shows that people have always used intoxicants. In every age, in every part of the world, people have pursued intoxication with plants, alcohol and other euphoric substances. In fact, this behavior has so much force and persistence that it functions much like our drives for food, sleep and sex.

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Cannabis, or marijuana, prohibitionists use historically discredited lies, half-truths and propaganda like "Marijuana a lethal legacy for future generations" in order to perpetuate the nasty business of caging humans for using what God indicates He created and says is good on literally the very first page of the Bible.

Nearly everything Debbie Leininger claims is false, but insinuating cannabis causes cancer is grave. In over 5,000 years of documented use, there is not one single dead body to show cannabis has ever caused cancer, while cigarettes kill over 1,000 Americans daily. A sane or moral argument to cage responsible adults who use cannabis doesn't exist.

Stan White Dillon,

Colorado

[end]

I am writing about Debbie Leininger's not-so-thoughtful "My View" piece: "Marijuana a lethal legacy for future generations."

Leininger did not mention why she wants to keep marijuana completely unregulated, untaxed and controlled and distributed only by criminal gangs.

Obviously Leininger has never read Clint Werner's outstanding book: "Marijuana Gateway to Health: How Cannabis Protects Us From Cancer and Alzheimer's Disease." If she had, she would learn that not only does cannabis not cause cancer, it prevents it.

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Delays, Legal Challenges Send Patients to Streets

A year and a half after Illinois lawmakers voted to legalize medical marijuana, Marla Levi is still waiting.

Levi has multiple sclerosis, uses a wheelchair and said she ingests marijuana to help her manage the symptoms. If she wants to continue, she'll have to get it on the street because medical marijuana in Illinois isn't expected to be available for several more months.

A series of snafus has delayed the rollout of the program. Now lawsuits challenging the licensing process are further complicating efforts, and a judge has granted a court order delaying the issuance of one cultivation license until the mess can be straightened out.

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Expert Rips Rahm's Positive Spin on Impact of Pot- Law Enforcement on Blacks, Hispanics

The Emanuel administration has touted as a sign of "progress" statistics showing that the percentage of arrests to tickets in marijuana cases was about the same for blacks, Hispanics and whites in 2014.

But a deeper dive into the numbers tells a more complex story, one that's raising a question among some critics of how much progress is actually being made.

When you look at the raw numbers, blacks were busted 16 times more than whites for small amounts of pot in 2014- including tickets and arrests. And for every white Chicagoan busted for marijuana, four Hispanics were busted, according to police statistics. Those stats come despite the fact that white Chicagoans outnumber both black and Hispanic Chicagoans by a ratio of approximately 3- to- 2.

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Two marijuana bills are now being considered in the Illinois State Senate and Illinois House.

The Cannabis Penalties Bill, HB 218, introduced by Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, and co-sponsored by Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana/Champaign, and Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, would replace criminal penalties with a $100 fine. The bill would eliminate the possibility of arrest and jail time with offenders caught possessing up to 30 grams of marijuana. Offenders would be issued a $100 "=C2=80=C2=9CUniform Cannabis=

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I am writing about the not-so-thoughtful Feb. 8 letter from Robert F. Becker: "Marijuana is not the answer to our problems."

Marijuana is certainly the answer for my chronic pain, which is caused by my spinal stenosis and spinal scoliosis.

Two of the medications prescribed by my doctor, Meloxicam and Linsospril, and used as prescribed almost killed me by destroying my kidneys. My bloodwork number, which is supposed to be greater than 61, was down to 17. If that number had gotten down to 15, I probably would have died from kidney failure.

All medications have side effects. Marijuana is not really a drug but rather a plant and natural herb - a natural herb that has never killed anyone in the 6,000-year history of its use.

Kirk Muse, former Freeport resident

[end]

It's OK for Illinois Physicians to Get into the Medical Marijuana Business- As Long As They Don't Recommend It to Patients

At least three Illinois doctors are getting into the legal medical marijuana business, according to a review of records of the companies recently approved to grow and sell marijuana.

The rules say that's OK as long as they don't recommend marijuana to their patients.

But physicians' involvement in the medical marijuana industry raises questions about the potential for conflicts of interest.

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The conflict between the states and the federal government when it comes to legalized medical marijuana may play out in an Illinois court.

What is believed to be the first lawsuit regarding medical marijuana licenses in Illinois was filed Friday in downstate Coles County by a business that lost out in its bid to get a license to grow medical marijuana.

The business, Shiloh Agronomics LLC contends that the company it lost out to, Shelby County Community Services Inc., was improperly given the license because it is a nonprofit organization that receives tax benefits from the Internal Revenue Service, a federal agency.

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Seventy some years ago in my youth, I learned drugs and alcohol would mess up people mentally, they could harm themselves and others. A high school mate researched the dangers of marijuana and warned us to avoid it and other narcotics. As a young adult, I experienced and saw tragic life-altering effects of addictive drugs, alcohol and games learned to shun them and live a happy life.

So, I am aghast at the headline "Pot production raises hopes," and the euphoria over resurrection of Mill Race tax profiteering. I seriously question anyone pushing marijuana as a life-saving medical substance when it cures nothing. Whom besides tax addicts and users insist it is medicine?

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The prospect of medical marijuana for sale in your Illinois neighborhood may seem unreal.

But for a truly mind-blowing experience, even without trying the wares, consider a glimpse at the next step on the legalization continuum: its sale for recreational use.

The recreational use of pot became legal in Colorado in 2014. Which means that a ski vacation there now offers an additional kind of adventure.

On our recent ski trip to Telluride with friends, my adult daughter proposed that we take a look. Not necessarily a taste; her drug of choice is a gin martini. But why waste an opportunity, she asked, to see a legal marijuana store?

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