I'm writing about: "Debate swirls around weather to decriminalize marijuana in Illinois" (6-27-15).

While decriminalization is far superior to our current policies of marijuana criminalization, the answer to our crime problems caused by marijuana criminalization is full legalization.

Decriminalization of use is what we had with alcohol during Alcohol Prohibition (producers and suppliers were punished but not consumers). The only answer is full legalization.

Only fully legal products can be regulated by any government agency. Only fully legal products can be controlled by any government agency. And only fully legal products can be taxed by any government agency.

Decriminalization leaves the control and distribution of marijuana in the hands of criminal gangs. We need full legalization of marijuana like alcohol and tobacco.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.

[end]

If Mike Bonds had avoided misdemeanor convictions for possession of small amounts of marijuana more than 15 years ago, he believes he might have been able to enlist in the U.S. Navy.

The trajectory of his life - which includes a 2000 felony conviction in Piatt County for marijuana possession - might have been altered, said Bonds, who now operates a gutter installation business.

That's why Bonds, 36, who lives in rural Mansfield, about 65 miles northeast of Springfield, supports a bill on Gov. Bruce Rauner's desk that would decriminalize possession of up to 15 grams of cannabis.

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To the Editor:

I am writing on behalf of the epilepsy community in response to the editorial "Medical marijuana program slow to unfold."

The Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago was heavily involved in passing a recent amendment to the Illinois Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act, adding epilepsy as a debilitating condition, and it is committed to the success of this program, ensuring it is safe and accessible for all patients.

There are 3 million Americans living with epilepsy, and more than 130,000 in the Chicago area. Epilepsy is a neurological condition that produces reoccurring seizures, and, in the case of about one-third of those people with epilepsy, their seizures are uncontrolled by conventional treatments. Many individuals, including children with epilepsy, have experienced remarkable results using a form of medicinal cannabis called cannabidiol. Despite the fact that the program was launched Aug. 1, 2013, no one has received treatment.

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'Testilying' A Threat to Justice System, State's Attorney Says

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez announced perjury charges Monday against four veteran police officers - three of them narcotics cops from Chicago - for allegedly lying under oath at a routine drug hearing last year.

Such conduct, Alvarez said, is a threat to a justice system that depends on truthful testimony. "We expect it from our witnesses, and we demand it from our police officers," she said in a statement.

The officers are accused of a practice that some defense attorneys consider so widespread in Cook County that they have a word for it - "testilying," a reference to perjury by police, particularly in drug cases.

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State's Path Similar to Others That OK'd Recreational Use

Recent victories at the state Capitol are giving marijuana advocates hope that their ultimate goal - to legalize pot in Illinois - may be closer to reality.

With a medical pot program underway and lawmakers voting last month to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of the drug, Illinois is following a path that three other states have taken toward legalization. Alaska, Colorado and Oregon rolled out medical marijuana and loosened pot penalties before approving the drug for recreational use

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Clergy Sees Laws As Harsh, Involving Race, Fair Housing

The marijuana decriminalization bill that could soon go to Gov. Bruce Rauner's desk has an array of supporters, including civil libertarians, prosecutors and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Its supporters also include clergy. Protestant pastors and Jewish rabbis are lobbying lawmakers in Illinois and in states across the Northeast as part of a push toward legalization, which they see as a moral cause encompassing issues such as race, fair housing and employment.

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Bill That Would Decriminalize Small Amounts of Marijuana Is Through the Illinois House and Senate; Decision Now Up to Gov. Rauner

Police won't be able to arrest Illinoisans for having small amounts of marijuana if a bill passed by lawmakers gets Gov. Bruce Rauner's signature.

On Thursday, the Illinois Senate joined the House in passing a bill that makes possession of 15 grams or less of marijuana a noncriminal offense. Instead, police would issue a ticket and a fine of no more than $125.

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Maybe we're at long last starting to win the war, but not in the way we had planned.

It was always crazy that you could buy a gallon of vodka at any grocery store, while a joint would land you in a jail. But "crazy" is one of the more apt adjectives describing America's- War on Drugs, a multi-decade, multibillion-dollar effort that in the end . . . assuming this is, please God, the beginning of the end . . . produced what? Plentiful, ever cheaper street narcotics and a prison system jammed with drug offenders.

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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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