4 Eligible Schools Taking It Slow on Rule in Effect Jan. 1

Illinois universities can legally grow industrial hemp now, but it may be awhile before seeds are planted.

A new law, effective Jan. 1, allows state institutions that offer four-year agriculture degrees to research hemp with a license from the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Two of the four eligible schools have expressed interest - the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Illinois State University.

Rob Rhykerd, chairman of the Department of Agriculture at Illinois State, said research at the school would focus on production and increasing fiber content in the plant. After that, it would be up to agricultural industries in Illinois to take the research and pursue hemp production.

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Gov. Pat Quinn would not commit Sunday to awarding licenses to grow and sell medical marijuana in Illinois before he leaves office.

Without explanation, the state blew its self-imposed deadline last week to award those licenses before the end of 2014. On Sunday, Quinn said research is still underway.

"That will continue until the job is done," Quinn said. "It is a complicated law, and we're working on it as best we can."

But in the meantime, patients with cancer, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy are waiting to use medical marijuana for treatment. Entrepreneurs who have invested in the venture are also left in a lurch.

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Families Say It Works for Epileptic Seizures; Doctors Still Skeptical

Chicago (AP) - Randy Gross hopes a new law allowing children into Illinois' medical marijuana program will reunite his family, nearly a year after his wife moved to Colorado so their son could receive a controversial treatment to ease his epileptic seizures.

Gross lives and works in Illinois. His wife, Nicole, moved with their two sons so their 8-year-old could legally swallow a quarter-teaspoon of marijuana oil each day. While the medical evidence is thin, some parents - including the Grosses - say marijuana works for their children and they're willing to experiment.

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CHICAGO (AP) - Randy Gross hopes a new law allowing children into Illinois' medical marijuana program will reunite his family, nearly a year after his wife moved to Colorado so their son could receive a controversial treatment to ease his epileptic seizures.

Gross lives and works in Illinois. His wife, Nicole, moved with their two sons so their 8-year-old could legally swallow a quarter-teaspoon of marijuana oil each day. While the medical evidence is thin, some parents - including the Grosses - say marijuana works for their children and they're willing to experiment.

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While the Illinois Department of Agriculture had planned to select the medical marijuana growing sites by year's end, those plans have changed.

Melaney Arnold, the spokeswoman for the state's medical cannabis pilot program, said this week that the state will not be making selections within the 22 Illinois State Police district locations, and she's not sure when those sites will be chosen.

"There is no indication as to when that may take place," she said.

In District 21, the region that includes Kankakee, Iroquois and Ford counties, there are five applications under review. Four of the applications are within Kankakee County.

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State Allowing Food, Liquid Infusions for Qualifying Children

Children who live in Illinois will be allowed access to medical marijuana in the new year under rules announced by state officials Tuesday.

Those younger than 18 will need permission from a parent or legal guardian, must get the drug through an adult caregiver and will be required to receive approval from their own treating physician and a second doctor. Children may obtain only marijuana-infused products, such as food or liquid drops, and will not be allowed to get raw pot for smoking, under Illinois Department of Public Health rules.

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Mary Baran suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and wants to legally use medical marijuana, but she said her doctor won't recommend her for the program.

She's not alone, according to marijuana advocacy group NORML Illinois.

"We've heard from a lot of patients that they just can't get their doctors to write recommendations," said the group's Executive Director Dan Linn. People who apply to use medical marijuana must have their doctor's approval before the state will grant the user license.

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Next year, unless state legislators change a law linking marijuana and driving, Illinois prosecutors can continue to brand innocent people as criminals and put them in prison with no proof of guilt.

That's not a claim but a sad fact, said one area defense attorney who's finding more around the state rallying to his cause. They're raising their flag now around the case of Scott Shirey, a north suburban Chicago man whose 10-year-old son was killed and twin son badly injured when a pickup truck broadsided his car at an intersection.

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Despite concern that medical marijuana is a "cash only" business that breeds crime, the City Council on Wednesday squelched - probably for good - a security crackdown that would have required cultivation centers and dispensaries to hire around-the-clock security guards and prevent "public viewing" of pot.

Mayoral challenger Bob Fioretti ( 2nd) and his Progressive Caucus colleague Ald. Scott Waguespack ( 32nd) used a parliamentary maneuver to put off consideration of the watered-down security ordinance until the next Council meeting, but the delay is likely to be permanent.

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Action for Boston Community Development - an anti-poverty organization - is taking a not-in-my-backyard approach to the proposed downtown location for a medical marijuana dispensary.

"What I'm concerned about is that it's everybody's backyard," said ABCD president John Drew. "You could probably have situated this shop in a better location. You're talking about in the middle of Boston. . I think it's a prescription for some real problems."

The state Department of Public Health last week gave a green light for Patriot Care Corp.'s proposed pot shop at 21 Milk St. in the Financial District to advance to the next step in the process.

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Though most of the Lake View residents who turned out for a community meeting about a proposed marijuana dispensary opposed it, the East Lake View Neighbors association, sponsors of the meeting, voted to approve a city zoning change that would allow the dispensary to open.

More than 60 people attended the meeting Monday evening to discuss a medical marijuana dispensary proposed for 2843 N. Halsted St.

Employees and consultants for MedMar Inc., the company that wants to run the dispensary, told the crowd that the location was one of a very few in Chicago that met strict zoning requirements set by both the state and the city for the dispensaries, now allowed under a recent state law.

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Rauner, Others Support a More Open Process for License Application

Since they won the Super Bowl, members of the 1985 Chicago Bears have made second careers out of promoting apple-pie products like McDonald's, Coca-Cola and G.I. Joe. Now, they can add a more countercultural item to the menu: medical marijuana.

Emery Moorehead, former tight end for that once-dominant franchise, is part of a business team hoping to sell cannabis under the new state law that legalizes it. Moorehead plans to direct community relations for a group of investors seeking to open a marijuana dispensary in his native Evanston - one of 369 businesses that have applied to run medical pot retail stores or growing warehouses in Illinois.

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Regarding John Roska's Oct. 26 column in The News-Gazette Business section, not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients in need, but adult recreational use should be regulated.

Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't ID for age, but they do recruit minors immune to adult sentences. So much for protecting the children.

Throwing more money at the problem is no solution. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime.

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Superintendent Highlights Growing Problems That Come With the OK of Marijuana Sales

Medical marijuana won't be a prelude to legalizing recreational marijuana in Illinois if Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy has anything to say about it.

On the hot seat at City Council budget hearings Thursday, McCarthy went public with his professional misgivings about the sale of both types of marijuana.

It happened after downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly ( 42nd) noted that medical marijuana sales were coming to Illinois in 2015, but other states "are taking it even further and going for recreational use."

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Q: When will medical marijuana actually be available in Illinois?

A: Soon, but not yet. Probably early to mid-2015.

Some applicants have apparently been approved, and have received the "registry identification card" that certifies they're a "qualifying patient" who can use medical marijuana.

And applications for the other two parts of the system - to be a "registered dispensing organization" or a "registered cultivation center" - have been filed. But none has been approved yet.

Some applicants will have to be approved, then a cultivation center will have to grow some product. Growing time is reportedly four months. Only then will medical marijuana actually be available for consumption.

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When I was first approached about having a medical marijuana cultivation site in Metamora, I said we were most likely not interested. My reaction was based on years of thinking of marijuana as "pot," being sold by a drug dealer on a street corner. After doing research, I changed my mind for three reasons.

The first was hearing about a 4-year-old boy who had epileptic seizures. Specially grown marijuana that produced the right strain would stop the seizures. I heard about cancer patients who after treatment experienced terrible side effects. With the right medical marijuana, they experienced no side effects. I learned there are 41 debilitating illnesses that can be treated with legally grown marijuana. Metamora is a caring community willing to help those who are in trouble medically. The medicine produced from genetically engineered marijuana could potentially help many sick people improve their lives.

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Here's what's clear: A marijuana gold rush is coming to Illinois. Here's what's not so clear: How will fundamental conflicts between state and federal laws governing marijuana be resolved?

Because until those conflicts are worked out, too much of this lucrative industry will be a cash business, ripe for fraud and organized crime, and nobody-consumers or suppliers-can feel completely safe from federal snooping and sanctions.

About half the states, including Illinois, have enacted laws authorizing marijuana for medical use, and two- Washington and Colorado-have legalized it for recreational use. In Los Angeles, a new smart phone app lets medical marijuana users get deliveries right to their doorsteps.

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Medical marijuana entrepreneurs want to bring their businesses ( and plants) to an Illinois market that could be worth up to $ 1 billion a year

DENVER- Outside the warehouse, even from the road, the smell is unmistakable.

And once you step inside this unassuming building, across the street from a busy police station in northeast Denver, you can see it, too:

About 6,500 flowering marijuana plants, each about 6 feet high, stretching as far as the eye can see.

The warehouse is one of several in a thriving industrial zone that forms the center of a gold rush for Colorado's legal weed farmers.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Selling medical marijuana to people with serious illnesses soon will be legal in Illinois. The Sun- Times wanted to see how the process has been working so far in Colorado, a state where it's already legal to sell marijuana to any adult, and focus on a business there that wants to win one of the coveted licenses to grow marijuana in Illinois.

DENVER- When a customer seeking medical marijuana comes into the dispensary on Colfax Street, Jamie Murray wants to know: How do you want to feel?

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DENVER - Illinois won't be anything like Colorado, at least at first.

The Centennial State is at the forefront of marijuana policy in the United States. It's legal to use marijuana medically and recreationally. Colorado residents are allowed to grow marijuana in their homes.

The sales of both medicinal and recreational marijuana keep rising, according to Colorado data. In August, patients bought $ 32.2 million worth of medical marijuana.

"It is a lab. This is an experiment. People can learn from what we've done here," said Colorado State Rep. Dan Pabon, D- Denver.

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