Pubdate: Wed, 16 Jan 2013
Source: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)
Copyright: 2013 The Daily Herald Company
Contact:  http://www.dailyherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/107

TOWNS WISE TO PREPARE ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

A bill to legalize marijuana use for medical purposes never made it 
out of a legislative committee for a vote in the 97th General 
Assembly's lame duck sessions. But that doesn't mean the issue is 
dead. There's talk it could gain new life in some form in the new 98th.

Rather than watching and waiting to see what might happen, several 
suburban communities have begun studying the possible legislation and 
what controls it would afford them. There's plenty of uncertainty, 
but despite that it's wise for all communities to do their homework.

We're skeptical about the value of medical marijuana until we can 
evaluate the potential effects of a particular bill, but it's not 
hard to see the momentum for it in legislatures around the country 
nor to imagine some of the consequences if such a measure becomes law.

True, communities won't decide the fate of the legislation - that's 
up to the General Assembly. But if the previous version is any 
indication, local zoning regulations will be valuable tools in 
providing controls.

"You're going to want to carefully plan for this potential," Wauconda 
Village Attorney Rudy Magna told village officials during a meeting 
last week. Barrington, Buffalo Grove, Grayslake and Lake Forest are 
among the towns where officials have discussed the proposed 
legislation in recent weeks.

Patients suffering from cancer, HIV and other painful diseases have 
said marijuana use eases their symptoms. And 18 states and the 
District of Columbia have enacted laws to permit them to legally use 
medical marijuana, starting with California in 1996. Massachusetts 
and Connecticut approved legislation in 2012.

Two states, Colorado and Washington, have enacted laws allowing pot 
for recreational use.

The previous proposal in Illinois, House Bill 30, focused only on 
medical marijuana and included a three-year test program in which 
qualified patients would have been limited to 2.5 ounces of marijuana 
over a 14-day period. The local focus of that bill was the creation 
of nonprofit cannabis dispensaries, which would have been allowed to 
grow, harvest and distribute marijuana. They would have been limited 
to one per state Senate district.

Under that bill, municipal leaders would not have been able to 
prevent a dispensary from opening, but they could control where it 
opened through zoning rules, officials have said. To that end, 
Buffalo Grove officials have directed the plan commission to evaluate 
and recommend possible zoning regulations for the dispensaries to 
ensure rules are adequate to address such a use. Barrington and Lake 
Forest have taken similar steps.

The aim is to be proactive and prepared, and it's the right kind of 
local-government thinking.

It's possible a medical marijuana bill never will see the light of 
day here. But, given the topic, local officials are well advised to 
do some advance planning to be ready if it does.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom