Pubdate: Thu, 07 Feb 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
Author: Nancy J. Thorner
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n030/a09.html

FIGHT, BUT PREPARE FOR MEDICAL POT

Realizing that most of the mainstream media in Chicagoland leans to 
the left on social issues such as gay marriage, amnesty for illegal 
immigrants, sanctify of life, and in pushing for the legalization of 
medical marijuana, I received a positive jolt of common sense when on 
Jan. 16 a kindred spirit was found in a Daily Herald editorial, 
"Towns wise to prepare on medical marijuana."

Although the bill to legalize medical marijuana never made it out of 
legislative committee in the lame duck sessions of the Illinois 
General Assembly, the issue still has life and will surely be 
revisited in the 98th General Assembly, where Democrats now hold 
vote-proof majorities in both houses.

The previous legislature's House Bill 30, which nearly passed, 
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.

Local officials are well advised to do some advance planning to be 
ready should a medical marijuana bill pass in the 98th General Assembly

Medical marijuana and marijuana legalization efforts send the wrong 
messages to youth that marijuana is not only safe but that it is a 
medicine. Legislation and legislative efforts of this kind threaten 
public health and significantly undermine prevention efforts of 
community anti-drug coalitions throughout the state of Illinois.

Contact your state senators and representative to urge them to vote 
"no" on future legislation to legalize marijuana for medical use. 
Also urge your city councils to pass a zoning ordinance prohibiting 
dispensaries prior to legislation passing at the state level.

Nancy J. Thorner

Lake Bluff
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom