Pubdate: Fri, 21 Feb 2014
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2014 Sun-Times Media, LLC
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/5QwXAJWY
Website: http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Page: 21

MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES CLOSER TO PHARMACIES OR LIQUOR STORES?

When the Illinois Legislature is of two minds on a hot topic, the
result is often a law that has not been thought through.

Chicago Ald. Edward Burke (14th) thinks that's the case with respect
to the state's new law on medical marijuana, which defends pot
dispensaries as good and worthy, not unlike pharmacies, but also
treats them as potentially bad influences, not unlike liquor stores.

Illinois has joined a worldwide movement toward making marijuana
available to ill people who need relief from pain, but many state
lawmakers have been suspicious all along that the trend is just a
backdoor way to make legal pot more available to everybody, sick and
healthy alike. They point to California, where the sale of "medical"
marijuana is seen as virtually unencumbered.

Under the Illinois law, Chicago is authorized to allow up to 13
dispensaries in the city so that patients can get their prescriptions
filled. But to keep the dispensaries from becoming a nuisance, the law
says they can't be located in a residential area or closer than 1,000
feet to a school or day care center.

But that means practically the entire city is off-limits, Burke says.
With the exception of O'Hare Airport, virtually no sites are available
north of Chicago Avenue, he pointed out in a memo to the City Council.

Views toward marijuana are evolving rapidly. In a poll released Monday
by Quinnipiac University, nearly nine of 10 New Yorkers backed
legalization of medical marijuana. Experiments in legalizing
recreational marijuana are underway in Washington state and Colorado,
and activists say many other nations are discussing revising their own
marijuana laws. U.S. Reps. Jan Schakowsky of Evanston and Mike Quigley
of Chicago want the federal government to ease the penalties for
marijuana possession, and President Barack Obama recently said pot is
no worse than alcohol.

But given California's experience, we suspect many Chicagoans would
view a medical marijuana dispensary in their neighborhood as more akin
to a liquor store than a pharmacy. And so, appropriately, lawmakers
are treading cautiously.

As the state finalizes its administrative rules, the goal should be to
make it possible for Chicago to open those 13 dispensaries in a way
that does not unreasonably inconvenience legitimate customers, while
at the same time preserving those neighborhood protections the
Legislature had in mind.
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MAP posted-by: Matt