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. [continues 307 words]
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. [continues 190 words]
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. [continues 591 words]
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. [continues 203 words]
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. [continues 106 words]
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. [continues 189 words]
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. [continues 1134 words]
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. [continues 64 words]
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." [continues 271 words]
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. [continues 402 words]
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. [continues 293 words]
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. [continues 478 words]
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. [continues 1103 words]
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? [continues 722 words]
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. [continues 567 words]
Lake County Crime Stoppers, the Lake County Sheriff's Office, the Mundelein Police Department, Lake County Regional Office of Education and the Lake County State's Attorney's Office announced that the crime and drug prevention rulers for Lake County's public middle-school and high-school students have been delivered. "This project was funded in part by Lake County Crime Stoppers as well as from drug asset forfeiture accounts. The monies seized from drug dealers is helping to educate our youth on the dangers of drugs. It is a wonderful thing when you can reach over 70,000 children on their dime," said State's Attorney Michael Nerheim. [continues 370 words]
Strip Club Owner's Proposed Dispensary a Hot Topic Chicago's medical marijuana cultivation centers and dispensaries would be required to hire around-the-clock security guards and load and unload pot out of public view, under a preemptive crackdown proposed at Wednesday's City Council meeting. Even before the growing and selling is up and running, Finance Committee Chairman Edward Burke ( 14th) and Zoning Committee Chairman Danny Solis ( 25th) want safeguards in place to protect the public. "We want to make absolutely sure these products are properly protected and that these cannabis-infused products are not out in public view," Burke was quoted as saying in a press release. [continues 277 words]
Horse racing, tobacco, liquor, gambling, slot machines, beer, the lottery - these used to be called vices. Now all are streams of revenue into which Illinois governments have stuck their fingers. Legally. So the city of Chicago should grab hold of marijuana with both hands and not let go. Now. There are so many directions and opportunities, it's dizzying. For the first time in his tenure, in my opinion, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has uttered something comprehensible and of imagination; so, yes, he should proceed toward legalization. Chicago cannot live indefinitely with problems like a shrinking home-sales market, a crumbling infrastructure and an outdated, inefficient transportation network. But a bold idea done right and done quickly - to get an edge over what's sure to be an avalanche of cities and locales doing the same thing - might help save the city. - - David Atella, Hinsdale [end]
Critics Say It's Part of Future Push for Stricter Gun Law Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday started to sell his idea of loosening Illinois drug laws for possession of illegal substances like marijuana, heroin and cocaine, but some of those he has to convince said they're skeptical because he'll want tougher gun laws in return. The reception to Emanuel's plan to decriminalize marijuana statewide and reduce minor drug possession to a misdemeanor illustrated the difficult slog the mayor faces as he tries to secure a signature victory on violent crime, an issue that's been at the forefront of his tenure. [continues 1603 words]
1 in 5 Applications for Grow Houses, Retail Centers to Get Approval Illinois received 369 applications for medical marijuana business licenses, which means about 1 in 5 applications will win approval to open grow houses and retail centers in the state. The state received 211 applications for dispensaries - retail shops for medical marijuana - and 158 applications for grow centers. Illinois will allow 60 dispensaries statewide and 21 grow centers. Bob Morgan, statewide project coordinator for the Illinois Medical Cannabis Pilot Program, said the number of applications, which were due Monday, was higher than anticipated. [continues 319 words]
Does anybody really believe in this day and age that somebody deserves jail or prison time for getting caught with, say, a small amount of pot? Arresting and prosecuting low-level drug offenders is a waste of time. So say cops and assistant state's attorneys, who should know. On Tuesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel rightly joined a growing call to decriminalize marijuana statewide and reduce penalties for small amounts of other controlled substances. As the mayor said in a press release, "It is time to put our sentencing policies in line with our values [and] reduce penalties for nonviolent, low-level drug offenses so we don't put people in prison who need drug treatment." [continues 628 words]
One week after Bruce Rauner said he wouldn't have signed a bill supporting medical marijuana in Illinois, the Republican gubernatorial candidate on Tuesday said he was "open to the discussion" of decriminalizing small amounts of the substance statewide. When asked about Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposal to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana and reducing to a misdemeanor the penalty for possession of one gram or less of any controlled substance, Rauner said: "I think we can and should talk about ways we can creatively deal with nonviolent offenders. We should have that discussion . . . We have a massive failure by Pat Quinn to deal with violent criminals." [continues 237 words]
Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked state lawmakers Tuesday to soften Illinois' war on drugs, but the political response was lukewarm. Emanuel wants the General Assembly to go beyond what he did in Chicago by decriminalizing possession of 15 grams or less of marijuana and reducing from a felony to a misdemeanor the penalty for possession 1 gram or less of any controlled substance. "Thirteen other states already have laws on the books similar to what I'm proposing, and there is no higher rate of drug [use] in these states as a result," Emanuel said. [continues 266 words]
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday ridiculed Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis for suggesting that marijuana be legalized and taxed because it's a "great revenue source." "I do not think you should balance the budget by promoting recreational smoking of pot," the mayor said. "I've balanced the budget three years in a row by holding the line on property, sales and gas taxes. Every year, we've put money back in the rainy day fund. We also banned flavored tobacco and e-cigarettes within 500 feet of a school, so we have fewer kids smoking cigarettes. . . . I don't think the way to balance the budget is to promote smoking of marijuana." [continues 321 words]
Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to decriminalize the possession of marijuana. Looking at this event in perspective, it is clear that a licensing money grab and a shameless plea for voter kowtowing is the order of the day for the Emanuel mayoral campaign. This move reeks of the worst kind of politicking and caters to all those who are gullible to the seemingly free ride that is obviously absent. Mike Koskiewicz, Portage Park [end]
Officials Say Relaxing Penalties Wrong Signal, Wouldn't Help Addicts Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposal to change the terms of the drug war by lessening the penalties for low-level possession is getting blowback from the suburbs, with some prosecutors and police chiefs saying it sends an unhelpful message at a time when heroin overdoses are claiming hundreds of lives. Emanuel said this week that he wants the state legislature to change the possession of 1 gram or less of any controlled substance to a misdemeanor from a Class 4 felony, which can bring prison time and lessen the chances of future employment. [continues 1034 words]
Marijuana legislations in the United States Over the past couple of years, 22 states have either legalized or decriminalized the use of marijuana. Alaska, California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada and Oregon have all legalized marijuana for medical use and decriminalized the possession of specific amounts of marijuana. Other states have also decriminalized the possession of specific amounts, including Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin. Recently, Washington and Colorado took the next step and legalized marijuana for recreational purposes. Unfortunately, the possession of a small quantity of marijuana will result in jail time or fines anywhere else in the U.S. Even with the new policy, the overall drug law has stayed the same. However, no state has taken action to decriminalize or legalize drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and other drugs. First, prohibiting a drug does not eliminate the drug market. All prohibition does is raise costs and consumer prices. To protect and continue production of the product, those who are marketing it turn to guns and violence instead of being able to resolve disputes with courts, lawyers or arbitration. [continues 269 words]
You would think that medical marijuana was contagious to hear Chicago aldermen talk about an appropriate zoning district for the location of its dispensaries. Instead of thinking so hard about where medical marijuana should not be available, aldermen should swallow hard, forget the foolish historic prohibition of marijuana and allow medical marijuana to be sold anywhere that other medicines are sold. Sick people are not benefited by making it inconvenient, if not difficult, to visit a business that will sell a substance that helps people suffering from cancer, chemotherapy, AIDS and other serious illnesses. [continues 53 words]
I read with interest the article "Medical marijuana may cost patients top dollar" by Robert McCoppin because I am part of a group seeking licenses to operate cultivation and dispensary facilities in Illinois. While there is much speculation as to the size of the market, patient access and pricing, one fact stands out: the most widely used plant-based medicine up until 1937 will once again be available to people who need it in Illinois. Propaganda in the past 80 years has put cannabis in the same light as cocaine and heroin while hiding its medicinal benefits. [continues 60 words]
Decatur's finest get their man Dennis Kendall didn't finish high school, but at 32, he was a homeowner in Decatur before his world came crashing down. He began roofing at the age of 13, his family says, and was once employed by the same company for nine years. He didn't have a driver's license owing to a driving under the influence conviction. If he couldn't catch a ride to work, he'd call a cab. "He was early, if anything," recalls his employer, John Muehlebach, owner of Muehlebach Roofing. "He's the type of employee you don't come across very often in my industry." [continues 1036 words]
Jim Champion was the first person to submit an application to legally use medical marijuana in Illinois. Champion led the pack of more than 2,000 seriously ill Illinoisans who have sent in applications seeking to use medical pot, according to state officials on Friday. Officials started accepting the paperwork Tuesday, beginning with letters A through L. Champion, an Army veteran who has multiple sclerosis, smokes two marijuana cigarettes a day to help with painful spasms. Since he started using marijuana, he's down from using 59 pills, including powerful narcotic pain relievers, to just six to help manage his condition. [continues 258 words]
Experts Predict Illinois Prices Could Be Among Most Expensive in U.S., Thanks to Restrictive Rules When Jim Champion goes to a medical marijuana dispensary in Illinois for the first time, his wife, Sandy, plans to take a picture to mark the victory, after years of fighting for an alternative treatment for his multiple sclerosis. "It'll be like going to the candy store for his birthday," she said. Champion, a military veteran from Somonauk in north-central Illinois who said he already takes marijuana to ease his symptoms, probably should plan on bringing plenty of cash. [continues 1055 words]
Areas Concerned With Visibility, Safety, Zoning As state officials enacted the rules that will govern the rollout of medical marijuana in Illinois, dozens of individual communities updated their zoning codes to determine where grow centers and pot stores can and cannot be located. Now, with the state poised to begin accepting applications next month for businesses and patients, many suburbs have moved from the theoretical to the concrete as they consider specific proposals from people who want to grow or sell legal marijuana within town borders. [continues 448 words]
Hundreds of police officers in nearly 30 Kane County law enforcement agencies by early September will begin carrying a drug that can reverse heroin overdoses, causing county officials to begin finding ways to pay for the drug over the long term. Representatives from area police departments received training through the county at the end of July. Officers who completed the training have been educating their peers the past few weeks in preparation for actually carrying the drug this fall. Each officer trained in administering the drug, known commercially as Narcan, will carry two doses in the form of a nasal spray. The drug acts by blocking receptors in the brain that opiates, such as heroin, Codeine, Vicodin and OxyContin, attach to. Narcan has no ability to reverse overdoses of non-opiates, such as cocaine. [continues 210 words]
Julie Falco was active in lobbying Illinois to legalize medical marijuana, a drug she credits with "saving my life" since she started eating pot brownies to treat to multiple sclerosis 10 years ago. Yet now that the state has enacted a medicinal cannabis law and just this month began distributing applications for would-be patients, the Chicago woman is still deciding whether to go through that process or simply continue to use the drug outside of the new legal channel. She's particularly concerned about having to submit her fingerprints to the state - Illinois is the only state that requires that of medical marijuana applicants - along with documentation of her Social Security disability insurance, proof of age and residency and a recent photo. [continues 883 words]
CHICAGO -- As Illinois' new medical marijuana program gets underway, potential patients, growers and retailers have questions. State officials plan to hold three town hall meetings across Illinois to provide answers, particularly about the application process, which starts next month. Multiple sclerosis patient Marla Levi of Buffalo Grove plans to apply for the required ID card so she can buy marijuana legally from a state-approved dispensary. She's found that the drug helps relieve the rigidity in her legs, she said. She wants to attend one of the meetings to get more information. [continues 220 words]
MOUNT VERNON -- Chris Marler wasn't prepared for what she found Sept. 5, 2006, in her Marion County home. She planned to have lunch with her youngest son that day, but when she came home both her sons were dead. "My youngest son died at 7:30 in the morning, and he was gone," Marler said. "I'm on the phone with 911, and I go to the other son's bedroom, and he was foaming at the mouth. So I perform CPR, and then you go into shock." [continues 549 words]
MOUNT VERNON -- An old drug is making a deadly comeback. First synthesized in 1874 and a drug of choice in the 1970s, heroin use is once again increasing around the nation and law enforcement and drug treatment counselors claim it could reach epidemic proportions in Southern Illinois. "It hasn't gotten here, but it's coming big time," Wendell Arms, Comprehensive Connections substance abuse therapist, said. "We've seen a 17 percent increase in our treatment agency -- just with heroin alone. It's coming. It's right around the corner, and if we don't get ready for it, we're going to get washed away with another addictive process." [continues 643 words]
Seriously ill people seeking to use medical marijuana in Illinois can start filling out the application to belong to the program. Illinois officials on Friday posted the nine-page patient application online. Patients whose last names begin with the letters A through L can submit their applications from Sept. 2 to Oct. 31. Then patients whose last names begin with the letters M through Z can send in their information Nov. 1 through the end of the year, according to the application. [continues 335 words]
With the usual fanfare and self-regard we have come to expect from the New York Times editorial board, the prestigious paper has changed its mind about pot. It now believes that the federal ban on the substance should be lifted and that the whole issue should be sent back to the states to handle. Not only did it issue a big Sunday editorial (the equivalent of a secular fatwa in my native Upper West Side of Manhattan), but it has since been flooding the zone on the issue with essays from members of the editorial board. [continues 493 words]
Tim Ryan's passion is hard to contain. Since announcing last month the start of the Opiate Recovery Group here in the Fox Valley, the businessman and former heroin addict has received nothing but positive feedback about his aggressive attempts to "help one addict at a time." But it's the one he recently lost that's "fueling my fire" even more. Around 7 a.m. Friday, the 45-year-old Naperville man and his ex-wife Shannon rushed to Hinsdale Hospital after receiving news their 20-year-old son had overdosed in a home in Darien. [continues 592 words]
That's McCarthy's Goal for Pot Busts, Spurring 'Lightening' Of 'Parameters' Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Friday he will recommend changes to the failed ordinance decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana to free officers to write more tickets. "There are some parameters we're lightening up, which is going to lead to the issuance of more [tickets] vs. arrests because that's the goal," McCarthy told aldermen at a City Council hearing on the veracity of crime statistics. [continues 811 words]
You'd think licensed dispensaries for medical marijuana were all-ages opium dens from the wariness bordering on paranoia with which state and local officials are grudgingly preparing for them to open. A year ago Friday, Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law a four-year pilot program allowing patients suffering from specific maladies to obtain, with a doctor's OK, therapeutic doses of marijuana. The marijuana will be sold at dispensaries accessible only to patients. The state law required the dispensaries to be located at least 1,000 feet away from a "public or private preschool or elementary or secondary school or day care center, day care home, group day care home ... part day child care facility ... (or) area zoned for residential use." [continues 607 words]
You would think that medical marijuana was contagious to hear Chicago aldermen talk about an appropriate zoning district for the location of medicinal pot dispensaries (News, July 30). Instead of thinking so hard about where medical marijuana should not be dispensed, aldermen should swallow hard, forget the foolish historic prohibition of the substance they formerly indulged in exchange for the reward of constituent votes cut from the fabric of fear and instead allow medical marijuana to be sold anywhere that other medicines can be sold. [continues 75 words]
Newspaper editorials rarely make news - I've been writing them for a long time, and, believe me, I know - but one did the other day, when The New York Times came out for legalization of marijuana. It was an agreeable development for anyone who, like me, believes in letting people live their own lives even if they do it badly. But its significance is much bigger than that. The Times is not exactly at the vanguard of history here. With all modesty, I will note that I wrote my first column arguing against pot prohibition in 1982, when the Washington Nationals were the Montreal Expos, Starbucks was confined to Seattle and I had a full head of hair. The question is not why the Times editorial endorsed the change but why it took so long. [continues 615 words]
The New York Times editorial board, a long-time proponent of the War on Drugs, recently dropped a bombshell on the drug policy debate, calling for an end to cannabis prohibition. It's no exaggeration to liken this to Walter Cronkite coming out against the war in Vietnam. I am writing today to congratulate the editorial board of The State Journal-Register for coming to this same wise, logical and compassionate conclusion over a year in advance of the "newspaper of record." [continues 72 words]
On Marijuana, Gay Marriage And More Newspaper editorials rarely make news - I've been writing them for a long time, and, believe me, I know - but one did the other day, when The New York Times came out for legalization of marijuana. It was an agreeable development for anyone who, like me, believes in letting people live their own lives even if they do it badly. But its significance is much bigger than that. The Times is not exactly at the vanguard of history here. With all modesty, I will note that I wrote my first column arguing against pot prohibition in 1982, when the Washington Nationals were the Montreal Expos, Starbucks was confined to Seattle and I had a full head of hair. The question is not why the Times editorial endorsed the change but why it took so long. [continues 630 words]
New Zoning Rules Allow Dispensaries All Through City, Not Just Fringes Chicago medical marijuana dispensaries are likely coming to busy shopping areas, despite the city's initial attempt to hide them away at the edges of the city. That means a medical marijuana dispensary could potentially open next door to a tony restaurant on Randolph Street or in River North near touristy fast food joints, according to new zoning regulations approved Tuesday by the Chicago City Council's Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards. [continues 582 words]
It may well be that health care providers in Springfield are mum on medical marijuana because of the potential liability associated with it. Just last week a Florida jury awarded Cynthia Robinson, whose husband died of lung cancer, $23.6 billion in punitive damages from R.J. Reynolds. Paving the way for the verdict was the state's Supreme Court's ruling making it easier to prove that Big Tobacco knowingly sold dangerous products and hid the hazards of cigarette smoking. The Court said that smokers and their families needed only to prove addiction and illnesses or death. [continues 89 words]
Inside Illinois
