An Oct. 28 letter to the Daily Herald advocated greater access to marijuana for people suffering chronic pain, citing a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). But if you visit the JAMA website and enter the search word "marijuana," you'll also see dozens of articles showing that marijuana can kill more than just pain: it can negatively impact things like cognitive function, moral clarity and the general health and well-being of users and their children and grandchildren. [continues 157 words]
Johnsie Gooslin spent Jan. 16, 2015, tending his babies -- that's what he called his marijuana plants. More than 70 of them were growing in a hydroponic system of his own design. Sometimes, he'd stay in his barn for 16 hours straight, perfecting his technique. That night, he left around 8 o'clock to head home. The moon was waning, down to a sliver, which left the sky as dark as the ridges that lined it. As he pulled away, the lights from his late-model Kia swept across his childhood hollow and his parents' trailer, which stood just up the road from the barn. He turned onto West Virginia Route 65. Crossing Mingo County, he passed the Delbarton Mine, where he had worked on and off for 14 years before his back gave out. Though Johnsie was built like a linebacker, falling once from a coal truck and twice from end loaders had taken a toll. At 36, his disks were a mess, and sciatica sometimes shot pain to his knees. [continues 4150 words]
Thirty people were shot, three fatally, during a violent 18-hour period from Saturday to Sunday in Chicago, which included a police-involved shooting and an attack outside Mount Sinai Hospital. In the Lawndale neighborhood, a woman's voice echoed as she voiced her frustration at the scene of a double shooting that left a 31-year-old man dead and another man wounded. "They know it's a drug house," she yelled out at the police and crowd that had gathered. "They don't give a (expletive). I do. I'm tired of this (expletive)." [continues 2261 words]
Chicago, I'm told, has a morality problem. That's what White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the other day when asked if violence in our city is related to easy access to guns. "I think that the problem there is pretty clear that it's a crime problem," she said. "I think crime is probably driven more by morality than anything else." That's an interesting statement, given the reason the question was posed: The administration had just announced that 20 federal gun agents were being dispatched to Chicago to help with a task force focused on the flow of illegal guns into the city. [continues 1083 words]
Two Elgin men were arrested after police said they tried to sell pancake mix in a drug deal with undercover officers. [Name redacted], 18, of the 600 block of Hampton Circle, was charged with four counts of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance, and one count of unlawful possession of a look-alike substance with intent to deliver, police said in a Facebook post Friday. [Name redacted], 19, of the 300 block of Ann Street, was charged with one count each of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance and possession of a look-alike substance with intent to deliver, police said. [continues 115 words]
[Name redacted], is charged with selling about a kilogram of heroin mixed with carfentanil -- the elephant tranquilizer -- and another potent opioid, fentanyl. A grand jury has indicted a Cincinnati man on charges of selling an elephant tranquilizer in Chicago, the first time someone has been charged here with selling the drug -- which is used by narcotics dealers to boost the potency of heroin, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. [Name redacted] is accused of selling the mixture of drugs to the informant on Sept. 9 in a vehicle near 93rd and Stony Island on the South Side. An audio recording was made of the deal, authorities say. [Name redacted] allegedly offered to sell the informant a kilogram of the mixture for $65,000. [continues 302 words]
I am writing to you in regard to the article "New pitch made for alcohol, drug treatment center near Campton Hills." The opioid epidemic is a rather common in the U.S., but the opioid overdose statistics in Illinois have risen dramatically over a very short period of time, nearly 1,700 people in our state died from overdoses in 2014. This is a multifaceted problem, but our first step is destigmatization. The recent opioid overdoses are directly related to an overall decrease of prescribing large amounts of pain killers. This crack down, which is absolutely necessary, causes people with narcotic addiction to seek it through heroin, rather than narcotic pain killers. Many reports all over the U.S. are pointing to heroin laced with fentanyl, a super potent narcotic, most likely from China, as the culprit to the heroin overdoses. This problem is not going away any time soon. [continues 92 words]
[photo] Partygoers smoke marijuana during a Prohibition-era themed New Year's Eve party at a bar in Denver, celebrating the start of retail pot sales. Denver is starting work on becoming the first city in the nation to allow marijuana clubs and public pot use in places like restaurants, yoga studios and art galleries. Voters narrowly approved the "social use" measure last November. (Brennan Linsley / AP) Denver has started work on the nation's first law allowing marijuana clubs and use in public places such as coffee shops or art galleries. But the details about what those pot clubs would look like are very much in the air. Here's what we know, and don't know, about the looming pot clubs headed to Denver: [continues 274 words]
Depressed, withdrawn and coping with a death in the family, Joseph thought getting high would help him feel better. Instead, he said, his marijuana smoking grew into a daily habit that made him paranoid and constantly question how others saw him. He went days without going home, showering or eating much besides potato chips. "I always thought (marijuana) would bring down my anxiety, but it just made it that much worse," the Rockford-area man said. One day, after getting so high that he was pacing around, alarmed by his own gaunt appearance and generally "freaking out," Joseph was taken by his brother to a Rosecrance drug treatment center in Rockford, where he entered an inpatient program. [continues 1228 words]
[photo] A medical marijuana dispensary is proposed for 1154 N. Main St. in Algonquin. Algonquin officials are considering a medical marijuana company's proposal to open a dispensary in a medical office complex. ILDISP III LLC, represented by Ross Morreale, is seeking a special-use permit for a free-standing building at 1154 N. Main St., out of which the company would sell marijuana to patients with a prescription. An attached garage would also be added onto the building, which formerly housed an MRI center, as a secure area for deliveries and waste removal, according to the proposal. [continues 234 words]
- -- and says he's done it before In his latest controversial statement, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, known for his bloody anti-drug war that has killed thousands, threatened to throw corrupt officials out of a helicopter, saying he has done it before, to a kidnapper, and won't hesitate to do it again. "I will pick you up in a helicopter to Manila, and I will throw you out on the way," Duterte said in Tagalog in front of a crowd in the Camarines Sur province Tuesday, according to GMA News. "I've done it before. Why would I not do it again?" [continues 563 words]
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs faces criticism for its brutal efforts that have left more than 3,000 drug users and dealers dead. Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs faces criticism for its brutal efforts that have left more than 3,000 drug users and dealers dead. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte affirmed on Friday that he shot dead three people as mayor, dismissing any uncertainty and displaying no remorse. "I don't really know how many bullets from my gun went inside their bodies," he said. "It happened. I cannot lie about it." [continues 409 words]
With fewer than 4,000 approved patients, the nascent medical marijuana business in Illinois is off to a slow start. Yet it hasn't kept away a cadre of cannabis entrepreneurs who once relied on guns, badges, tough drug laws and lengthy prison sentences to fight the drug. While neither state regulators nor the medical marijuana industry track the number of employees who were former law enforcement officials, The Associated Press has identified no fewer than 17 in Illinois, many of whom have outsized influence -- from a trustee of the state's chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police to one-time undercover narcotics officers. [continues 749 words]
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a western Kansas woman against the state and several agencies after her son was removed from her home in 2015 when he told school officials she used marijuana. Shona Banda, of Garden City, alleged in the lawsuit filed in March that the defendants denied her civil rights by refusing to allow her to use medical marijuana to treat her Crohn's disease, interfered with her parenting and questioned her son without her permission. Medical marijuana is not legal in Kansas. U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten dismissed the lawsuit Tuesday, agreeing with the defendants' contention that Banda had no right to use marijuana and the agencies had some immunity. Banda says she intends to pursue the case after she recovers from a recent surgery. [end]
[photo] Hydrocodone at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt. (Toby Talbot / AP) Drug wholesalers shipped 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia in just six years, a period when 1,728 people fatally overdosed on these two painkillers, according to an investigation by the Charleston Gazette-Mail. That amounts to 433 of the frequently abused opioid pills for every man, woman and child in the state of 1.84 million people. The Gazette-Mail obtained previously confidential records sent by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to the office of West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. They disclose the number of pills sold to every pharmacy and drug shipments to all 55 counties in West Virginia between 2007 and 2012. [continues 881 words]
Imagine this: Upon taking his oath of office, President Donald Trump instructs his new attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to ignore civil rights laws. How would that go over? Before you yell, "But we are a nation of laws!" you can thank President Barack Obama and his prior Attorney General Eric Holder for magnifying this issue. Basically, the Obama administration made it standard operating procedure to ignore laws they thought unfashionable or unworthy. The best example of this is marijuana. To be clear at the outset, I am neither pro-pot nor anti-pot. And, in fact, marijuana is not even the issue - rather, the Constitution is. Marijuana is just the symptom that exposes the problem. [continues 754 words]
I've been thinking a lot lately about marijuana. No, it's not what you suspect, I don't smoke the stuff. Nor do I need it to alleviate pain. Rather, it's our country's schizophrenic way of dealing with "weed." Here in Stephenson County is In Grown Farms, which is perfectly legal and is growing marijuana plants to be harvested, packaged and sold at marijuana dispensaries as medicine. You need a doctor's prescription to get it. There hasn't been much controversy about it. Indeed, folks are happy that a new business decided to locate in the Freeport area. There's even talk -- perhaps far-out talk, but still -- of mixing marijuana, legally, with snack foods like pretzels or potato chips. Meanwhile, next door in Winnebago County, the county sheriff's police raided two fields, one near Durand, the other between Rockford and Winnebago, and found what they said was $1 million worth of marijuana plants. These plants were growing illegally. [continues 354 words]
The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday announced it has created new rules for the state's cannabis decriminalization law - including setting a $ 120 fine for those caught with up to 10 grams of cannabis or drug paraphernalia. The law, which Gov. Bruce Rauner signed on July 29, gave the state Supreme Court the authority to further clarify the newly defined "civil law violation" of possessing up to 10 grams of cannabis or drug paraphernalia. Under the law, the violation is punishable by a fine between $ 100 and $ 200. In one of six newly created rules, the fine was set at $ 120 per violation. [continues 384 words]
African-Americans Ticketed, Arrested for Pot Offenses in Chicago Far More Than Any Racial Group Four years after the Chicago City Council decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, African-American neighborhoods continue to bear the brunt of enforcement, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found. As anticipated, the Chicago Police Department is making a fraction of the arrests for misdemeanor marijuana possession it made in 2011 - the last full year before cops were given the option of ticketing, rather than locking up, people caught with about half an ounce or less. [continues 1364 words]
She recently turned 18, and if Malia Obama did not know that she had become a legitimate target for sections of the American media, she does now. The "First Daughter" was videoed smoking what a witness claimed was a joint in a video clip released yesterday. The footage was taken at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago last month. It is unclear from the images whether what Obama can be seen puffing on is a regular cigarette or one rolled with cannabis. [continues 146 words]
Illinois Medical Marijuana Use Has Increased Under Strict Regulation As Business Expands In a warehouse in Joliet, hundreds of marijuana plants sway under high-intensity lights, taking in carbon dioxide-rich air, sucking up a constant feed of nutrients and bristling with buds. Like Olympic athletes, the plants are rigorously trained and intensively pampered. Tiny predator bugs patrol the surface of the vegetation, hunting down any pests. Workers prune stems and leaves to put all the plants' energy into buds that produce the drug's euphoric and medicinal effects. The process churns out 200 pounds of high-grade pot every month. [continues 991 words]
Last week, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law reductions in the criminal penalties for minor marijuana possession in Illinois. Previously, those convicted of marijuana possession faced possible jail time; now, just a citation and a fine. This reminds us of an age-old admonition: "Just because you can do something, it doesn't mean you necessarily should." Critics of this more liberal (or libertarian, depending upon your political persuasion) policy toward marijuana have reason to worry. As reported by the New England Journal of Medicine, there is an inverse correlation between the perceived risk of marijuana and the incidence of people's use of it. Simply put, the less risky people view marijuana, the more likely they are to use - and abuse - it. [continues 443 words]
Governor Signs Legislation to Issue Citations Instead of Time in Jail SPRINGFIELD - Getting caught with small amounts of marijuana will result in citations akin to a traffic ticket instead of the possibility of jail time under legislation Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law Friday. Rauner's approval of the decriminalization measure comes after he used his amendatory veto powers last year to rewrite similar legislation he argued would have allowed people to carry too much pot and fine violators too little. [continues 878 words]
(AP) - Illinois' experiment with medical marijuana has earned a boost thanks to Gov. Bruce Rauner's approval of legislation extending the state pilot program for 2 1/2 years and including two more medical conditions. On Friday, medical marijuana advocates and experts called it a turning point that gives patients guaranteed access to the drug and provides confidence to those selling and cultivating it in the state. Rauner signed the measure Thursday night. "It's a very good thing for us," said Charles Bachtell, founder and CEO of Cresco Labs, which holds cultivation permits in Illinois. "It's somewhat of an endorsement of the state saying, 'You're doing the right thing. We like what we're seeing from the pilot program and let's make some reasonable modifications.'" [continues 425 words]
Illinois must add post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of diseases eligible for medical marijuana treatment, a Cook County judge ordered Tuesday in a sternly worded ruling that also said the state's public health director engaged in a "private investigation" that was "constitutionally inappropriate." In a lawsuit filed by an Iraq war veteran, Judge Neil Cohen ordered Illinois Department of Public Health Director Nirav Shah to add PTSD within 30 days. It's the first decision among eight lawsuits filed by patients disappointed with across-the-board rejections by Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration of recommendations from an advisory board on medical marijuana. [continues 386 words]
Terminal Illness Also Covered Under Bill for Rauner Advocates for medical marijuana hope Illinois' plan to expand its program will give the industry the boost it needs to sustain itself - but some doctors warn that, despite changes made to protect them, they still have legal and medical concerns about the product. After previously rejecting efforts to make medical marijuana available to more people, Gov. Bruce Rauner's office has indicated he will sign into law a bill to lengthen the pilot program by more than two years, to July 1, 2020. The legislation also adds two new qualifying conditions: post-traumatic stress disorder and terminal illness. [continues 1162 words]
As someone who writes about marijuana for a living, it recently started to seem a little strange I hadn't actually been to the promised land of legal cannabis that Colorado has become over the past couple of years. So on Memorial Day weekend, I flew to Denver on a mission to buy weed legally. I already knew the rules. Dispensaries close promptly at 7 p.m. You must be 21 or older to buy recreational cannabis; public consumption is a no-no. And so forth. [continues 309 words]
Editor's note: This is day three of a four-day series that examines the impact heroin is having on the community through the eyes of the addicts, their families, law enforcement and the groups that provide treatment. MOUNT ZION - Hearing a 35-year-old addict say things her son might have said made Kathy Burkham apprehensive. That's because Tyler Yount's decision to use heroin "one more time" after staying clean 11 months and two weeks was the last one he ever made. He overdosed on June 14, 2009, dying at age 23. [continues 729 words]
Editor's note: This is day two of a four-day series that examines the impact heroin is having on the community through the eyes of the addicts, their families, law enforcement and the groups that provide treatment. DECATUR The scars on Lori Caldwell's arms are still there, though they've begun to lighten. Caldwell wishes she could say the same for her mental and emotional scars. Caldwell's voice becomes a whisper as she tries to talk through her tears while recounting her plunge into addictions to heroin and crack cocaine. [continues 2706 words]
Editor's note: This is day one of a four-day series that examines the impact heroin is having on the community through the eyes of the addicts, their families, law enforcement and the groups that provide treatment. DECATUR Eric Buntain described the feeling of injecting heroin into his vein as "warm, euphoric, comfortable and relaxing: It feels great." About 30 seconds after injecting heroin, there's a surge of warmth coming from the low spinal area, a rush of sensation and an overriding sense of well-being. [continues 1448 words]
For months, Illinois' fledgling medical cannabis industry had been limping along - dogged by uncertainties over its future and hurt by disappointingly low numbers of patients whose medical conditions qualified them for state certification cards. But in the last few days, the clouds of gloom have lifted thanks to a compromise bill now awaiting Gov. Bruce Rauner's signature. The measure would extend the state medical cannabis pilot program by 2 1/2 years, to July 1, 2020. It would also expand the list of qualifying conditions, to include post-traumatic stress disorder and terminal illnesses, potentially adding hundreds of thousands of new patients to the state registry. [continues 830 words]
The days of "reefer madness" are long ago and far away. Illinois legislators have sent to Gov. Bruce Rauner a bill decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana, a measure taken in recognition of its widespread use and the futility of imposing more serious penalties on violators. The bill incorporates changes suggested by Gov. Bruce Rauner in an amendatory veto of similar legislation passed last year. Because the 2016 bill meets the objections he outlined in the 2015 bill, Rauner said he expects to sign it into law. [continues 229 words]
Recent data from the CDC noted over 25,000 deaths in 2015 from prescription opiate overdose with an estimated 1.9 million people dependent on these medications. CDC Director Thomas Frieden said "we know of no other medication routinely used for nonfatal conditions that kills patients so frequently." Since 1999, OxyContin and other opiate painkillers have been implicated in 190,000 lives lost from overdose. Furthermore, a study published in 2014 JAMA analyzed the association between medical cannabis laws and opioid overdose mortality rates. This study concludes that states with medical cannabis laws had a 24.8 percent lower annual opioid overdose mortality rate in comparison to states without medical cannabis laws, and these reductions in overdose mortality rates generally strengthen each year after implementation of such laws. [continues 149 words]
Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control noted over 25,000 deaths in 2015 from prescription opiate overdose with an estimated 1.9 million people dependent on these medications. CDC director Thomas Frieden said, "We know of no other medication routinely used for nonfatal conditions that kills patients so frequently." And despite research showing that the higher the dose of an opioid the greater the risk of overdose and death, an investigation reveals that the opiate manufacturers urged doctors to prescribe stronger doses. [continues 311 words]
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper opposed a 2012 state ballot initiative to allow the sale and use of marijuana for recreational purposes. He told voters it might "increase the number of children using drugs and would detract from efforts to make Colorado the healthiest state in the nation. It sends the wrong message to kids that drugs are OK." Spurning his advice, voters approved it. So he might be excused if, four years later, he were tempted to gaze upon the results of this experiment and say, "I told you so." In fact, Hickenlooper has done just the opposite. "It's beginning to look like it might work," he said recently. [continues 639 words]
Gov. Charlie Baker yesterday decried the "proliferation" of pot use and called on authorities to prosecute to the "fullest" extent of the law a Webster man accused of being high in a crash that killed a state trooper, sparking a renewed focus on the state's marijuana laws amid a heated debate on legalization. Police said David Njuguna was driving "impaired" after visiting a medical marijuana dispensary in Brookline and had a half-burnt marijuana cigarette in his car when he slammed into trooper Thomas L. Clardy's SUV in mid-March, killing the veteran officer. [continues 299 words]
Proponents of marijuana legislation often purport its safety over legal drugs, particularly alcohol. "I'd rather someone get behind the wheel stoned than drunk," more than one person has opined. The notion is cringe-worthy. Impaired is impaired and driving that way is dangerous, potentially deadly, whether it involves alcohol, marijuana or prescription medication. Unlike alcohol, though, where plenty of scientific data is available to support at what point a person becomes intoxicated, the science is iffy on marijuana. That's why it's best Illinois not try to draw a line in the sand over marijuana impairment until a correlation can be made. [continues 481 words]
House lawmakers sent Gov. Bruce Rauner legislation on Wednesday to decriminalize marijuana across Illinois, meaning people caught with small amounts of marijuana would be fined instead of receiving jail time. The legislation incorporates changes the Republican governor suggested when he used his amendatory veto powers to rewrite similar legislation last year. Rauner said the old version would have let people carry too much marijuana and set fines too low. The new edition drops the number of grams allowed from 15 to 10 and raises the range of fines from $55 to $125 to between $100 and $200. Municipalities could add to the fines and implement other penalties, such as a requirement for drug treatment. Citations would be automatically expunged twice a year, on Jan. 1 and July 1. [continues 191 words]
For years in Illinois, it was extremely rare for anybody to be charged with murder for a drug-induced death, but times have changed. Prosecutors across the nation have begun charging people with murder if they shared illegal drugs such as heroin with a friend or family member who died as a result. Now there's a push to do the same in Illinois but, like the failed war on drugs, it risks making a bad situation worse. The more people are hesitant to call 911 in an overdose situation because they fear arrest, the more people will die. [continues 665 words]
Authorities Are Filing More Drug-Induced Homicide Charges, but Complex Cases Show It's Hard to Decide Whether Offenders Deserve Prison or Treatment When police and paramedics arrived at her aunt's apartment in Carol Stream, Adrianna Diana told them she and her friend Christopher Houdek had cooked and shot up heroin the night before. Diana, 20, said she awoke covered in vomit, with Houdek, 21, next to her, unresponsive and "cool to the touch." Her aunt called 911. Paramedics rushed Houdek to a hospital, where he died. The DuPage County coroner ruled his 2013 death an accident by "heroin intoxication." But prosecutors decided it was homicide- and charged Diana and two heroin dealers. [continues 1911 words]
Illinois has taken a go-slow approach to medical marijuana, limiting risk by allowing the industry to operate as a pilot program until the start of 2018. So far, so good: The highly regulated system, designed to provide relief to patients suffering from 39 specific ailments, such as cancer and Parkinson's, has operated smoothly since it started last year. Gov. Bruce Rauner, like his predecessor, Pat Quinn, hasn't rushed the process. But a policy of prudence that doesn't evolve with the evidence can wind up being overly cautious: Today some hurting Illinois residents can't get the aid they seek because of Rauner's approach. [continues 585 words]
Department Investigates Alleged False Testimony That Could Derail Cases Chicago police have begun an internal investigation into allegations that as many as six officers lied in their court testimony and are prepared to take at least one of the officers off the street because of a judge's determination he had testified falsely in a narcotics case. The inquiry, confirmed by a police spokesman, comes in response to a Tribune investigation that documented more than a dozen examples over the past few years in which judges concluded officers gave false or questionable testimony in court. [continues 946 words]
Pot ticket option, fewer cops lead to lowest narcotic bust numbers in three decades, but special unit arrests up ' considerably' The war on drugs may not be over in Chicago, but it's in retreat. In 2015, total drug-related arrests dropped to the lowest level in three decades, a Chicago Sun- Times analysis of city crime data found. And the rate of drug busts plunged more sharply in the first four months of 2016. Chicago Police are on pace to make 13,000 narcotics arrests by year's end. That would be the smallest annual tally since 1973, two years after President Richard Nixon declared a national war on drugs. [continues 967 words]
3 Men Among 58 Nationwide to Get Commutations WASHINGTON - Three Illinois men who received long federal prison terms for drug crimes will be freed in late summer after their sentences were commuted by President Barack Obama. The three cases were among 58 commutations the president granted Thursday. One of the Illinois men is Artrez Nyroby Seymour of Chicago Heights, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2005 for his role in a narcotics conspiracy. Seymour's term was cut to 20 years in March, and the commutation means he will be freed after serving almost 11 years. Seymour, 36, is in prison in Terre Haute, Ind., and had been set for release in November 2019, records show. [continues 275 words]
Illinois lawmakers have a solid shot of passing a law to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana - and of seeing Gov. Bruce Rauner actually sign that legislation. Lawmakers last year sent Rauner a bill to make possession of up to 15 grams of pot a ticketable - rather than a criminal - offense, but Rauner vetoed it, saying it would allow people to carry too much pot and that stiffer fines than $55 to $125 were warranted. A new version of that bill, sponsored by Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago), picks up language from Rauner's amendatory veto. It would allow possessors of even less marijuana - 10 grams - to face slightly larger fines of $100 to $200. [continues 631 words]
Medical marijuana dispensaries would be permitted in a wider swath of downtown Chicago thanks to a zoning change advanced Tuesday at the behest of the City Council's most powerful alderman. Ald. Edward Burke ( 14th) persuaded the City Council's Zoning Committee to allow dispensaries in the zoning district known as the "downtown core." Currently, there are four zoning districts in downtown Chicago: residential; mixed-use; service; and the area known as the downtown core. That last category includes office buildings, residential high- rises, stores, theaters and government buildings. [continues 446 words]
Burke Teams Up With Donor on Zoning Proposal Medical marijuana dispensaries would be allowed in the Loop under a change to Chicago zoning regulations pitched by Ald. Ed Burke and a campaign contributor he once helped nearly double his state pension through a one-month sweetheart deal. Former-state-lawmaker-turned-lobbyist Robert Molaro told the City Council Zoning Committee on Tuesday about the roadblock that pot dispensaries now face: They're technically allowed in some Loop areas, but the potential sites are within 1,000 feet of a school or day-care facility, and that rules them out under state law. [continues 331 words]
The Chicago Sun- Times editorial ["Law needs to rein in government seizures," April 19] supporting the reform of Illinois and federal forfeiture laws regarding drugs and suspected drug proceeds was spot- on correct, and former administrator of the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration Peter Bensinger's contrary opinion was dead wrong. ["Seize cartel assets best way to beat them," letter to the editor, April 22]. As the Chicago Sun- Times editorialized on June 22, 2010, "America's War on Drugs is over - we lost - and it's time to get real about our drug laws." [continues 288 words]
SPRINGFIELD (AP) - Medical marijuana in Illinois would be required to carry warning labels about possible side effects under a bill of a Republican lawmaker. Rep. Dwight Kay, of downstate Edwardsville, said the goal is to treat medical marijuana like other prescription drugs that warn patients about possible adverse effects. His bill, up for a House committee vote Monday, doesn't specify what warnings should be on the products, leaving it to the state health department to decide. But Kay said he would like to see warnings about how marijuana can cause drowsiness and impaired driving, and that it can affect pregnancies. [continues 80 words]
Clinical Trial Shows Reduced Seizures in Children, Possibly Increasing Chances of FDA Approval A marijuana extract significantly reduced seizures in severely epileptic children, according to a landmark study conducted in part at Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. Supporters said the results greatly improve the chances for the drug, called Epidiolex, to win eventual approval by federal regulators for prescription use to treat Dravet syndrome, a debilitating type of epilepsy that strikes in early childhood. The drug would be the first derived from the marijuana plant to win such approval. [continues 1054 words]
Inside Illinois
