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]
Inside Illinois
