 The measure failed on a 53-61 vote, but it could return by the end
of the month, said bill sponsor state Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie.
"This bill is not about drugs. It's not about marijuana," Lang said.
"It's about health care."
House Bill 30 would allow patients and their doctors to register
for a medical marijuana card from the Illinois Department of Public
Health. The card would allow certain patients to possess less than 2
ounces of cannabis. But if a patient shared their prescribed
cannabis, they could land in prison or be fined.
Only certain patients, such as those suffering from cancer,
glaucoma, a spinal cord injury or agitation of Alzheimer's disease,
would be eligible for the card.
"They are very specific illnesses that are very, very, horrific
in many cases," said House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Plainfield,
who was one of the few Republicans who supported the measure.
"And as I then talked to people in the medical community --
physicians, oncologists, nurses, nurses' assistants -- they would
tell me that there are only in these instances, medical marijuana is
the only thing, the only thing, that provided relief," said Cross,
also a former prosecutor.
Marijuana is a controlled substance, and there is no firm
scientific evidence that smoked marijuana can be safely and
effectively used as medicine, according to Will Taylor, a public
information officer for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration,
which targets criminal groups that cultivate and traffic marijuana,
not the sick and dying who may use the drug.
"The Food and Drug Administration has not approved smoked
marijuana for any condition or disease," Taylor said.
Local law enforcers are also concerned about medical marijuana
hitting the streets.
Jim Raap, a police officer from Elgin, said he's concerned that
people would obtain fake prescriptions.
"It's going to be more time-consuming on our end (during an
investigation) to figure out if the prescription is legit," Raap
said.
Dennis Kazarian has been patrolling the streets since 1986. The
police officer from Elmhurst said medical marijuana could get in the
wrong set of hands.
"There are lots of variable(s). Who's going to administer it? How
can you tell if people would sell it to someone else?" Kazarian
said.
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State Rep. Richard Morthland, R-Moline, echoed the police
officers' concerns, and during the debate he got personal with the
measure's sponsor, Lang.
"This would put marijuana in the hands of the wrong people,"
Morthland said. "I have a daughter with epilepsy and, sir, she does
not need marijuana. But if a medical doctor disagrees with me, she
will receive it, and that is not right."
Advocacy groups also are concerned, including the Rev. Bob Vanden
Bosch, executive director at Concerned Christian Americans, a
nonprofit group that educates the Christian community on civic
issues.
Under the measure, a prescription for 2.5 ounces of medical
marijuana can be issued to a patient every two weeks.
"You'll have a lot of marijuana that is floating around in the
state of Illinois, and since it's more than most people are going to
use, it's also going to cause problems with the illegal drug usage,"
Bosch said.
Lang said he will work hard to get enough votes to pass the
measure out of the House by the end of the month.
"The core of this bill is to make sick people feel better," Lang
said.
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By MARY J. CRISTOBAL]
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