The Illinois Senate voted 30-28 Wednesday to approve controversial legislation legalizing the use of marijuana for patients with debilitating medical conditions.
Sen. William Haine (D-Alton), the bill’s primary sponsor, said he is pleased with the vote.
“It’s a victory for common sense and compassion,” he said in an interview Wednesday night. “It says that the Illinois Senate recognizes medical science … and is willing to look at facts rather than age-old prejudices.”
The vote allows patients with a recommendation from a physician and approval from the Department of Public Health to keep up to two ounces of dried, usable marijuana or three cannabis-producing plants in their possession or to obtain the drug from a licensed dispensary. The drug is currently available to physicians only in tablet form.
Referred to as the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act, the final bill included an amendment changing the number of plants allowed in a patient’s home to six plants, no more than three of which can be mature, rather than the originally proposed seven plants.
James Kowalsky, president of Northwestern’s chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said the debate around medical marijuana should be a matter of decision for doctors and their patients.
“It’s a question of not just someone who is terminally ill and lying in bed,” the Communication senior said. “It’s should someone be able to have access to a drug that will help them live their lives in a normal way.”
Opponents of the bill cited possible problems concerning the enforcement of marijuana distribution.
Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston) said she worries the legislation will invite fraud among doctors writing prescriptions and patients claiming illness.
“Ultimately what I believe is that this is a back door way to legalize marijuana,” she said. “This is an unenforceable way to create a law.”
Hamos said continued use of traditional pharmaceuticals would be a better way to deal with these problems.
However, advocates for the use of medical marijuana said the drug is more effective in treating symptoms of nausea and vomiting often experienced by chemotherapy patients.
Dr. Morris Kletzel, a professor of pediatrics at NU’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said smoking marijuana is more successful than the tablet in treating symptoms. Kletzel said he currently recommends the tablet for adolescents undergoing chemotherapy, adding that had the bill not passed it would have been a setback for health care.
“It should be viewed as a drug, as a medication like any other – like morphine or narcotics that we use to treat pain,” he said. “And not be viewed as an illegal drug.”
Recreational drug use often stands in the way of legislation concerning medical marijuana, Kowalsky said.
“Medical patients are now describing their medications as cannabis; it’s not as readily associated with marijuana,” he said. “Yes, they get high, and yes, they feel the euphoria associated with it, but they say it is my medicine.”
The measure will now move on to the House of Representatives for consideration.
