Illinois’ Governor Bruce Rauner is scheduled to sign a bill on Tuesday at the Chicago Recovery Alliance, a nonprofit distributing clean needles as well as over-dose reversing naloxone.
The bill is a medical marijuana expansion bill that would significantly expand access to medical marijuana in Illinois.
The bill would make marijuana available as an opioid painkiller replacement and ease the application process for all who qualify.
According to Suzanne Carlberg-Racich, director of research for the alliance and assistant professor of public health at DePaul University, “This is a great step in the right direction. I’m pleased to see an alternative for pain management that doesn’t have any potential for a fatal overdose.”
The bill would also eliminate applicants from having to be fingerprinted and undergo criminal background checks. Also people who complete an online application with a doctor’s authorization will get a provisional registration to buy medical cannabis while they wait for state officials to make a final review of their request.
Sen. Don Harmon, a Democrat from Oak Park who sponsored the bill up for signing, remarked, “It’s an exit ramp for opioid use.”
Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana however remarked, “From a scientific perspective, it makes no sense. The most comprehensive study on the issue was just published in The Lancet and found marijuana didn’t help with pain, nor did it reduce opioid use.”
