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Medical marijuana bill reintroduced

Eric Fodor

State Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, has introduced another bill that would legalize marijuana for medical purposes. A similar bill was defeated in the lame-duck session earlier this month.

State Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, has introduced another bill that would legalize marijuana for medical purposes. A similar bill was defeated in the lame-duck session earlier this month.

The bill would allow a person who is diagnosed as having a debilitating medical condition to be issued a registry identification card by the Department of Public Health that permits the person or the person's primary caregiver to possess up to six cannabis plants and two ounces of dried, usable cannabis.

The legislation is set up as a pilot program that "sunsets" three years after its effective date.

The bill is cosponsored by Angelo Saviano, R-Elmwood Park.

The last time I mentioned the medical marijuana proposal, I couldn't resist the urge to make a joke about being issued compact discs like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon along with a marijuana allotment. That wisecrack is still in the back of my mind. But all kidding aside, I recall an acquaintance of mine over 20 years ago telling me she used marijuana for chronic pain and inflammation. She said she had a choice between taking a couple of hits on a joint in the morning and functioning, or taking enough pain medication to level a large horse and going around zonked all day.

I recall she said the THC pills that delivered the active ingredient in marijuana were too strong and had about the same effect as strong pain pills.

I don't know enough to say definitively one way or the other about the merits of the bill, but Lang and Saviano are at least serving the legislature food for thought.