Illinois patient hopes he won't need to use medical marijuana again, but will if necessary

While many medical marijuana patients eagerly wait on Illinois legislators to pass a law that will protect them from arrest, some hope they will not need the protection of such a law so soon.

Greg James of Dunlap hasn't had to use medical marijuana in years, and isn't looking forward to the day he will need to again. However, if and when that day comes, he would like to be assured that he will not go to jail for using a medicine that has worked for him in the past.

Greg explains his situation:

I haven't needed to use medical marijuana for several years, and that's a good thing. Unfortunately, it's only a matter of time before my kidneys begin to fail again. The last time I used medical marijuana was to help to control pain, to sleep, and to stimulate my appetite. At that time, my son was too young to remember anything. However, he's a teenager now, so I've had to explain to him that I may need to resume using medical marijuana. At first, I was nervous about having this discussion with him, but after I took the time to educate myself on the issues, I realized that talking to him about my use of medical marijuana was no different that talking to him about the proper and improper use of prescription drugs — except you can overdose on prescription drugs, and you can't on marijuana.

Three ways you can help today

1) Please share Greg's video with your legislators, local officials, friends, family, and co-workers.

2) A 2008 poll shows that Illinois residents favor allowing seriously and terminally ill patients to use marijuana for medical purposes by a 68% to 27% margin. Please share this poll with your legislators and ask them to support the medical marijuana bill — SB 2865.

3) Download our medical marijuana brochures and hand them out at events you attend. Another way to distribute them is to leave stacks at friendly retail outlets or simply place them on the windshields of cars. These are also handy for legislators, local leaders, physicians, or law enforcement officials who might need a little educating on the subject.

MPP's medical marijuana brochure provides an overview of the case for medical marijuana access.	MPP's brochure for medical marijuana patients and those who care about them explains how patients and their loved ones can help.	MPP's membership brochure provides an overview of the need for marijuana policy reform, as well as MPP's work and accomplishments.

Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project and all of our allies. If you are a patient, nurse, doctor, attorney, law enforcement official, or community leader who would like to become more involved, please send a short e-mail to Nathan@mpp.org describing why you support medical marijuana and where you are located in the state.