Medical Marijuana Issue Will Waft Into Ill. Senate Next Week
Kevin McDermott
April 28, 2009
StlToday.com (MO)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - It looks like legislation to legalize medical marijunana in Illinois will hit the state Senate floor next week.
The bill, SB138, today passed the Senate Public Health committee on a 6-2 vote, after the sponsor, Sen. Bill Haine, D-Alton, amended the measure in an attempt to make it more palatable to opponents. Among the changes, Haine told the committee, are tougher penalties for providing marijuana to non-approved medical patients.
Haine, a former Madison County state’s attorney, said the changes to the bill have satisified the concerns of some previous opponents, but he acknowledged that others remain opposed. “I cannot meet the basic objections of some,” he told the committee. “They just don’t want anything good to be said about marijuana.”
One critic, Jeanie Lowe, an anti-drug lobbyist, said the changes to the bill don’t alleviate her problems with it. She maintained that if marijuana is to be treated as a medical drug, it should have to go through the usual FDA approval process for medicine, rather than just winning a state legislative vote.
Haine said he intends to present the bill on the Senate floor next week. If it passes, it would then move to the House. |
