As Illinois prepares to fully legalize pot in the coming months, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation Monday that makes permanent the state’s expanding medical marijuana program.
In addition to cementing the program, Illinois residents diagnosed with autism, chronic pain, anorexia nervosa and eight other conditions will now be able to apply for medical cannabis licenses. The measure, which garnered overwhelming bipartisan support in the General Assembly, will also allow nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants to certify prospective patients for the program, as opposed to only doctors.
“This legislation brings our medical cannabis program in line with my administration’s vision for equity, and it makes adjustments for the lessons we’ve learned since its inception,” Pritzker said in a statement. “As we continue to reform state government so it better serves its families, we must do so in a way that advances dignity, empathy, opportunity and grace.”
The Pritzker-backed recreational pot law, which legalizes the drug Jan. 1 for all adults over 21, also requires dual use dispensaries to keep a stockpile of medical marijuana and prioritize sales to medical patients in the case of a supply shortage.
A February study commissioned by lawmakers and conducted by the Colorado consulting firm Freedman & Koski warned that Illinois’ 20 licensed cultivations centers couldn’t meet the state’s demand for recreational pot.
“It happens in every single state. When the markets first come online, there’s a severe supply shortage,” according to Bethany Gomez, managing director of the Loop-based Brightfield Group, which researches the cannabis and CBD industry.
Despite the new considerations, the number of medical patients in Illinois could take a hit when recreational sales come online. That’s been the trend in the 10 states that already allow recreational pot sales, some of which have lost more than half their medical patients in a matter of years, according to a recent analysis by the Associated Press.
So what will keep patients in Illinois’ program?
Because medical cannabis sales are only subject to a 1% pharmaceutical tax, patients will be paying much less for pot than recreational users who will be hit with taxes between roughly 20% and 35%, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.
Another benefit written into the recreational pot law will allow medical patients to grow up to five weed plants at home. Lawmakers initially wanted to allow all Illinoisans to cultivate their own crops, but pushback from opponents and concerns of homegrown grass getting diverted into the black market forced them to scale back the legislation.
The existing medical cannabis pilot program was signed into law in 2013 by former Gov. Pat Quinn and was set to expire next year. Sales of medical pot started in 2015 under former Gov. Bruce Rauner, who was initially resistant to expanding the program.
Rauner ultimately signed off on an expansion in 2016 that extended the program and added terminal illness and post-traumatic stress as qualifying conditions. Rauner gave the program another boost last August when he approved legislation that created the Opioid Alternative Pilot Program, which gives opioid patients the option to buy medical weed and did away with previous provisions that required applicants to submit to fingerprinting and criminal background checks.
“Opioid abuse disorder is disrupting and destroying families across our state and across the country,” Rauner said at the bill signing. “We’ve got to do everything we can to stop this vicious epidemic, and today, I’m proud to sign a bill that helps us stop this epidemic.”
In the wake of those changes, a growing number of Illinois residents have registered as medical cannabis patients.
As of July 31, 80,035 patients had been approved for the medical pilot program since it started accepting applications in 2014. Another 2,165 patients were enrolled in the new opioid alternative program, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The number of people approved for the medical program has nearly doubled since the same time last year, when there were 42,203 patients, according to the IDPH. That number was also a huge jump from the 23,300 patients who were approved by July 31, 2017.
Total retail sales of medical pot have brought in more than $386 million since dispensaries opened their doors, the IDPH said.
Those figures will likely pale in comparison to recreational sales numbers. The demand study commissioned by legislators estimated that annual recreational pot sales could eventually bring in between roughly $1.69 billion and $2.58 billion “if all cannabis consumers chose to procure cannabis from the commercial market and the price remained steady.”
Here’s the full list of qualifying conditions approved under the legislation:
- Autism
- Chronic pain
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Migraines
- Osteoarthritis
- Anorexia nervosa
- Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
- Neuro-Behcet’s autoimmune disease
- Neuropathy
- Polycystic kidney disease
- Superior canal dehiscence syndrome
