• my wife was hit by a drunk driver 35 yrs ago.she was in a coma for 9 month,s she was in hospital for almost 7 yrs.she has had her leg rip from her body.lots of broken bone,s.The drunk drive was able to walk away .she take,s pain pill,s that make her sick.almost killed her many time,s .she can not eat .she can not sleep.she has to live like this for rest of her life.if she smoke,s pot before meal,s she is able to eat.same at bed time if she smoke,s pot she can sleep.if she take,s pain pill,s some one must stay up to look over her so she don,t get sick.never with pot.but to this day IL government tell,s her she is a drug user ..she hate,s the damn pill,s that make her sick.if ILlaw maker,s don,t want drug sto be used stop the doctor,s from giving them the pill,s that can kill us.

• -1'

• -1'

• im sorry but reading "joe's" comment makes me almost feel sorry for the stupid douche bag. i said almost. joe, it is you that will ultimately benefit most by removing your head from your ass. why so angry? get over it, you combative little man. (ha, it dawned on me you are most likely a cop yourself, or maybe just wish? either way.... lol)

• Most police officers are of the opinion that Marijuana should remain illegal, though there still are a few exceptions. However, I do not have much idea about about meth, so can't say if it's comparison with weed is justified.

• how dare anyone compear meth to weed that fuckin stupid

• I was diagnosed with crohns disease about 9 years ago, and I am 27 now. I have already spent over 3 weeks on two separate occasions this year being hospitalized for severe intestinal inflammation, narrowing, an abscess and possible scarring. I have an appointment with a surgeon tomorrow in Chicago to see if he wants to remove my WHOLE colon, or wait in see if the 2 immune suppressive meds (1 injection, 1 oral), large dose of steroids, and the anti-inflammatory's I am on are working. Can you people even comprehend the side effects that I can/am getting from these medications? One of my medications causes lymphoma, nausea, and ms or lupus-like symptoms; another causes severe nausea and can potentially cause tumor's if take for too long; the other can cause me to loose my hair, osteoporosis, swelling, bloating ect. Those are just the first three things I am on. I am not trying to get high. I am trying to feel better. For you asshole's that can't understand that... try being sick. It's not like having a cold, flu, or feeling like crap. This is something that for me, is never going away. Why? Because my disease has no cure. This is my every day. Something most people don't understand, and wouldn't be able to until it happens to them. SO... I am hoping it does become legal, and they can research it more. This isn't some recreational habit for people like me, there are some pretty solid clinical studies that show that people that have auto-immune diseases like mine benefit from this.

• Yea and they prescribe it to children. Funny how hypocritical our police are.

• Joe, not sure what it is you're smokin' but it must be very potent. You sound like a rabid, foaming at the mouth lunatic.

• I've "had" a friend that was a cop - and what a hipocrate he was. He would take drugs from "felons" for his own personal stash. But I do believe that before all is done - you will pay for your sins. ...and he did. ~S

• Funny thing is... There is medicinal methamphetamine. Don't believe me? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine_%28medical%29

• God that's an ignorant post you've made. ONLY people against legalization of medical marijuana are the cops? Are you stupid? And do you think they've got their argument straight out of their ass? Use your head. They've got medical professionals that provide the argument they need to defend it. Also about federal gov't losing money, why are you SO against them gaining money. Are you stupid? What are those money used for? Don't say "it goes straight to politcians and the cops". Think about it this way, less money for government = less for socialists or higher taxes.. hmm ? Also since you spend money on cops busting pot-smokers, we should legalize pot? That is the most ignorant argument i've heard. Let's just legalize all drugs since so much money is spent on busing those dealers ? Then we would gain so much money. Oh wait, then they would lose it all again by legalizing marijuana. Hmm.. self-contradiction in your argument much ?

• That was awesome.

• LOL, like some idiot cop would know anything LOL, too funny. Lou www.anon-posting.tk

• Don't forget the growers. People making hundreds of thousands of dollars for growing a plant stand to lose a lot when there's no risk in growing it yourself.

• Well, I have been useing marajuana for medical use of many years. I have hepatitus c. Even over the counter meds, like asprin, can cause me serious liver problems. So to me, asprin is more harmfull than marijuana. Becouse of my disease, I often have joint pain, migrain head ackes. severe sleeplessness, and irritable boul sendrom. along with many other debilatating symptoms. There is nothing else out there, that i can take for these conditions.I used to be addicted to opiates, so takeing drugs, like vicoden, are not an option for me. Marijuana is the only thing that works. It gives me an opertunite to have a descent standered of liveing. Dont get me wrong, it dosent cure all my pain, but it sure makes it tolerable. So I will keep on breaking the law. I believe it is my duity to break any law, that is deemed unjust. I am a ferm believer in cival disobiediance. To me, this is a war, and we are all on the frount lines.

• I couldn't agree with you more, it is the Police that are running around yelling the loudest about the use of Marijuana. It is almost laughable the arguments they are bringing up for the non-approval of MMJ? We still have people being busted here in Michigan for MMJ, even though they have the card, but now it is just an inconvenience, as they take your Pot, and make you show up for a Court Date, and then the Judge cannot make a ruling on it because they have no idea about the new law? I do find it Ironic that the Judges and the police can hide behind the fact that they do not know anything about the law, yet when a regular citizen tries to use the defense that they didn't know something was against the law, the Police etal..start with the old "Ignorance of the Law is no excuse!" Yet, this is what they are doing to everyone they bust here. Most people that have the "Card" are not running around with a lot of money, so every time they take your MMJ, that is another $300 + or- for what they will not give back after their mistake, or their lack of knowledge. For me it helps a bit, but I almost never smoke, I have been on Morphine for about 4 years, and to be honest I am almost ready to stop the Morphine for good, it doesn't do any good anymore, and it is far more harmful then MMJ could ever be. The Police stopped me once and I had some Morphine on me, in a bottle with my name, and they just let it go, I almost laugh and shake with fear to think what they would have done if I would have had a package of MMJ with a script in my name? I am positive I would have gone to jail, and not gotten my stuff back. The Police are afraid of what this won't do for them, you said it simply and honestly, however they will find other excuses to "pop" people, but in the end I believe we will see more states that provide this service, and the police will just find another way to arrest people and raise their pay. BTW, has anyone else notice how big and fancy all of the new police stations are becoming? Those citations are paying for a lot of things, and as you said, this is what they are afraid of!

• so... how would he know that medical marijuana is like meth??!? he had to have tried both to make that a statement, other wise that is a theory and should be stated. Medical Marijuana may or may not be like meth.

• Let me get this straight...It's not healthy or legal to smoke weed, but it's just healthy AND legal to put on a uniform and go to IRAQ and get blown the fuck up??? I'll take my chances on the weed thank you very much. AS a matter of fact, why don't ALL you lawmakers put on the uniforms and go fight your own wars, and HOPEFULLY YOU will get blown the fuck up!!!

• May 12, 2020. I remember back when some people thought that marijuana was evil or harmful. That was all really silly, now that we know it cures diseases and helps the human condition in every way. How naive and ignorant could several generations of people be? Well, history shows that we could be as ill-informed as the one person who lives in irrational fear while reason is tossed to the wayside in lue of profit and discrimination. If we knew the truth about marijuana sooner perhaps less people would have suffered. Perhaps if we held morals in higher regard that we would not wrongfully label people and hate the unknown. The countless people targeted by law enforcement, pets shot, lives ruined or taken; all over a plant. Our generation is now burdened with atonement for mistakes of our forebears. When 2100 rolls around what legacy did we leave? Will we still argue over another persons right to be? Will we still argue about abortion and gays? Or can we allow our differences to bring us together for a greater good? Time will tell.

• Thank you Dr. Krivitsky for your information. The thing that helped us the most was public support. Write letters, make phone calls, do whatever you can to support the guys and gals working to make this a reality.

• I agree that LEO should not be lobbying for harsher pot laws. However, if that is the case, LEAP shouldn't exist either. Be consistent people, if they can't have a public opinion against your drug of choice, they shouldn't have one for it either.

• I always get confused on these issues when it comes to law enforcement. When new contract negotiations come around, we are reminded of how cops are understaffed and overworked. Surely, they spend a lot of their time enforcing pot laws. Would they not embrace having to do less work, which is what this would entail?

• Here, let's try this Officer. I'll smoke marijuana every day for a month. You can smoke meth every day for the same amount of time. Then in 30-31 days we'll get together for a cup of coffee and see how each other is doing. We'll have so much in common I'm sure we'll be talking for hours.

• This type of nonsensical statement points to the likelihood that this individual is unfit for the responsibility that comes with being a police officer.

• Of course the cops wouldn't want it legalized at all. Then they would not be able to justify swat breaking in people's homes and shooting their dogs and such.

• Why is the simple, honest Truth so scary for these old farts?

• Not all police officers believe that marijuana should remain illegal. Many of the foot cops think that it should be legalized so that they can stop hounding people who have in all reality done absolutely nothing worng. I am an avid smoker (not for medicinal purposes), and I was raised by police officers. I have never heard a derogatory word about pot smokers in my household. These particular idiots make the rest of the normal cops looks like morons as well...

• Portugal. all anyone has to do is look at Portugal.

• The people here stating that the government would lose millions of dollars are brainwashed retards. Just like the dumbass that is relating meth to marijuana. Just so you know : http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/detroit-officially-saved-fromdetroit/18543 Detroit's economy has been saved because of it.

• Check out LEAP - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. They are police officers and lawmakers who are on the front lines and know firsthand that marijuana needs to be legalized, and we need to stop filling our jails with people who bought a bag of pot. I support this group!

• Medical Mary Jane is already legal in illinois. It has been for 30 years. We are waiting for Health and Human services and the State Police to get their shit together. Medical Marijuana Is Already Legal in Illinois And it has been for three decades. But it'll take the passage of another law to make it available to patients. By Claire Thompson Marijuana can be used for medicinal purposes under the laws of 14 U.S. states: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. New Jersey's measure became law January 18. Here's a little known fact: technically it's legal in Illinois too—and has been for 32 years. In 1978 the Illinois legislature passed a Cannabis Control Act to try to bring common sense to the state's drug laws. Though the drug causes "physical, psychological and sociological damage," the act asserted, it nevertheless "occupies the unusual position of being widely used and pervasive" in Illinois, and so it was time to establish a "reasonable penalty system" that focused on "commercial traffickers and large-scale purveyors." Even then cannabis was being championed for its medical benefits, so in the name of "research," the act gave the Illinois Department of Human Services permission to "authorize" licensed physicians to use it to treat "glaucoma, the side effects of chemotherapy or radiation therapy in cancer patients or such other procedure certified to be medically necessary." But there were two catches. The first was that Human Services was merely allowed to give doctors this authority—not required to. The second was that it could act only "with the written approval of the Department of State Police." In other words, two state departments had to create new policies before medical cannabis could actually be prescribed and provided. To this day neither has. According to Dan Linn, the 27-year-old director of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Human Services is "pretty much waiting for the Illinois State Police to give them rules to implement, and the police say they're waiting for the Department of Human Services."

• @Eric T: Bang on, First rule of leadership "Never give an order you know will be disobeyed. All is does is undermine your authority" I don't think the average person really understands how bad of a hit our society had taken over marijuana prohibition.

• Marijuana being illegal breeds disrespect for the law, IMO. Alcohol is by orders of magnitude a far more dangerous drug -- you can OD and simply die, high doses and/or chronic abuse causes damage to the brain and other organs, it contributes to a ridiculous number of crimes and accidental fatalities every year, yet it's legal. Pot, which at worst gives you a bad case of cotton mouth and the munchies, is illegal. This teaches children that laws AREN'T RATIONAL, they aren't derived from morality, they are arbitrary, political, and not deserving of respect.

• "It's like people taking meth," Nargelenas said in one of the most ridiculous statements ever made about medical pot. "People feel a lot better after ingesting methamphetamine." I feel better after eating pizza....its like meth

• http://breakthematrix.com/alternatives/top-10-cannabis-studies-the-government-wished-it-had-never-funded/ pretty good case for medical marijuana!

• I have been a police detective for 10 years and I can tell you from first hand experiance that many if not most cops don't give a fig about whether pot is legal or not. When a story like this hits the web IMO it reeks of BS because these opinions are the voice of Higher Ups among police who are banking of extra money from the feds.

• What happends to recreational users when it becomes legalized for medical use only? Will they get an even greater penalty for selling/using perscripton based drugs?

• Come on... Legalize already!

• Yeah, people feel alot better after consuming a glass of alchohal, so why is that legal if were going to do comparisons lets at least be aware of what else it could be compared to.

• I agree that pharma and law enforcement have some self-serving reasons to protect their interests and maintain prohibition. But there's a TON of money to be made commercially it were legalized. Tobacco fields would switch to hemp fields in a heart beat, and state governments would enjoy an instant bump in tax revenue. They have more to gain than pharma or law have to lose. So where are they? Being a real cynic, let me speculate that the real beneficiaries of prohibition are the trafficers. Not the sweet hippie who does some growing and dealing, but the real volume guys who make huge 'margins' on the fact that there's risk. What would the real price of an ounce of premium weed be if it were totally unregulated? Maybe $30? Where does that 10 to 20 fold profit margin go and who wants to protect it?

• Cops were never the smart ones. They are only brave because of their pension and handgun.

• Shits Weak!

• Why in the fuck are police allowed to have a lobbyist? Is that not the total opposite of what the police's job is.. To protect and serve? Serve being the key word here, they should not be trying to influence laws. Just enforce the laws and STFU, period

• As an Illinois resident that suffers from Crohn's, I'd love to have a word or two with the opponents of this bill... Yea there are side effects from marijuana... and there's a lot we don't know about it... but it's the government that's been preventing that research on it... And I've never heard of a 'stoner' having the sorts of problems that you can get from the >legal< medicines for treating Chron's and similar diseases... Take Humira and Remicade for example... Yea, Chron's may lead to an increased risk of cancer... but the legal medicines DO lead to an increased risk of cancer... They're also dangerous enough that your body can become allergic to them, and you could go into anaphalactic shock from the injection of the medicine... it can also make you allergic to your organs... Let's take a look at that for a moment... the disease itself is your body's immune system having a reaction to your digestive tract (and in related spondelites, your joints). One of the side effects of the FDA approved medicine I'm supposed to take for that is that my body becomes allergic to the rest of my organs... my liver... my kidney... my heart... my brain... I've never heard of a 'stoner' having that sort of reaction... but you can read first hand accounts of the bad experiences people have had with the FDA approved drugs... http://www.askapatient.com/viewrating.asp?drug=125057&name=HUMIRA "This drug scares the hell out of me." "Has helped me tremendously. Still want to stop the drug" "Though it did work for me very quickly 4 months into the treatment I got Pericardial TB which was very serious as I was off work for 10 weeks." Do the research on the FDA approved legal drugs before you start talking about the dangers of smoking pot.

• Yes, Law enforcement is flush with cash from the Feds. Like all junkies they will have massive fits if you mess with their "drug (cash) supply". Never mind that times are changing and the pot laws were written to use as a club on the black population (during prohibition).

• Wow, so sad, sad indeed. Pot should have been made legal years and years ago. Lou www.anonymous-posting.us.tc

• I'm no expert, but our organization, Cannabis As Medicine (translated), was recently succesful in starting Germany's first medical marijuana program and as of today we now have over 30 patients recieving cannabis from their pharmacies for various conditions. The thing that helped us the most was public support. Write letters, make phone calls, do whatever you can to support the guys and gals working to make this a reality. Just my two cents :D Daniel

• &#64;Anonymous, well said. Perhaps though, you've also hit upon another problem with legalization. Aside from the Police who, as others have correctly stated want to position themselves as experts, there is the Pharmaceutical industry, who definitely don't want anything legalized unless they own the rights. So we have two powerful parties opposed to Marijuana - The Police - who would have to resort to proper policing instead of soft targets for their revenue, and the Pharmaceuticals.

• This fool should not be a police officer if he does not know the substances he destroys peoples lives over!

• Limey Nargelenas, lobbyist for the police, states "It's like people taking meth. People feel a lot better after ingesting methamphetamine." THEY SURE DO, LIMEY... Methamphetamine hydrochloride is currently LEGAL for medical use in the United States. It's marketed under the brand name Desoxyn, and it's even given to children. And our self-righteous legislators NEVER scream "PROTECT THE CHILDREN" when it comes to medical meth, because pharmaceutical companies can only obtain research patents on sytheses (like meth) or derivatives (like cocaine, also legal for medical use). Then big pharma takes those profits and donates a healthy chunk to those politicians who "PROTECT THE CHILDREN" from big bad Cannabis. Way to go Limey, you summed it up perfectly!

• Thank you Dr. Krivitsky for your informed and eloquent comment. Sadly, this moron's statement will be believed by a large segment of the population. Authoritarian 'complexers' always flock to some pig-headed rube. Yet, I think the smarter pro-prohibitionists know their days are numbered on this issue. Certainly, they won't go down without a fight.

• The time to legalize medical marijuana has definitely come. I worked as a program physician in drug addiction clinics for years, and I understand the total scientific fallacy of classifying Cannabis in the same group with heroin and cocaine. Cannabis has been used by humans for medicinal purposes for 10,000 years during which time there has not been one single fatal "overdose" from its use! This is when we hear about heroin or prescription drug, or alcohol overdose almost every day! There is no such thing as documented physical withdrawal with marijuana use, and, as Substance Abuse: A Comprehensive Textbook explains, Cannabis use suppresses violence because it induces a calm, relaxed state, not conducive to violent behavior. At the same time, the so-called "gateway drug" theory has been shown to be invalid, because one does not become an alcoholic or a heroin addict from a joint, there is nothing to connect marijuana use with the hard drug or alcohol abuse. Speaking of which, marijuana is much, much safer than alcohol, and a fair amount of research is in complete agreement with that. What more do they want, when the American Medical Association itself recognizes the remarkable medicinal properties of the cannabis plant and urges the government to change its classification from Schedule I drug, while Canadian veterans even get their government to pay for this natural remedy if they need it. The time to legalize medical marijuana has come, and the "law enforcement" officers should not talk as if they were medical professionals and compare marijuana with "meth", which is a total nonsense and so on...

• You see it right here. The people against Medical Marijuana are the Police. They would lose MILLIONS of our tax dollars when Marijuana becomes legal, medical or otherwise. I have spoken before congress and at the State legislature and always the only people on the "other side" are the police. Why is that? Are they medical specialists? Are they Botanists? What are they? The Police, that's all. They think they know what is best for everyone else. And they stand to lose all those dollars. That's their job security we're talking about. No pot smokers to arrest means less police needed. Stop speding my tax dollars on busting marijuana users, especially medical users.

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