“Medical marijuana may be right for you.” That is all the sign out in front of doctor Brian Murray’s office said Wednesday afternoon, and there was a line out the door according to the Chicago Tribune.
Murray is the first physician to open up his doors in the city specifically for diagnosing patients who think they might benefit from medical cannabis. The only issue is: medical marijuana won’t be available legally for some time in the state.
As we told you last week, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed medical marijuana legislation into law this month. His signature sets in motion laws allowing qualified patients to possesses up to 2.5 ounces at a time. But home cultivation isn’t allowed. Medicine must be purchased at one of sixty dispensaries statewide with herb produced at one of 22 state-approved medical cannabis grow facilities. The law takes effect January 2014, but marijuana likely won’t be available until that fall.
Which means that Murray’s recommendation doesn’t really allow you cannabis, yet. Part of the deal with Illinois medical marijuana law is that physicians have to establish a relationship with patients before recommending cannabis. In order to do that in good faith, Murray says he’s opening his doors now to meet with potential pot patients.
“If they have any trouble then they can come here, or if they don’t have a primary care physician then they can also come here,” Murray said.
But as of right now, the state hasn’t even outlined what a “prior relationship” with a doctor would look like. Murray is basing his assumptions on other state laws, specifically Michigan where he has another medical cannabis-related clinic.
Still, the word got out that the state’s first pot clinic was selling herb and it drew several people in the doors according to the Tribune report.
Several patients said they came in to simply ask questions about cannabis and at least one person left dissatisfied. “I know more than they do,” 50-year-old Stuart Bander told the Tribune. Bander suffers from multiple sclerosis. “They’re doing nothing.”
Check out video from Chicago’s CBS4: