Medical Marijuana Bill Gains Momentum

Alton, IL -- An Illinois medical marijuana bill supporter's point that it is evident significant movement by passing the state Senate Public Health committee. Wednesday members voted 6-3 to legally permit sore patients with various informatory medical conditions to utilize marijuana as a medicine without fear of arrest if their doctor has prescribed it. A first for Illinois- the vote explains the way for conceivable floor votes by the entire Senate and House for the respective bills.

Jamie Clayton, 53, of Grafton has already enough time been suffering from AIDS and seriously assists medical marijuana legalization. He took part in a considerable FDA-approved investigate pointing the drug's effectiveness in relieving pain caused by nerve derangement.

"It's going pretty quick. I'm excited about it," Clayton said about the bill's progress. "We've got a long way to go, but it's made me think a lot more positively that we may get it passed this year. A lot of good people are at least taking notice that it's a reality that cannabis is a good medicine."

According to Clayton, education evidently the most prominent and serious impediment for the bill.

"I think that we have to put things in context. It's not for everyone. It is a drug. We're not trying to say it is for everybody.

"What is important is it gives patients options. It may not be the magic bullet, (but) I would like to be able to use cannabis," he said. "If it's out there and it's therapeutic then I want to be able to include it in my therapy."

Using it for medical treatment is usually a serious procedure and those who fall back upon medicines, treat it in right way in order not to abuse it. It is probably the best nerve pain killer and is enough to fight their affliction without the necessity to addict to heavier narcotics in their treatments, such as Hydrocodone and oxycontin.

"The study (of AIDS patients with peripheral neuropathy) showed that 50 percent of the people got relief," he said.

SB 1381, financed by trinomial sometime state's attorney Sen. William Haine, D-Alton, is the supplementary bill to HB 2514, financed by Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, which passed the House Health and Human Services Committee, 4-3, on March 4.

"This is an important step for suffering Illinoisans who rely on medical cannabis because they, in consultation with their doctors, have determined it is the best treatment available to them," Haine said in a press release. "I'm grateful to my colleagues in the public health committee who listened to science and reason today and made the sensible, compassionate decision to pass this bill."

Supporters suggest that perhaps state legislators will perceive that 63 percent of Michigan voters countenanced a resembling law last November and that a 2008 statewide check-list dipicts 68 percent exhortation among Illinois voters for such a law.