As Illinois’ medical marijuana pilot program slowly gets underway, advocates say the barriers to legalized recreational weed are falling.
If the medical program proves successful and lawmakers see legal weed as a revenue generator for the cash-strapped state, taxed and regulated marijuana could happen in Illinois in five years or even less, guesses Kathleen Kane-Willis, director and co-founder of the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy at Roosevelt University, which analyzes drug policy.
“It’s going to go on a J-curve of expansion,” she said, referring to a rapid rise. “You can see that with medical marijuana. It wouldn’t surprise me that it could be shorter [than five years]. But I’m not a fortune teller, I don’t have tea leaves, just my gut says that because of the fiscal crisis, it might be taken more seriously.”
That’s legalization—including possible sale and taxation of marijuana in a retail setting—as opposed to decriminalization, which is removal or relaxation of legal penalties for possessing weed. Many municipalities in Illinois, including Chicago, already have various decriminalization ordinances on the books—but full legalization would be a huge step for Illinois.
It’s a step that Judy Kreamer hopes Illinois never takes.
“[There] is going to be an unintended consequence that people just don’t understand,” said Kreamer, president of anti-drug group Educating Voices.” We’re going to go out there and we’re going to put in jeopardy young people, because there’s going to be so much more marijuana on the streets.”
A 2014 poll showed that 63 percent of Illinois residents approve of non-criminal penalties for possessing an ounce or less of marijuana. Nationwide, a little more than half of people polled in March support cannabis legalization, according to Pew.
But so far, there hasn’t been a widespread political effort to legalize marijuana in Illinois, said Dan Linn, executive director of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
“There’s definitely this kind of [inclination to] wait and see how the medical law pans out,” he said. “If it took 10 years to allow sick and dying people to have access to this plant … I would think we’re probably still five years away from legalizing cannabis in Illinois.”
Kane-Willis recently returned from a trip to Colorado, where legal retail sale of marijuana began last year after years of legal medical marijuana. Weed also is legal or soon to be legal in Washington state, Oregon and Alaska. Colorado’s tight regulation in particular easily could be a model for Illinois, she said.
“It’s [a] fully developed, strict system that would pass muster in Illinois, if people could get over their fear that everyone’s going to be using, that cannabis use would rise, which I don’t think we’re seeing the evidence of,” said Kane-Willis, who is confident that it would be harder for minors to get cannabis illegally if comprehensive tax-and-regulate legislation were passed.
But Illinois still is several legislative steps away from legalization.
“If there were a recreational bill on the floor today I would vote against it,” said Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, an outspoken advocate of Illinois’ medical marijuana law. It’s too soon for that kind of thing, he said.
“My concern is mostly on the bureaucracy of it all,” Lang told RedEye. “The issue here is what can the state handle? What can the state bureaucracy, the state agencies that deal with these agencies, handle? … If it turns out they can handle this, we’ll talk about other issues.”
Medical marijuana likely will not be available to qualifying Illinois patients until this fall, after delays in licensing prevented distributors from opening.
Lang is spearheading a bill that would extend the medical marijuana pilot program for four years after the first dispensary is operational. The program currently is set to expire on the first day of 2018. Gov. Rauner thinks that’s a reasonable deadline, according to a statement from a spokeswoman.
Generally, states that pass medical marijuana laws are more open to legalizing marijuana, according to Chris Lindsey, a legislative analyst with advocacy group the Marijuana Policy Project.
“Typically they’re the ones who understand how the regulatory framework works and the sky didn’t fall,” Lindsey said. “They get that the system is functional.”
Lindsey also said it’s reasonable to expect that marijuana will be legal statewide in the next five years.
In the meantime, Lang and others also have thrown their weight behind a bill that would soften significantly penalties for possession of marijuana. Anyone caught with 15 grams or less would be fined $45 to $125, and upon payment of the fine, the record of the fine would be expunged.
A statewide law would eliminate the “patchwork” of local marijuana penalties, said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago.
“Where we are as a state in terms of our resources and our revenue and the pressures on our criminal justice system, this is what we need to do today, and really this is about creating a statewide standard,” she said.
Kreamer remains unconvinced, saying even medical marijuana is “a horrible ruse that has been perpetrated upon the people of Illinois and our country,” and says that once people see the consequences of widespread marijuana use, support for relaxed marijuana policies will drop.
“What do we lose? Do we lose a generation because people don’t know what’s going on, because people are being hoodwinked?” Kreamer asked. “That’s what I’m afraid of, and I have every reason to believe it’s an accurate statement.”
Cassidy disagrees, saying, “‘Reefer Madness’ is not the issue here.”
Cassidy said she could see herself supporting full legalization of recreational weed if Illinois could fine-tune its regulatory policy.
“I don’t know that I’d go all the way to inevitable, but I think [legalization] is the trend in the country,” she said. “[Prohibition] is a waste of law enforcement and we’re leaving money on the table.”
mcrepeau@redeyechicago.com | @crepeau
