Illinois’ medical marijuana program has been slow to get off the ground. When the Illinois Legislature passed the medical marijuana bill that created the pilot program, it was one of the most strict programs in the country. The list of qualifying conditions did not include many ailments that other states allow. Below is the list of qualifying conditions that were approved when the pilot program started (and they are still the current ones as of this blog post), per the Illinois Department of Public Health:
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
• Agitation of Alzheimer’s disease
• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
• Arnold-Chiari malformation and Syringomelia
• Cachexia/wasting syndrome
• Cancer
• Causalgia
• Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy
• Crohn’s disease
• CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndromes Type II)
• Dystonia
• Fibromyalgia (severe)
• Fibrous dysplasia
• Glaucoma
• Hepatitis C
• Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
• Hydrocephalus
• Interstitial Cystitis
• Lupus
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Muscular dystrophy
• Myasthenia Gravis
• Myoclonus
• Nail-patella syndrome
• Neurofibromatosis
• Parkinson’s disease
• Post-concussion syndrome
• RSD (Complex Regional Pain Syndromes Type I)
• Residual limb pain
• Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
• Seizures, including those characteristic of epilepsy (Starting January 1, 2015)
• Sjogren’s syndrome
• Spinal cord disease, including, but not limited to, arachnoiditis, Tarlov cysts, hydromyelia, syringomyelia
• Spinal cord injury
• Spinocerebellar Ataxia (SCA)
• Tourette’s syndrome
• Traumatic brain injury (TBI)
At a recent advisory board meeting, made up of doctors, nurses, patients and a pharmacist, a recommendation was approved that would add 12 more qualifying conditions to the list above. Some of the conditions that were recommended by the advisory board were osteoarthritis, migraines, neuropathy, post-traumatic stress disorder, and diabetic neuropathy. The group decided against adding anxiety and diabetes to the list, but will accept another round of petitions to add qualifying conditions in July.
From here the Illinois State Department of Public Health will consider the recommendations, and if approved, will make them officially part of the program. If they are ultimately accepted, the pool of potential patients would grow dramatically, which is something I have hoped for for since the program started.
