BUD AND BREAKFAST’S MARIJUANA JURISDICTION REGULATION STATE-BY-STATE OVERVIEW: Illinois.

Quick Facts:

Is medicinal cannabis legal? Yes

Is it recreational marijuana legal? No

Cannabis legalization came into affect in August 2013 with the HB1—Compassionate Use of Medicinal Cannabis Act. It was placed as a structured pilot program that allowed dispensaries to own a maximum of sixty cultivation centers. This was the result of over ten years of legislative work by the Marijuana Policy Project. Patients are not allowed to cultivate their own weed, and neither are caregivers.

The law went into effect in January 2014, but was not fully operational until about a year later at the start of 2015.

If a patient is prescribed medicinal marijuana, they are able to buy as much as two and a half ounces of weed every fourteen days. The physician that prescribes a patient cannabis must have had an established relationship with the patient in order to prescribe.

The legalization of cannabis for medical conditions in Illinois means that glaucoma, hepatitis C, ALS, Crohn’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, wasting syndrome, muscular dystrophy, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, spinal cord disease, MS, seizures, and many more illnesses can now be treated with the healing benefits of weed. There are restrictions as to where patients are allowed to consume their medical marijuana, most of which prohibit its use around children and minors.