Prospective Medical Marijuana Licensee Hopes for Equality
Prospective Illinois medical marijuana licensee, Dr. Jerry L. Weems, is hoping for equality and transparency, in the issuance of licenses for state operated medicinal marijuana dispensaries and cultivation centers.
Dr. Weems is the CEO/President of Green Value Care, LLC, a minority owned healthcare corporation committed to providing medical marijuana services to low income qualifying patients.
Illinois is one of 21 states in the country that has passed legislation to allow individuals to possess/grow specified amounts of medicinal marijuana legally. State approved medicinal marijuana dispensaries and cultivation centers are not yet in operation.
On Aug. 1, 2013, then Ill. Gov. Pat Quinn, signed House Bill 0001 (HB0001), the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act, into law which took effect on Jan. 1, 2014. The Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act allows for the legal use of cannabis for the treatment of Qualifying Debilitating Medical Conditions (QDMC). QDMCs include but are not limited to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), Agitation of Alzheimer's disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Cancer, Glaucoma, Hepatitis C, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hydrocephalus, and Lupus. (Visit http://www2.illinois.gov/gov/mcpp/Documents/DPH%20FAQ%20080814.pdf to view the complete list of QDMC.)
Since then, the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDA), charged with registering and regulating up to 22 cultivation centers allowed by the law, and the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation which is responsible for registering 60 licenses for medical marijuana dispensaries, closed their application process on Sept. 22, 2014. Announcements for approved applications have not yet been disclosed.
However, Dr. Weem’s concern is that the evaluation and selection process may not have been fair to each applicant or reflective of the state’s population given that the applications for both dispensaries and cultivation centers were not subject to the state’s Minority Business Enterprise Act (MBE).
Signed into law on Aug. 25, 2009 by Gov. Quinn, MBE leverages the Illinois Capital Development Board (ICDB) into applying a minimum of 15% of state construction contracts with an estimated basic services fee of $75,000 or more (total project value of approximately $1,000,000) are reserved for minority, women or disabled owned and operated businesses.
“I most certainly think that fairness has been called into question with this industry as well as others and I think that it’s only appropriate given our representation, minority representation, from the population stand point that we are represented in businesses, particularly in businesses that service a predominantly minority population,” Dr. Weems told the Chicago Citizen Newspaper. “It’s such an emerging industry and there are so many ancillary and supportive businesses that can be built and grown and cultivated, pun intended. It has the opportunity to be a tremendous job creator for various communities that have issues with their economic development.”
Ill. Gov. Rauner during his gubernatorial campaign, shared similar sentiments saying, “The application process for medical marijuana should not be held in secret where insiders win and taxpayers lose; it should be open and transparent.”
Dr. Weems also expressed disappointment about the fact that that announcements for approved applications have not yet been disclosed, but believes that the Rauner Administration will provide a “breath of fresh air” in terms of the evaluation process.
“We do expect that Gov. Rauner is going to make a decision on this initiative. What those decisions are, how they will affect the evaluation process, we don’t know,” said Dr. Weems. “We hope that it remains true to what the law and the regulations intended when we first applied and we just trust that.”
On Dec. 4, 2014, approximately 11,000 Illinoisans began the patient registration process for the Illinois Medical Cannabis Pilot Program (IMCPP) since the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) began accepting applications on September 2, 2014 according to IMCPP. Of those, approximately 1,600 have submitted one, two or all three parts of the application. IDPH has issued approximately 600 approval letters.
To learn more about the Medical Cannabis Pilot Program (IMCPP) visit http://www2.illinois.gov/gov/mcpp/Pages/default.aspx.
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