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Illinois Senate Passes Legal Weed

The Illinois Senate approved the so-called  “Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act” (HB 1438 Senate Amendment 2) late yesterday afternoon by a vote of 38–17 with two voting present and two not voting. This bill now moves to the Illinois House for consideration. We have been told that Governor Pritzker has been making personal calls to lawmakers, promising them favors for their yes vote.

With the regular session ending on Friday, they have this legislation on fast track. Pro-family residents must speak out to their State Representatives today.

Click here to see how your state senator voted on this anti-family legislation, or look at the graphic below.

It is important to note that State Senator Dale Righter (R-Mattoon), Chapin Rose (R-Champaign), and Dan McConchie (R-Lake Zurich) raised strong objections to the bill during floor debate.  On the other hand, State Senators Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington), Neil Anderson (R-Moline), Michael Hastings (D-Frankfort) and others spoke in favor of passing this terrible bill.

This bill has no limits on THC levels, which is perhaps the most alarming part of this proposal. THC is the chemical substance in marijuana that gets users intoxicated. The marijuana products of the 1960’s and 1970’s contained 1-3 percent of THC. Today, the levels are 20 percent or more. The Dutch government now considers cannabis products with 15 percent THC hard drugs and illegal.

Legalization of high potency marijuana is linked to increases in addiction, psychosis, schizophrenia and violence. In states that have legalized, it has led to an increase in emergency room visits, hospitalizations, poison control center calls and an increase in use in every age category, including youth. There has also been a dramatic increase in a condition called Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome.

It defies common sense that state lawmakers are ignoring these consequences!

We know that as perceived risk goes down, use goes up. In 2013, our state lawmakers — who are not medically trained — approved “medical” marijuana. Make no mistake, the message they are sending to the culture, and our kids, is that this addictive and intoxicating drug is harmless. Not only is it medicinal, but it’s “recreational” — approved to use as a way to help people unwind and loosen up.

Why are our state lawmakers willing to give their stamp of approval to a known destructive narcotic? Just for a puny new revenue stream?

Legalization will lead to more users, more addicts, more unqualified employee candidates, more intoxicated drivers, more work place accidents, more disabilities, more homeless, more mental illness and more dependents on social welfare. Marijuana use among people 25 and under will increase dramatically — those whose brains are still developing and whose brains are most susceptible to the harms of marijuana use.

Why are state lawmakers setting such a terrible example for our children and grandchildren? They are failing in their job of protecting the citizenry.

YOU can help stop this foolishness from becoming reality in Illinois.

Take ACTION: Please pray that this bill fails in the House! Then Click HERE to send an urgent email asking your state representative to oppose HB 1438. Then make a quick call to his/her Springfield office. Click here for the Springfield office phone number. After entering in your information, you will find that the last official on the list is your state representative. He/She needs to hear from you TODAY.

Watch more:

Please visit IFI YouTube channel and this video playlist dedicated to the opposition of marijuana legalization.

Read more:

Thinking Biblically About Recreational Marijuana

Cannabis Myths Exposed

Medical Doctor from Peoria Opposes Legal Pot

ER Doc Says “Recreational” Pot Has Ruined My Town

IFI Resource Page on Marijuana

Former State Rep. Jeanne Ives Address Marijuana & Illinois’ Economic Crisis (podcast)

More info:

NoWeedIllinois.com

How Did They Vote?


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IFI Update: ERA Passes Illinois Senate

In a stunning display of ignorance, the Illinois State Senate just voted 43-12 in favor of the resolution to adopt the Equal Rights Amendment. What makes this vote even more enraging is that Republicans Pam Althoff (R-Crystal Lake), Jason Barickman (R-Pontiac), John Curran (R-Lemont), Mike Connelly (R-Wheaton), Karen McConnaughay (R-West Dundee), Chris Nybo (R-Hinsdale), Sue Rezin (R-Morris), and Tom Rooney (R-Palatine) voted with Democrats on this partisan resolution. (Updated at 7:30 pm)

According to Illinois Review, McConnaughay made this remarkably foolish and dishonest statement in defense of her traitorous vote:

The intention of the Illinois Senate Women’s Caucus is to advance legislation that supports, empowers and protects women of all aspects of life, and that’s exactly what we are doing today. Today, we are here together, Republican and Democratic women, to demonstrate our support of the Equal Rights Amendment, which ensures equality for all women…. This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s an issue that affects every single woman in this country. By coming together, we have a chance to make an impact at a national level for women all across the nation.”

Yes, nothing says non-partisan quite like a Constitutional amendment that will mandate taxpayer-funding of abortion, that will eradicate all abortion restrictions, that will end public recognition of sex differences in private spaces, and that will require women to register with the Selective Service.

Has McConnaughay read the ERA? It says nothing about women. So, where does she get the impression that the ERA will support, empower, and protect women? Of which specific rights does she believe women are deprived?

In a recent, almost-comical article on the ERA by Jennifer Camille Lee titled “Why does a hate group want to derail the ERA in Illinois,”  Lee provides ample justification for public mistrust of the leftwing press. Before getting to the ropy meat of her “argument” about the ERA, let’s peek at just one of her false claims.

Lee identifies Nancy Thorner as “a member of IFI.” Ms. Thorner is not now nor ever has been an employee of or writer for IFI.

After erroneously identifying Thorner as an IFI member, Lee paraphrases arguments Thorner made in pieces appearing in The Madison Record and Illinois Review after which Lee says, “any Illinois citizen or legislator who uses their [meaning IFI’s] arguments against the ERA is dealing in false facts and illogical arguments from a group that purposefully pushes a hateful agenda.”

To summarize, Lee uses arguments made by someone who is not an IFI employee and published in outlets wholly unrelated to IFI to suggest that no citizen or legislator should listen to IFI’s actual arguments about the ERA.

So, let’s carefully examine Lee’s arguments—you know, assertions with evidence—and her refutation of IFI’s  arguments. Oh wait, she didn’t have any arguments and she didn’t refute anything written by any IFI member. Well, what the heck, just for fun let’s look at her rhetoric.

Lee says that Thorner wrote a “scare piece” in The Madison Record. Since Lee provided no link, title or citation, I rooted around and found a recent letter to the editor by Thorner, which I assume is the “scare piece” to which Lee is referring. Lee claimed that Thorner said, “passing the ERA will create a gender-free society where it won’t be natural for women to be homemakers any longer.”

Thorner quoted from a document written about the ERA by constitutional attorney and fierce ERA-opponent Phyllis Schlafly in which Schlafly said this:

 Women’s Lib advocates do not want it to be considered any more natural for a woman to be a Homemaker than for a man to be a House-husband.

Who would disagree with that? Second-wave feminists inarguably sought to efface distinctions between men and women—well, except when they were claiming that women were far superior to men.

Lee repeatedly refers “readers back to the actual wording” of the ERA, which says that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Perhaps Lee didn’t notice that, while the ERA says precisely nothing about women, it does, indeed, guarantee a “gender-free society” if by gender, Lee means biological sex. You never can tell what those tricksy Leftists mean since they’re very busy redefining terms. It’s inarguable that the ERA makes it illegal to make distinctions based on sex. That’s the whole point and language of the ERA. Ergo, the ERA guarantees a “gender free society.”

Lee says that in a piece published by Illinois Review, “Ms. Thorner writes that women and all our unborn children will be irreparably harmed by the ERA.”

Evidently, Lee hasn’t read very broadly or deeply about the connection between the ERA and abortion. A court case in New Mexico, which has the equivalent of a state ERA, reveals the legal reasoning that justifies taxpayer-funding of abortion under the ERA:

The unanimous court held that a state ban on tax-funded abortions “undoubtedly singles out for less favorable treatment a gender-linked condition that is unique to women.

Taxpayer-funding of abortion—itself a grievous moral offense—will increase the number of abortions.

Moreover, as Elise Bouc, state chairman of STOP ERA Illinois has written, abortion restrictions will be overturned by the ERA, which explains why pro-abortion/anti-child organizations are fighting like the devil to get it passed:

Since abortion is unique to women, any attempt to restrict a woman’s access to abortion is seen, under the rules of the ERA, as a form of sex discrimination – because women are being singled out for a characteristic that is unique to them, and they are being treated differently based on that physical characteristic (in this case- the ability to become pregnant). Therefore any abortion restrictions would be overturned by the ERA…. In addition, since medical procedures unique to men are funded by Medicaid (such as circumcision and prostatectomies), then abortion which is unique to women, must also receive Medicaid funding under ERA requirements.

While Lee may consider the extermination of humans in the womb harmless, others beg to differ. There is no greater act of “irreparable harm” perpetrated against unborn children than killing them.

The ERA will inflict yet more damage. It will be used to grant unrestricted access to opposite-sex spaces and activities to persons who pretend to be the sex they are not. Single-sex restrooms, locker rooms, dressing rooms, shelters, semi-private hospital rooms, nursing home rooms, dormitories, colleges, athletic teams, fraternities, sororities, clubs, and organizations would become co-ed or risk federal lawsuits. Even mother-daughter/father-son/father-daughter events at public schools would be eliminated.

The ERA would be used to force women to register for the Selective Service, and if the day should ever come when the draft is reinstated, to be drafted.

It would give enormous new powers to the federal government that now belong to the states. Section II of the ERA states that “The Congress shall have the power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article.” The ERA would give Congress the power to legislate on all those areas of law which include traditional differences of treatment on account of sex: marriage, property laws, divorce and alimony, child custody, adoptions, prison regulations, and insurance. For example, the Social Security System pays full-time homemaker “wives” 50 percent of their husband’s benefits over and above the check he receives. Upon their husbands’ deaths, widows receive the full benefits that their husbands had been receiving.  (The law also gives this benefit to a dependent husband, but nearly all dependent spouses are women.)

Lee believes that opposition to these changes–changes which harm women and children–is irrational. She also believes that IFI “may be entitled to an opinion, but they are not entitled to their own set of facts, and the fact is all the ERA does is grant equal protection to women under the U.S. Constitution.”

Like Lee, I will point readers and lawmakers back to the text of the ERA, which says nothing about women. It says everything, however, that lawmakers needed to know, which is that the ERA will eliminate recognition in laws, policies, and practices of the very real differences between men and women. And the victims will be primarily women and children.

This bill now moves to the Illinois House for consideration.

Take ACTION:  Click HERE to email your state representative to urge him/her to oppose the ERA (SJRCA 4).

Here is the Illinois Senate roll call on the ERA:

Read more:  Please oppose ERA (SJRCA-4): It strengthens abortion rights

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/ERA-Passes-Illinois-Senate_01.mp3


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Marijuana Decriminalization Puts Children and Families at Greater Risk

This bill will put more impaired drivers on the road,
more impaired employees in the workplace
and more children at risk.

Before the regular session ended on May 31st, State Representative Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) and State Senator Heather Steans (D-Chicago) were able to pass legislation to decriminalize marijuana. The bill passed in both the Illinois House and Senate. Any day this dubious bill (SB 2228) will be sent to Governor Bruce Rauner, who will then have 60 days to sign it into law or veto it.

SB 2288 reduces criminal penalties from possession of 10 grams or less of marijuana to a civil law violation of $100 to $200. There are no limits to the number of civil law violations a person can receive, plus their record will be expunged every January 1st and July 1st.

What these lawmakers have done is removed a deterrent to drug use and addiction. They are moving full steam ahead toward full legalization. “Medical” marijuana and incremental decriminalization are the first necessary steps.

“The key to it is medical access, because once you have hundreds of thousands of people using marijuana under medical supervision the whole scam is going to be bought. Once there’s medical access…then we will get full legalization.” Richard Cowan, former director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana.

Take ACTION:  Click HERE to send an email or fax to Governor Rauner.  Please urge him to veto SB 2228. Also, please call his Springfield office at (217) 782-0244. A tally report is given to the governor at the end of each day. There is a huge liability issue at stake that the governor should be concerned about. Who will assume responsibility for the increase in road fatalities, psychotic incidents, youth addictions, not to mention employer liability?

Too many lawmakers have been erroneously led to believe that our prisons and judicial system are overrun with “petty” marijuana offenses.  This is NOT the truth.  Please read a former Will County and Cook County Assistant State Attorney as he exposes this myth in an article he wrote exclusively for Illinois Family Institute: Cannabis Myths Exposed

This legislation was co-sponsored by State Representatives Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago), Carol Ammons (D-Champaign), Sonya Harper (D-Chicago), Michael Zalewski (D-Riverside), Ed Sullivan (R-Mundelein), Christian Mitchell (D-Chicago), Jehan Gordon-Booth (D-Peoria), and Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago).

In the Illinois Senate, this legislation was co-sponsored by State Senators Michael Noland (D-Elgin) , Jacqueline Collins (D-Chicago), Jason Barickman (R-Pontiac), Toi Hutchinson (D-Chicago Heights), Don Harmon (D-Chicago), Pam Althoff (R-Crystal Lake), Karen McConnaughay (R-West Dundee), Linda Holmes (D-Aurora), Napoleon Harris (D-Harvey), Emil Jones III (D-Chicago), Patricia Van Pelt (D-Chicago), Donne Trotter (D-Chicago), and Iris Martinez (D-Chicago).

Background

Contrary to one of the reasons lawmakers give for decriminalization, prisons are NOT overcrowded with marijuana users. Click Here and Here  and Here.

Marijuana is NOT Harmless. Cannabis Use is classified as a Disorder in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).

The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes medical marijuana outside the regulatory process of the FDA and opposes legalization because of the potential harms to children and adolescents.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s policy statement warns of the negative effects on children.

The American Academy of Neurology warns that medical marijuana legislation is not supported by medical research.

The American Society of Addiction Medicine recognizes “there are several potential medical and public health consequences of marijuana use that require further research.”

Fatal car crashes involving marijuana double after states legalize the drug. States that have relaxed their laws are seeing a 24.4% increase in car fatalities.

Psychotic incidents increase with marijuana use. Click Here and Here and Here and Here and Here.

Children will be affected. As perceived risk decreases, use increases. Colorado has seen a jump in school drug cases.  Click Here and Here. Furthermore, a diminished IQ and cognitive performance and even brain abnormalities have been detected with “casual” use.

Drug use will become a big problem for employers.

With the state our state is in, why would lawmakers make it worse?



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Rights of Conscience Update

How did they vote?

This afternoon, the Illinois Senate voted 34 to 19 to pass SB 1564 — the onerous re-write of the Healthcare Right of Conscience Act.  This bill broadly defines “health care,” “health care personnel,” and “health care facility.” SB 1564 will force health care personnel to violate their consciences in regard to morally dubious medical procedures such as abortion, sterilization, and certain end-of-life care. Pro-life lobbyists are deeply concerned that even Crisis Pregnancy Centers that offer pregnancy tests would be subjected to unsavory duties under the law (e.g. abortion referrals).

According to the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, ninety-five (95) percent of physicians in a national poll agreed with this statement: “I would rather stop practicing medicine altogether then be forced to violate my conscience.”

Click HERE to see how your state senator voted on this legislation, or look at the graphic below.  State Senators Kyle McCarter (R-Vandalia), Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington), Dale Rigther (R-Mattoon), and Bill Haine (D-Alton) spoke against the bill.  Unfortunately, Republican leader Christine Radogno and Senator Chris Nybo (R-Hinsdale) voted in favor of the bill.  Sen. Nybo also spoke if favor of SB 1564 on the floor.

The bill now moves to the Illinois House.  We can stop this bill — but only with your help, calls and prayers!

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send an email or a fax to your state representative. Ask him/her to uphold Rights of Conscience for medical personnel, and vote NO to SB 1564.  (If you have already sent an email to your state senator, please send an email to your state representative.)

Please also call your state representative during normal business hours.  The Capitol switchboard number is (217) 782-2000.

SB1564-page-001




Illinois Senate Approves Massive Gambling Expansion

How did they vote?

SB 1739 — a bill to expand gambling with five new casinos in Chicago, Rockford, Danville, Park City and a location in the south suburbs as well as video slot machines at racetracks and in Chicago airports — now moves to the Illinois House for consideration.

Late Wednesday afternoon, the Illinois Senate debated and passed SB 1739 by a vote of 32 to 20 (with one voting present).  SB 1739 is a proposal to vastly increase gambling in Illinois. This predatory gambling expansion bill was sponsored in the Illinois Senate by State Senators Terry Link (D-Lincolnshire), and Donne Trotter (D-Chicago).

Look at the official voting record of how your state senator voted: click HERE to download it.

SB 1739 Roll Call

We are grateful to State Senator Dale Righter (R-Mattoon), who was the only lawmaker to speak out against SB 1739 in defense of families and common sense. 

This bill was amended to remove Internet gambling, but the bill still includes 5 new casinos, and slot machines at 6 racetracks and Chicago’s two airports.   The city-owned casino for Chicago will have 4,000 gambling positions while the number of gambling positions at the other casinos will increase to 1,600.  With the ability to purchase additional positions for a maximum of 2,000, existing casinos would nearly double in size.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to email or fax your state representative about this anti-family legislation.  Ask him/her to vote NO to SB 1739.  You can also call the Capitol switchboard at (217) 782-2000.

We’re grateful that nine Democrat senators voted against more gambling in the Land of Lincoln, but it’s disturbing to note that six Republican senators voted in favor of this massive anti-family gambling bill despite the fact that the Illinois Republican Platform identifies gambling as being harmful:

We call on the Governor and the General Assembly to balance the state budget and provide for a responsible capital development program without resorting to the expansion of gambling, which harms Illinois’ families and our state’s business climate and presents costly challenges for both law enforcement and social service agencies.

Far too many “conservative” lawmakers exhibited concern about the gambling interests within their districts rather than serving the best interests of the families of Illinois. Republican State Senators who voted yes to SB 1739 are:  Jason Barickman (Bloomington), Kirk Dillard (Westmont), David Luechtefeld (Okawville), Matt Murphy (Palatine), Chapin Rose (Champaign) and David Syverson (Rockford).  

Read more:  Harms of Legalized Gambling

Contact your state representatives now!


Click HERE to make a donation to the Illinois Family Institute.




Counterfeit Marriage Legislation Passes in Illinois Senate

How did they vote?

Thirty-four state senators in the Illinois Senate cave in to pressure from the homosexual lobby.

Despite an outpouring of calls, emails and faxes against redefining marriage and family, lawmakers in the Illinois Senate passed SB 10 on Thursday afternoon by a vote of 34 to 21 with 2 voting present. 

Five pro-family lawmakers, Senators Tim Bivins (R-Dixon), Dan Duffy (R-Barrington), William Haine (D-Alton), Dale Righter (R-Mattoon), and Kyle McCarter (R-Vandalia), had the courage to challenge this anti-family legislation on the Senate floor during debate while seven Democratic lawmakers  made emotional manipulative appeals for the bill’s passage.  Surprisingly, Senator Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) was the only Republican to speak in favor of this anti-family legislation.  He then was the only Republican in the Illinois Senate to vote in favor of Gay Marriage.

This bill now moves over to the Illinois House where it is short the votes necessary to pass.  

This is why our Defend Marriage Lobby Day on February 20th is so important!  If we hope to defeat this bill in the Illinois House and maintain a sufficient level of opposition to this proposal, we must have a strong showing next week.  Read more about this lobby day HERE.  We need you to show up and send a clear message to state lawmakers in the Illinois House that Illinoisans will NOT allow marriage to be destroyed!  We can stop this!

To see how your state senator voted, click HERE.

Take ACTION:  If you haven’t yet sent an email or a fax to your state lawmakers — it is time to speak up now!  Click HERE to let them know what you think.