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?

Follow IFI on Social Media!

Be sure to check us out on social media for other great articles, quips, quotes, pictures, memes, events and updates.

Like us on Facebook HERE.
Subscribe to us on YouTube HERE!
Follow us on Twitter @ProFamilyIFI

Illinoisans might think that state lawmakers elected to fix the mess they created would be drowning in real work with nary a moment to surface for air. Allow me to disabuse you of that quaint, naïve notion.

Our “progressive” lawmakers have found time—actually a fair amount of time—to write, assign to a committee, discuss, and now reassign to another committee a resolution the likes of which I’ve never seen.

“Progressives” have written a partisan resolution specifically to express their self-righteous disapproval of a law passed by citizens in two states halfway across the country. You heard that right. Our “progressive” lawmakers, who by all objective measures have done a disastrous job of running Illinois and can’t figure out how to solve the problems they created, have decided it’s time to take a shot at running other states as well.

Senate Resolution 1752 calls on citizens of Mississippi and North Carolina to repeal their laws requiring restrooms to correspond to objective, immutable biological sex.

On May 3^rd, SR 1752 was assigned to the Illinois Senate State Government and Veterans Affairs Committee for a hearing. The committee has nine members, so five “yes” votes were necessary to pass this self-righteous, presumptuous resolution out of committee.

A few days before the hearing, IFI’s lobbyist Ralph Rivera met with the committee members who would likely vote “no.” During the committee meeting last Thursday, a courageous Illinois mother testified effectively against the resolution. Subsequently the bill’s sponsor, Illinois Senator Emil Jones III (D-Chicago), was informed that he didn’t have the five votes, and he chose not to call the resolution for a vote.

The celebration of this success was short-lived because the very next day, Illinois Senate President John Cullerton’s office took SR 1752 out of the Senate State Government and Veteran Affairs Committee and re-referred (i.e., reassigned) it to the Senate Human Services Committee, a committee which the resolution’s sponsors view as a more, shall we say, sympathetic committee.

While under the Illinois Senate rules this kind of committee-shopping is permitted, it undermines the purpose of the committee process and further undermines the public’s trust in Springfield (is that even possible?).

If SR 1752 has hit the committee jackpot and gets out of committee next week, it still must be approved by the full senate sometime in the next two weeks.

As you write to express your opposition to this resolution, remember that State Representative Tom Morrison’s Pupil Physical Privacy Act, which had more sponsors and bipartisan support in the Illinois House, was sent—not to an education committee where, as an education bill, it belonged—but to the Human Services Committee where it was then assigned to a subcommittee that everyone knew would never even meet.

Perfect illustration of Illinois’ leftist lawmakers: arrogant, deceitful, and manipulative.

This proposal is cosponsored by Senators Heather Steans (D-Chicago), Daniel Biss (D-Skokie), Laura Murphy (D-Park Ridge), Linda Holmes (D-Aurora), David Koehler (D-Peoria), Michael Noland (D-Elgin), and Iris Martinez (D-Chicago).

Take ACTION:  Click HERE to send a message to your state senator, asking him or her to reject this futile resolution which not only seeks to ridicule duly elected lawmakers in other states, but also to normalize gender deception in our culture.

You can also call the Capitol switchboard at (217) 782-2000 and asked to be transferred to your state senator’s office, where you can leave a comment with his/her legislative aide.

Illinois doctors, nurses and medical personnel could be forced to make ethical choices between serving God and obeying the State with a bill being considered in the Illinois Senate.

Imagine for an instance that you’re a neurologist, and a patient comes to you for help with painful, paralyzing, never-ending headaches. You do everything you can to help him, but after months of experimental drug concoctions and nutritional experiments, the headaches worsen. Depressed and distraught, the patient decides he wants to end it all. He wants you to help him end his agony once and for all.

As a doctor, you’ve been trained and have sworn to “Do No Harm,” as Greek philosopher Hippocrates taught. Your pastor, church and the Scriptures say it is a mortal sin to end or assist with ending another human life.

But suppose that the state says that you must ignore your conscience or moral standards and deliver to the patient exactly what he wants. Your conscience and your religious beliefs are irrelevant. Or, it’s possible that a doctor refusing to assist with something as radical as suicide could be the basis for a lawsuit.

That’s what could happen with doctors, pharmacists, any medical personnel if SB 1564, State Senator Daniel Biss’ (D-Chicago) amendment to Illinois’ Health Care Right of Conscience Act, become law, says First Amendment attorney Thomas Brechja.

The proposal stipulates that a medical facility or physician must have an established protocol in place, printed to distribute to patients in response to any condition that the physician may find the patient seeking.

The legislation does not state that the protocol must include only legal recourses.

The idea of such a scenario may seem impossible to imagine, but that’s what Senator Biss’ plan in SB 1564 would set into place, Attorney Brechja said in an interview.

Even delaying the treatment by one day beyond what the patient demands could imperil an objecting doctor’s practice.

“If you’re impairing the patient’s health by delaying his or her access to a suicide pill, [for example], that may be ‘Brave New World,’ but we’re already living in ‘Brave New World,’” Brechja said. “Who knows what some court somewhere is going to decide. With this bill, you’ve certainly started down that path, and into the abyss.”

Once the law says a person’s conscience must yield to state or federal law, there’s no prediction where that may lead, Brechja said.

While Illinois’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act allows citizens to act upon their religious beliefs, Biss’ law would supersede the state’s RFRA.

Nationwide, some states’ conscience clauses explicitly cover abortion, contraception, sterilization, and the withholding or withdrawing of life-sustaining treatments.

Some clauses cover local conditions. For example in Oregon, a conscience clause describes a physician’s right of refusal concerning physician-assisted suicide, which is legal in that state.

Biss’ proposal contradicts the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, Brechja said, the first part of which says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …”

The legislation would overrule the religious beliefs of American citizens that practice medicine and encumber their constitutionally-guaranteed free exercise of religion.

The medical personnel would be required to have on hand printed information that can be immediately distributed to the patient with referrals to the desired service.

“This is dangerous legislation,” Brechja said.

Take ACTION:  Click HERE to send a message to your Illinois state senator to ask him/her to please uphold religious freedom and conscience for medical personnel in Illinois.  Ask them to reject SB 1564

The Illinois Medical Society and the Illinois Citizens for Life lobbyists agree. They are opposing SB 1564.

Thus far, only the Illinois Social Workers have signed on in support of Biss’ legislation.  However, the bill is co-sponsored by State Senators Julie A. Morrison (D-Deerfield), Toi W. Hutchinson (D-Chicago Heights), Linda Holmes (D-Chicago), Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Chicago), Michael Noland (D-Elgin), Heather A. Steans (D-Chicago), William Delgado (D-Chicago) and Iris Y. Martinez (D-Chicago).

SB 1564 may be heard on March 17, 2015 in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Biss’ office said.

You can also sign up as an IFI Sustaining Partner!  Your on-going monthly support will go directly toward influencing our Illinois culture and government with Biblical values.

We cannot stress the importance of your monthly support.

Even though the so-called “Medical” Cannabis Pilot Program has yet to begin, State Senator Michael Noland (D-Elgin) has introduced legislation (SB 753) which would legalize the possession of 30 grams of marijuana and 5 plants for anyone over 21 years of age.

In the Illinois House, State Representative Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) has introduced legislation (HB 218) which would lessen the criminal penalties of recreational marijuana possession of 30 grams or fewer to a $100 ticket and a petty offense.

Thirty (30) grams of marijuana makes 75 joints. The street value of one gram is $10. Five (5) plants can produce 1,120 grams of marijuana, enough to make 2,800 joints and the street value is approximately $11,200. 

These bills are audacious steps in the process of rolling back drug laws in Illinois and across the nation.  While using marijuana continues to be an offense under federal law, last year President Barack Obama issued a set of directives relaxing federal anti-money laundering statutes and instructed his Justice Department not to prosecute so-called “medical” marijuana dispensaries.

Take ACTION:   The most effective way to stop these bills is by calling your state representative and senator. Call the Capitol Switchboard and ask to be connected to him/her at (217) 782-2000. Ask them to vote NO to SB 753 and HB 218.

Please also click HERE to send them an email or a fax to tell them that you do not want marijuana legalized or decriminalized in any way, shape or form.  

Background
Colorado legalized “recreational” marijuana a year ago. Despite the frightening evidence from Colorado, some lawmakers are intent on pursuing a reckless agenda in the hopes of realizing a new tax revenue stream. Colorado’s Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper even says it “was a bad idea!”  We could reasonably expect the same negative consequences here in Illinois: an increase in crime, hospitalizations, car accidents and deaths.

Make no mistake, these reckless public policy decisions will create significant problems for families, businesses, and communities throughout Illinois.  Marijuana use leads to greater cognitive deficits, lower IQ’s, loss of fine motor skills, a suppressed immune system, apathy, drowsiness, lack of motivation, sensory distortion, mental illness and anxiety.  Absenteeism and dropping out of school are common in marijuana users who start young and use regularly.

Marijuana-infused edibles pose serious dangers to children. Forty five percent of Colorado’s marijuana market is edibles. They are designed to look like products that would appeal to children: lollipops, hard candies, candy bars, brownies and pop tarts.

The onset of action for smoking marijuana is 10-15 seconds and 30-60 minutes for edibles. Smoking gives the user an immediate reaction. With the slow onset of action for edibles, users are prone to repeat the dose and risk taking too much and accumulating lethal amounts of THC in the body.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation and naiveté surrounding marijuana, and even a greater lack of understanding of how this bad public policy will affect society.

One of the more pernicious lies advanced by Leftists asserts that our prisons are filled with and our correctional system are overwhelmed with people arrested for smoking or possessing marijuana. The Office of National Drug Control Policy dispels this myth:

…the vast majority of inmates in state and federal prison for marijuana have been found guilty of much more than simple possession.  Some were convicted for drug trafficking, some for marijuana possession along with one or more other offenses.  And many of those serving time for marijuana pled down to possession in order to avoid prosecution on much more serious charges.

In 1997, the year for which the most recent data are available, just 1.6 percent of the state inmate population were held for offenses involving only marijuana, and less than one percent of all state prisoners (0.7 percent) were incarcerated with marijuana possession as the only charge, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).  An even smaller fraction of state prisoners in 1997 who were convicted just for marijuana possession were first-time offenders (0.3 percent).

There are many more reasons to oppose decriminalization.  The facts speak for themselves:

• Today’s cannabis is five to seven times stronger than in the 1960s and 70s.  This increase in potency has resulted in worse health and addiction outcomes.

• One in six children who use marijuana will become addicted, and with regular use, may suffer the loss of six to eight IQ points.

• Marijuana THC concentrations now exceed an average of 10 percent.  Some marijuana samples show THC concentrations exceeding 30 percent.

• Emergency room admissions for marijuana-related reactions went from 16,251 in 1991 to 374,000 in 2008.

• Marijuana has an addiction rate of one in every eleven adults who have ever tried it – or one in six adolescents who have ever used it.

• Marijuana smoke contains 50 to 70 percent more cancer-causing substances than tobacco smoke.

Read more:

Why Marijuana Legalization Would Compromise Public Health & Public Safety

The Dangers and Consequences of Marijuana Abuse

Media Continue Cover-up of Marijuana-induced Mental Illness

Strong Cannabis Causes One in Four Cases of Psychosis

Odd Byproduct of Legal Marijuana:  Homes That Blow Up

Please support the work of Illinois Family Institute!
Click HERE to make an online donation.