There appears to be no end to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s insensitivity to the plight of the needy. Against the recommendation of the Illinois Medical Cannabis Advisory Board, Rauner quashed adding 11 medical conditions, including PTSD, to the list of illnesses that can be treated in Illinois with medical marijuana. Along with PTSD, Rauner also ruled out medical pot for anorexia nervosa, chronic post-operative pain, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, migraine, Neuro-Behcet’s autoimmune disease, neuropathy, osteoarthritis, polycystic kidney disease and superior canal dehiscence syndrome. Separately, Rauner vetoed a bill which would have added PTSD via the legislative route. In rejecting the 11 conditions, Rauner dismissed the studied evaluation by doctors, nurses, patients, pharmacists and a medical ethicist. His reason? It would “prematurely expand” use of medical marijuana before the state can properly evaluate it.
Maybe Rauner is concerned about his wealthy drug industry friends fretting over profits if medical pot replaces their plethora of costly and dangerous manufactured drugs. Maybe Rauner pushed back because expanding medical pot is a progressive value with which he simply cannot connect. Possibly Rauner’s wealth and privilege blind him to the plight of people who inhabit an alternate universe from the billionaire with seven mansions. Regardless, if Rauner developed a condition requiring medical pot, he’d hire a private jet to whisk him to Colorado to imbibe on the tourist trade faster than you can say, “Pass the munchies.”
—Walt Zlotow, Glen Ellyn
