December 2022, I published a 6-part series titled, “What Illinois cannabis patients really want” to start a dialogue about the large gap between patients’ needs, wishes, concerns, and recommendation for improving the Medical Cannabis Patient Program (MCPP) and the actual amendments to the law legislators have introduced. Since then, not one topic mentioned in the 6-part series has been addressed legislatively or otherwise. In fact, only one cannabis-related bill, House Bill 1443 (HB1443), has been passed since recreational legalization in January 2020.

HB1443 mostly dealt with licensing for businesses but also included two beneficial amendments for registered medical cardholders. One amendment untethered patients to one medical dispensary at a time by removing restrictions on where medical cardholders can purchase medicine without having to switch online dispensary status. The other amendment reworded how patients and recreational users can legally possess cannabis while in a motor vehicle, stating that cannabis cannot be in a vehicle “upon a highway in this State except in a secured, sealed or resealable, odor-proof, and child-resistant medical cannabis container that is inaccessible.”

In January 2023, Rep. Bob Morgan introduced HB1189, which would have refunded the excess money from the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Fund back to registered medical cannabis patients in Illinois. HB1189 never advanced beyond the Rules Committee, but the excess funds were allocated elsewhere by law as part of the final State budget (HB3817) in 2023. Instead of refunding the excess money back to registered medical-cannabis patients in Illinois, the sum of $40,000,000 from the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Fund was transferred to the Cannabis Business Development Fund.

Also incorporated into the budget was the new Section 280E tax law amendment, which allowed for cannabis industry businesses to deduct business expenses that otherwise cannot be deducted federally pursuant to Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code. The new law allows for the uncoupling for “state tax deductions” for any cannabis establishment operating in this State and licensed under the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act or any cannabis cultivation center or medical cannabis dispensing organization operating in this State and licensed under the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Program Act.

Through regulatory action in December 2023, the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation (IDFPR) permanently authorized curbside pickup for medical cannabis cardholders. During the legislative session in May 2024, lawmakers failed to bring to a final vote two cannabis bills in the Illinois House (House Bill 4293, the Hemp Consumer Products Act, and House Bill 2911, a cannabis omnibus). Legislators and stakeholders are looking to pass the bills during the lame-duck session in January 2025.

In May 30, 2024, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), in conjunction with the Medical Cannabis Advisory Board (MCAB), recommended that Endometriosis, Female Organismic Disorder, Ovarian Cyst, and Uterine Fibroid be added to Illinois’ list of qualifying debilitating condition. Separate votes for a “qualifying term” to the condition also was recommended for Painful Ovarian Cyst and Painful Uterine Fibroid. These recommendations have been forwarded all at once to the Director, who will make the final decision, though a date for the final decisions has not yet been set.

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