In the final category of our 6-article series, we highlight a topic the Americans for Safe Access’ (ASA) did not report on in any detail but is by far—and I mean by far—the most commented on and advocated for issue we hear from registered medical patients in Illinois. The one change to the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act and the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Program Act patients most advocate for is increasing the plant-limit count for growing medicine at home.

Plant Limit

Though not scored in the ASA report, plant limit could fit under the categories Functionality (Part 3), Access to Medicine (Part 4), and Affordability (Part 5), but because of the strong patient beliefs and overwhelming suggestions, complaints, questions, concerns, and calls to action we have received to increase plant count, we decided this topic needed its own category and article in the series. As mentions in Part 1 of this series, there often is a large gap between patients’ recommendation for improving the Medical Cannabis Patient Program and the actual amendments to the law politicians introduce. This may be the biggest gap of all.

The Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act states, “An Illinois resident 21 years of age or older who is a registered qualifying patient under the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Program Act may cultivate cannabis plants, with a limit of 5 plants that are more than 5 inches tall, per household without a cultivation center or craft grower license.” The law continues, “A registered qualifying patient who cultivates more than the allowable number of cannabis plants, or who sells or gives away cannabis plants, cannabis, or cannabis-infused products produced under this Section, is liable for penalties as provided by law, including the Cannabis Control Act, in addition to loss of home cultivation privileges as established by rule.”

Penalties as provided by law for cultivating more than five plants include:

• Cultivating between 5 and 20 plants (Class 4 felony) carries a punishment of 1-3 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $25,000.
• Cultivating between 20 and 50 plants (Class 3 felony) carries a punishment 2-5 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $25,000.
• Cultivating between 50 and 200 plants (Class 2 felony) carries a punishment 3-7 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $100,000.
• Cultivating 200 or more plants (Class 1 felony) carries a punishment 4-15 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $100,000.

The violation, by law, for cultivating 5 plants or less for personal use by a non-registered recreational user is only $200. The notion that the difference between one simple plant (from a count of five to six) is the difference between “no punishment” to “fines and felony charges” for a medical patient is one of the most absurd aspects of the law. Plus, the fact that a non-registered medical patient pays a fine that is close to the fee of registering to become a medical patient also seems unbalanced.

Other extra costs, fines, and penalties may also be associated with growing more than five plants, even for a medical patient. Under the Illinois Drug Paraphernalia Control Act, “‘Drug Paraphernalia’ means all equipment, products and materials of any kind . . . intended to be used unlawfully in planting, propagating, cultivating, growing, harvesting, manufacturing . . . testing, analyzing, packaging, repackaging, storing, containing” and more. In other words, paraphernalia possession charges and penalties for all grow equipment and related materials can be added on top of any other charges. Paraphernalia possession is a Class A misdemeanor, carrying a penalty of up to one year of jail time and/or a fine of up to $2,500. In addition, added to the usual penalties, a fine of $750 will be imposed.

Along with those penalties, drug-crime specific fines will be added to each offense, from $300 for a Class A misdemeanor to $2,000 for a Class 1 felony. Other options include converting community service hours (1 hour equals $4) to pay for fines or eliminating fines by completing a drug rehabilitation program. Medical patients are also required to pay the costs of conducting the investigation and eradicating the plants (with no statutory limit on the cost) in cases involving more than 50 plants.

Suggested solutions from Illinois medical patients are varied, but every call to action includes increasing plant count in some way. Some patients push for unlimited plant count and restrictions, as if growing tomatoes. More practical suggestions that may have a better chance of becoming law include plant-count limits to 8-15 plants. Other suggestions include opening up how many plants can be kept in vegetation, which would allow for a continuous grow cycle.

With a 5–plant limit, a continuous grow throughout the year is near impossible, which greatly reduces the amount of medicine a patient can grow, and making RSO or FECO (full extract cannabis oil) takes a lot of flower. If a patient’s count for plants allowed in vegetation increased to at least ten, even if 5 flowering plants were the limit, then the patient could have 5 plants in the seedling stage and 5 plants in vegetative stage. Once the 5 flowering plants were chopped, the other plants would be ready to rotate into the next stages for a continuous grow cycle. Most reasonable suggestions range from 10-30 plants in vegetation and 8-12 plants in flower.

The 5-plant count limit also restricts several other aspect of growing cannabis at home. For example, patients are more likely to grow feminized seeds to ensure no males waste time, effort, money, and tent space. Growing only feminized seeds reduces the selection of strains and, as such, the range of medicine that might work best for a patient’s specific needs. In addition, the 5-plant count limit basically eliminates phenotype hunting of a patient’s favorite strain, as well as mothering and cloning plants, all of which reduce the patient’s ability to create specialized medicine for specific needs.

Another closely related provision of law patients want changed immediately is eliminating penalties for a patient who “gives away cannabis plants, cannabis, or cannabis-infused products” because this is the most prominent way medical patients decide what medicine to use and grow (and often more importantly what not to) for their own medication. This is a space medical patients have had to created for themselves because an accredited medical facility or scientific database that offers knowledge on specific strains and effects does not exist. The ironic part of this provision is that elsewhere in the law allows Illinois recreational users to share cannabis they have purchased at dispensaries, but it is illegal for a medical patient to share homegrown medicine or dispensary products with another medial patient or recreational user.

Technically, this means a husband and wife, who are both registered medical patients, are breaking the law if one of them shares cannabis with the other. Neither one of them are able to gift cannabis as a present to the other for holidays or special events without breaking the law. And finally, the last point before I turn this last article into its own 6-part series (and I could if I really wanted to), if these two medical patients live in the same house, they are legally allowed to grow only five plants. Plant count in Illinois is not based how many registered medical cardholders live in the residence but rather limited to the residency. The law states, “A dwelling, residence, apartment, condominium unit, enclosed, locked space, or piece of property not divided into multiple dwelling units shall not contain more than 5 plants at any one time.”

As with most of the articles in this series, we are touching only the surface of what Illinois cannabis patients really want, and we welcome comments, suggestions, rants, venting, and any other form of feedback to help us better understand the needs of medical patients in Illinois.

For the rest of the articles in the series find the links below:

Part 1: Series Intro

Part 2: Health, Rights, & Civil Protection

Part 3: Program Functionality

Part 4: Access to Medicine

Part 5: Program Affordability

For Medical Patient Homegrown Reviews, visit here.

For more Illinois cannabis industry news, visit here.

To learn about cannabis-friendly events in Illinois, visit here.