Health
Endometriosis, Ovarian Cysts Among Conditions Added to Illinois Medical Marijuana Qualification List
(Credit: Elsa Olofsson / Pixabay)
For the first time since 2019, Illinois has added new conditions to the list that qualifies patients to legally use marijuana as medicine, and therefore buy it at a considerably lower tax rate.
The Illinois Department of Public Health announced Thursday that patients diagnosed with endometriosis, ovarian cysts, uterine fibroids and female orgasmic disorder can now register under the state’s compassionate use of medical cannabis program — bringing the total number of qualifying conditions to 56.
Other recognized conditions include autism, cancer, chronic pain, HIV/AIDS, irritable bowel syndrome, migraines and osteoarthritis, post-traumatic stress disorder and terminal illness.
State law allows Illinois residents to petition the Medical Cannabis Advisory Board each January to consider expanding the list of qualifying conditions.
A major expansion of the program came after former Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2018 signed a law authorizing access to medical marijuana as an alternative to prescribed opioids. The changed was heralded by addiction specialists. The Republican, who was against legalizing cannabis for recreational purposes, characterized the change as a means of curtailing the deadly opioid epidemic by providing a less-addictive alternative than narcotics to treat pain.
That law also removed requirements that potential patients be fingerprinted and allowed people to provisionally access medical cannabis, rather than having to wait months for approval.
Access to marijuana became truly widespread in 2020, when a law signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker made it legal in Illinois for all adults.
From 2015 until then, only individuals registered with the state as a medical cannabis patient with a qualifying condition, or their registered caregivers, could legally buy marijuana from a state licensed dispensary.
According to state data, in the 2024 fiscal year that ended in July, cannabis sales topped $2 billion, with $150 million in medical cannabis sales and $850 million on the “adult use” recreational side.
Still, some individuals may prefer to purchase cannabis as medicine through the state’s compassionate use program.
As medicine, cannabis faces minimal taxation, versus taxes that can reach as much as 45% of the purchase price of cannabis purchased from a dispensary without a medical marijuana card.
Medical patients can also buy more — up to 2.5 ounces every two weeks (rather than 1 ounce for recreational users) and they get priority if there’s short supply.
Growing cannabis plants at home is illegal, unless you’re a registered medical cannabis patient, in which case the state allows up to five plants.
However, being a medical patient could be viewed as having drawbacks.
Participants can only buy marijuana as cannabis, and therefore at the lower tax rate, at 55 of the state’s 250 dispensaries – the dispensaries that opened when Illinois only had a medical cannabis program.
Given that marijuana is still prohibited on the federal level, it could present a problem when asked on job application of federal form, like a firearms purchase, whether an individual has broken the law or consumed an illegal substance.
A patient has to get a doctor’s sign-off, with state law requires a health care professional certify via that a patient as having one of the qualifying debilitating conditions. A patient must then register with the state — information that’s kept confidential — to receive a registry card from the state. Applying costs $50 to cover one year.
Contact Amanda Vinicky: @AmandaVinicky | [email protected]
