In this episode, I’m joined by Katie Sullivan. During the conversation, we recap one of the latest Medical Cannabis Advisory Board (MCAB) meetings. Katie is a board member on MCAB. During the episode, we also take a look ahead at what the next meeting will include, including how you can tune in and provide public comments.
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Links mentioned during show
- My recent conversation with Katie
- Instagram for Modern Compassionate Care
- Linktree for Modern Compassionate Care
- Website for Modern Compassionate Care
- Article that we referenced on possession limits – https://thecolememo.com/2024/04/26/medposs/
The auto-generated transcript is available below.
do you have your medical card I do and if you’d like to get yours today’s guest will be able to help you do just that there’s a few reasons you should consider getting your card and it’s not I would say primarily the cost savings that you receive at the counter because you know the prices are high and you definitely do get you do get some price savings with the medical card if you shop at a medical store however once again the prices are are really high so all you’re missing out on is the taxes with a medical card you only pay 1% tax at retail stores that have a medical license that’s key as of today May 20th 2024 there are 55 retail stores that are licensed to sell medical so if you want to shop medical you have to go to one of those stores at least that is the case today uh as we’ve covered in the past and present there have been attempts to make it so that medical card holders can shop at every retail location uh in the state that is licensed to sell at that medical tax rate but as of today it’s only the 55 retail stores that were licensed to sell medical originally now again I want to say and we’ll cover this during the episode there’s more than that that’s there’s so much more than that uh to getting a medical card so many more reasons to consider getting your medical card I’m having trouble with words right now because of the uh stuff but what I’m trying to say is the rights that the medical card affords you it’s this weird situation where you know a relationship with a health professional basically grants you more rights I’m not aware of a parallel or an analogy literally if you get your medical card you are allowed to grow five medical uh five plants for your own use uh in your own house which is pretty awesome you can grow your very own plants only five of them hopefully that number increases into the in the future to an unlimited amount or at least a larger amount uh I don’t believe anything is legal if you can’t do it without a card but and you know since you have the card it’s crazy that you’re limited at all um but that’s the way that it is today on May 20th 2024 and as I’ve covered on the show in the past uh if you have a medical card at home at least with regard to the product that you cultivate you have no possession limit I’ve covered it briefly on the podcast in the past but I wrote an article at length on the subject if you’d like to check it out I’m displaying it on the screen right now I’ll also have it in the show notes I believe we also discuss it during this episode the whole reason I’m coming to you before this episode is to let you know that modern Compassionate Care Our Guest Katie is running a summer special on medical card certifications book now at modern compassionate care.com and that’s June through August and you can get a pretty cheap certification looks like less than $100 so check that out go to Modern compassionate care.com and enjoy this episode of the coal [Music] memo hello and welcome everybody this is the Cole memo I’m your host Cole Preston every episode is released in audio video and and transcript format to find the transcript audio or video version of any episode please refer to the description of the episode that you’re listening to now within that description you can find a link that will take you to our website which will display the transcript for this episode and the platforms where you can find this episode in audio or video formats if you’re unable to locate the episode description on whichever platform you’re listening from I get it the platforms change all the time simply take note of the episode number and visit the memo.com from there you can use our search functionality to find the corresponding episode and then you’ll be able to access the audio video and transcript version of that episode you might also find any links that we reference during this episode so that you might be able to get your own medical cannabis card from Modern Compassionate Care for example we’ll also have any links that we reference uh in the episode so that you can do your own research if you’re not listening to this episode of the Cole memo on patreon then you’re listening to this episode a little bit later than our patrons to become a patron go to the co memo.com patreon it’s a great way to support our show it gets you instant access to our episodes as they release another way to support our show is at the memo.com support you can make a one-time monthly or yearly contribution of your choice shout out to Tom G for giving us a contribution our show is funded by listeners like you uh but I just want to say that one of the best ways to support our show is absolutely free just subscribe or follow the show leave a positive review from wherever you’re listening to us from favorite this episode share it with your friends your engagement and support is appreciated today is May 14th 2024 Katie we are blowing through 2024 how are you doing today I am excellent I’m so happy to be here with you um I was going to be like it’s been a long week but um it’s Tuesday so yeah yeah easy with that you’re happened in the past couple days You’re Gonna jinx us to an even longer week um I’m uh displaying your website right now I want to give you the space I mean I kind of plugged it in the intro you can get your medical cannabis card from Modern compassionate care.com schedule your appointment now um but yeah I want to give you the space tell us who you are what you do all that stuff awesome thank you Cole so I’m Katie Sullivan um I’m a family nurse practitioner um and I’m co-founder of modern Compassionate Care the um Clinic that Cole just showed you the website so modern Compassionate Care we do medical cannabis care kind of comprehensive we do medical cards for people um we help people out um you know people that have kind of complex chronic conditions to to help optimize their cannabis regimen um or you know for people who are new to cannabis cannabis naive uh maybe your grandparents who um you know um needs some guidance um are a little wary of going into the dispensary so we kind of our our clients run the gamut um when it comes to medical cannabis and we work with kids and adults um and then we also offer mental health counseling and camun assisted Psychotherapy and we’ve been doing um the ketamine assisted Psychotherapy since um well a about a year a year and a half at this point um and that’s been a great journey too you know we uh we have a small group of clients that we work with but um we’ve seen such good results with that so that’s that’s kind of the other service that we offer now and you know that is like in conjunction with you know you get medication we do um oral medication for ketamine or we do intermuscular in our office um and you have the support of trained psychedelic assisted therapy providers that are also psychologists so um yeah it’s it’s cool setting up that program has been great so that’s what we do at modern compassionate care um you know I’m I’m passionate about this uh we started this business like four years ago almost we started conceiving it um we’ve been seeing a lot of patients you know I think I’ve certified pushing on 2,000 people here in the state of Illinois um and I’m so proud to do that because uh the lack of access to this type of healthare is the reason I started this there’s really so few people doing it and providing it and we know we have a lot of people using cannabis you know and we have so many registered patients but we have a lot more people that are cannabis consumers you know so uh that was kind of my goal starting out this was filling that Gap in care and I’m also a member of the Illinois Department of Public Health medical cannabis Advisory Board um so that’s the the body that votes on app uh approving new conditions in the state of Illinois that would be eligible for getting the medical card and uh we just had our was that our second meeting ever yep yeah our second meeting ever yesterday yeah and I guess I guess just for a quick background for folks I’ll pull up our document here um it it it won’t be the I guess it it would be your second meeting ever right uh yes that’s true that this is the second iteration of the medical cannabis Advisory board so the new board that’s just formed our second meeting yeah yeah and so thank you for that uh the reason I brought that up I always like to bring up our history and so for folks that are wondering first of all you can download this document that I’m about to display at the colo.com hisory but yeah in the past um the medical cannabis Advisory Board had um you know successfully um pushed PTSD and 11 other sorry 10 other ailments this was in 2015 actually sorry I should correct myself they they formerly pushed to add those new ailments but that was denied um in on September 10th 2015 so there’s a rich history to this medical cannabis Advisory Board yeah I believe that they got PTSD and maybe a couple a few other conditions pushed through and on the condition that the medical cannabis Advisory Board disbanded yes um so in order to do that the board member said fine we think it’s really important that we have these things on there but then that medical cannabis Advisory Board was dissolved and that was like you know written into the original you know like law that that that that needs to be in place so there were several years that it wasn’t and even forming this board I mean I was interviewed in 2022 so it’s been taking them a long time to kind of roll this out but we you know we it feels like we’re you know we were trying to plug ahead but you know it’s this is a new experience for me dealing with bureaucracy or like how things work in the government in this way and it’s like wow yeah it’s different you know it’s just it’s um because you know I come from the background of advocacy and like direct patient care being in the lawmaking space and seeing like who’s in charge of this how are they how is this process being carried out it’s a learning it’s a you know learning experience for me and um you know an honor to serve on the board but definitely interesting yeah yeah I’d say a lot of learning is going on like you know like you say not only from your perspective but even from you know somebody like me who’s just watching you know from the sidelines so it’s very interesting to see how it all works and I just wanted to say Katie before we got into uh the the body of our show if you will that um thank you for doing what you do uh for the community seriously you know um getting people the access to to the plant and and the other things that you mentioned that you do seriously thank you for uh being compassionate and trying to take care of our community I love you for saying that thank you Cole you know like that’s you know it comes from for me a personal place um I want to help people get access to this and have better options safer options for pain control you know for their mental health so I appreciate that so much and like likewise back to you you know much how much I respect the work that you’re doing to really bring this process out into the open because it has not really been transparent and um you’ve created quite a record of what has been happening here with cannabis legalization in Illinois from the beginning and I’m so glad you have like this I hope something you know like this like should be a full um College course or an exhibition somewhere a film festival of all your podcasts I mean that would really that would really teach and I I lecture at universities sometimes I was just at UIC a couple times and I always shout out your podcast because it’s like okay if you want to learn more about the policy of this or why some of this stuff is happening because I like to talk about the social justice issues involved in this and the equity issues and the Health Equity issues and so you know as a nurse it’s it’s our job job to look at the situation What’s Happening Here the political situation how that’s impacting our the people that we are task to care for and so you know like I want to get more nurses understanding you know like we’ve been the Pioneers in advocating for patient use of this from the very beginning cannabis nursing is now a specialty and you know like we we need to we are the perfect people to know more about this and also to help advocate to our lawmakers to have the patience in mind because right now business has the in this is set up to be a you know commercial success and a tax you know win for the state but medical patients um don’t quite have that voice anymore maybe at first you know when the program started and it was just Medical but we need to keep doing this and I think having medical professionals stand forward and speak to our lawmakers is really um something that can help change their mind when they hear from providers and of course patients yeah like that goes without saying so rant over but yeah yeah and I but one last thing I wanted to say just because I feel we both put in some real work on this I can’t I got to give you more credit though you [ __ ] killed this list that that people can ultimately download on episode 248 of this little show called Illinois podcast you appeared um and you went through this list which like I said you can see right there folks you can download it um we talk about all the issues that we believe and there’s a lot and I think these issues are still valid and and longstanding at this point um that the medical cannabis patients and caregivers face so folks uh take the time to watch episode 248 I’ll have it linked in the podcast description and you killed it uh on that um I mean this is like totally I got to revisit it again because we are collecting you know that information like those of us who are advocating in this space to try to get that list on paper you know I’d like to see the medical cannabis Advisory Board be able to Advocate officially for some of these things as a you know one of the entities but um right now our role is limited although I did get a little hope by the intro speech that that that the um Department gave at the beginning like about the role of the board but nothing specific was said but I’d like to see some expanded opportunity for us to be able to advocate for medical patients through you know I mean who knows what it could do but pass it up the chain an official letter you know we do believes these things could make this more safe and effective so we’ll see yeah yeah well said and you know as you just as you had mentioned earlier we attended uh it was the second medical since the Advisory board has come back we just attended the second medical cannabis Advisory board meeting of which you’re a member of and I guess you know I’ve got some thoughts to recap it but I I wanted to give you the space um either to set the stage or just to Dive Right into Recaps maybe maybe it is better to set the stage to like kind of let people know that don’t even know what this is we’re talking about maybe you can do that and say like what what you understand the role to be and everything and then we can go into our recap does that sound good yes totally so so the medical cannabis Advisory Board is composed of now I don’t know exactly how many members 13 15 right now um and we we are people that are appointed by the governor ultimately um who you know I I was approached I was recommended by somebody who knew of the work that I did interviewed um about it and then eventually you get appointed by the governor to serve on this board um and it’s for like a term of two two or three years again totally forgot I should know that but I committed to it I’m ready for this so um what so you serve on the board and what the board does right now the main role is to approve new condition qualifying conditions to get a medical card in the state of Illinois um the people that are on the board from like they have like doctors of all different Specialties um they have a couple uh I think a nurse practitioner like me maybe two two of us or a nurse practitioner and a nurse I’m going to come in with the assist I just found an official list that’ll make this a little bit easier on us uh to your point 16 members I was like damn that’s this hard to probably give background on 16 members here’s the composition we don’t have to go I mean if you’d like to go through them but there’s the composition um of the board you know how many of each member you get [Music] um and like you said they shall convene to examine debilitating conditions or diseases that would benefit the medical use of cannabis review new medical and scientific evidence pertaining to the currently approved conditions and the board shall issue an annual report of its activities each year yeah so um you know kind of a simple purpose right now we do have so many conditions in the state of Illinois but there’s so many more that could be added on there so um I do think that’s an important and you know primary role for us to have but like I mentioned we um we would also like to be able to advocate for some of these other issues affecting medical patients because they they don’t really have you know anyone in their Corner within the government so to speak I mean I don’t want to say like the division medical cannabis doesn’t care but they can’t really you know we’re medical providers so we do know what some of these other issues that we talked about on that last podcast so um you know that’s something I know that we’re hoping to bring up in the next meeting so yeah that’s that’s the purpose of the board and we we just got right back into these debilitating conditions I mean like I was glad to see that we launched right in to start adding new ones um but you can see you know there’s a ton I mean some very specific disorders like shog um syndrome but then you know chronic pains on there um you know the most common ones are PTSD migraine chronic pain IBS um you know neuropathy arthritis osteoarthritis and any of these things you know there’s we’ve got a lot of things on here um I think more than people realize we are one of the states that have more extensive list very interesting very interesting you know and so now we um you know it was really nice to be able to review these women’s health conditions that are being added now um you know and I I’m really pleased that with the outcome of the meeting but yeah so for did I get this right there were three votes one of them was a revote uh because of the the process but three votes went through for three different conditions am I right on that or yes I believe you’re right it was uh it was three went through one did not go through so we voted on four conditions um we voted on female orgasmus orgasmic dysfunction which we had like such a good guest speaker um Dr mold the hill who spoke at the last meeting so her research was so compelling that passed no problem unanimously uh we voted on endomet ois which passed and then when we got to ovarian cysts that’s where there was a little bit of debate and we ended up doing that vote twice both times it passed with a yes but more of the providers were comfortable adding painful ovarian cysts as the condition because um you know we don’t have any evidence that cannabis will shrink an ovarian cyst um at this point there was some concern raised because cannabis can increase estrogen levels to potentially worsen assyst that again is um nothing proven just a potential speculation um something to think about but uh you know I I spoke about a person like what my health condition I’m dealing with right now is a giant ovarian cyst and I said that in the meeting and told everyone like you know um it’s been difficult to get pain medication for this or pain plan which I I like even you know I’m like I would like a nonopioid like something to get me through till the surgery women’s pain so often historically dismissed um I see so many women as a cannabis clinician coming in because they’re being told okay just take Advil take ad bill and it’s not really helping and so I already knew try a cannabis depository you know when this started happening to me I already I was I had the benefit of having worked with so many other patients who had gotten relief from different forms of cannabis you know and I use it all topicals inhaled um RSO if my pains really bad and the suppositories which are like really hard to find but for some people um that’s going to be a huge a huge relief a very like helpful way to relax the muscles in that area so I was kind of passionate like I want this to pass and I know you know my uh friends from normal um who were there um Felicia and Ari have been advocating for this Chicago normal are the ones that filed the women’s health conditions P petitions right um you know and Chicago normal is a organization that I’m a member of and you know like love and support for the work they’re doing so this was really important for them and they spoke up very well last me in in the last meeting and in this meeting strongly on behalf of you know like the the the true reality that there’s a lot of women suffering and pain from these conditions that could benefit from Cannabis and already already are using it but if they’re it’s not an approved condition they’re just paying more to the state I mean so uh I was you know proud of them both times and their petitions were good um you know like that made me happy so I think what’s going to end up happening with that one is it’s probably going to say painful Oar insist um you know and there was some debate like some someone mentioned putting like severe severe pain from Varian and I’m like you know I’m not comfortable with adding a qualifier like that of to who’s to judge you know if I’m having mild pain and I have an ovarian cyst and I want to utilize cannabis instead of a handful of Advil because that helps my pain and and as a provider I’m okay with that I know a lot of other ones would say no no no do this do that the other thing but you know to be honest it’s it’s an option for people that’s safer than a lot of what’s being offered to them and and there’s people that don’t tolerate certain medications well and it’s it’s it’s legal for recreational use so you know why why gatekeep and you know there’s a point in the meeting which you know no shade on my one colleague but you know she very clearly stated that she sees her role as GateKeeper right you know and I was like Wow because I see myself as someone who facilitates access yeah yeah right like you know like especially there’s there and I don’t know what state it is or if there’s more than one I don’t know if you know this whole but it’s like there’s a few that are like at the discretion of the provider they don’t have a list of just if the provider thinks it could be a good idea they’re working with a provider on it you know and uh one of the big problems is we drop the ball we trained any providers there’s so few people that can provide this care but it’s not hard it’s not like it’s going to take you a million years to learn about cannabis you know it’s it’s the same physiology stuff that we’ve studied it’s just a new system that you don’t know about and it’s super interesting once you start learning about it so um you know and I and like I said I’ve been I’ve been speaking at my alma mater and other universities to you know nursing students about the endocannabinoid system and people are totally interested you know I’m I’m let’s spread the gospel we need more people that’s the problem you know if there there’s these people aren’t getting support and then there’s this gatekeeping going on where it’s like well we don’t know what you’re going to do with it well it’s sort of like well are you providing support like at my clinic we have a cannabis informed mental health provider right there right somebody that you know if if if you’re having those kind of issues you know like we’re we’re ready to work with your medical team but you know but why shouldn’t somebody have the right to try this as an option just because there haven’t been a ton of randomized controlled trials done and the ones that have been done aren’t you know like you got of really look at some of these things you know they’re they’re looking at like high dose use like oh yeah you know it like where people are you know just getting high or they just don’t have any idea what they’re doing versus like we’re trying a low dose we’re trying a more therapeutic approach we’re trying a full spectrum approach that stuff doesn’t exist but there’s a reason they blocked the ability for us to do research and so the anecdotal evidence is is important and listening to patients about what’s helping them is important right you know like that’s how I feel right well well said I just had to let you go with that because it’s just like no no you I couldn’t have said it better than myself I wanted you to when you stopped I was like I wanted you to keep going I mean seriously um because there’s just so many different things that you said I took I took notes on this and I guess before we get to the other things I wanted to just make it clear for folks that maybe got really excited when you said that those those important conditions did get approved by the board that’s just by the board we should clarify that there’s something else that happens right and sorry to pop quiz you yes no that’s a good point so like after it gets approved by the board so and this process has changed I think before it was the board went like directly to the governor and the governor would sign off now they’ve changed it so that we’re giving this to the head of idph which again I his name is escaping my mind but the the the Doctor Who is heading up the Department of Public Health is the one that will choose or or say these are the final ones and then give to the governor for approval so um so these are our re recommendations so we approved our recommendations it hasn’t been added as a condition yet you know stay tuned and when they are I’m sure you know we’re going to be announcing it all over social media you’re going to be announcing it all over social media so um you know we’ll keep people posted on that but um there’s still a process and Cole I don’t know how long it might take that’s another question that we didn’t ask so note to self over here note to self yeah um so you know one of the things you you brought up is is uh just brilliant and I wanted to say it again I’m not trying to um Talk negatively about anybody but the statement of gatekeeping did stand out to me and this idea that I I couldn’t help but wonder why the insistence on limiting this at all like you said with adult use cannabis being so widespread I hesitate to say legal um but uh yeah I didn’t know like I’m wondering if the insistence on keeping the list of qualifying conditions limited is a feature of cannabis 2.0 because we have to remind ourselves and by the way you mentioned something earlier about uh how my podcast is coming together and it’s weird how it snowballed into me creating like kind of a mini documentary you know um so stay tuned for that I’ll give you Katie a sneak peek at that if you’re interested um still in in works but this system that we created which is the adult youth system I’m referring to was modeled after the medical cannabis program which a lot of these cannabis CEOs credit is birthing cannabis 2.0 which is my the way I can say it without throwing up uh the other way people say it is prohibition 2.0 we’ll say that for another uh episode but cannabis 2.0 what does that being highly regulated Limited licensed compliance-based cannabis right and I’m just wondering because I’ve always focused on the limitations of licenses but that what you brought up earlier is I’m wondering is in is the insistence to keep the list of qualifying conditions limited to the you know limited also a part of cannabis 2.0 as you pointed out California I did do some research on California at least because I know that they’re one of the states that does this the law broad allows for broad discretion to recommend medical cannabis this started in 1996 uh but was reaffirmed in 2003 and 2016 these laws maintain a broad interpretation allowing doctors to recommend cannabis for any ailment for which they believe it could provide relief this broad Criterion makes cannabis uh California one of the more flexible States regarding medical cannabis usage and I guess just to round out this point I’m curious what you think about this there was a lot of scrutiny on the conditions and and I want to say that I totally get you know trying to approach this with protocol or formality if you will for lack of better words um but at the end of the day it’s not like you the board members are giving anybody access it still is between the physician and the patient and it’s not a prescription it’s a recommendation and it’s even like a timed one I’m sure you know you know this you have to have this Bonafide relationship with the patient so yeah if the condition worsens you know it’s a conversation you can have uh and you it’s like the law still allows you know the physician to have some sort of power over that just like anything else so I guess I know I went a lot of different ways with that but it just seems like almost like this idea of gatekeeping um is almost futile especially like you say when you bring up that adult use cannabis is so widespread it’s like okay so your physician says no but you still go get it that doesn’t really happen with any other drug right exactly right and this time you’re doing it without professional guidance and support so it’s it doesn’t make any sense and you know and and someone like that you know there’s a lot of people the cost is really high you know it’s it’s um I I think there’s a lot of still buzz in the media you know or worry and concern about cannabis use disorder um you know to me cannabis use disorder is like a sign that like you know there another intervention needs to to happen what’s look underneath here speak you know there’s there’s ways to really um help people repair their relationship with cannabis and have a better effect and work on some of the root cause things that might be causing you to want to um you know dissociate chronically you know if in that way if you know if if it’s a burden on your life but it’s not something that is um you know it’s I I really see it as a as a symptom of like trauma or PTSD or you know untreated underlying conditions or undertreated under underlying conditions um and so I that’s been one thing I’ve been just hearing a lot more about or worry about and it’s not that it shouldn’t be um thought of but even the the tests that we use like the questionnaire that we use to assess for cannabis use disorder some of those questions in there include like you know do you use it daily um does the thought of not being able to get cannabis um distress you a question like that well you know if you’re if you’re a medical patient who’s dependently need you know needing this for pain control for controlling spasticity for you know managing cancer symptoms well you would be answering yes to both of those questions and that doesn’t mean you have cannabis use disorder but you’re scoring higher on that um assessment because of that so you know some of the statistics out there I think are skewed because the the the battery of test that they’re using is is catching maybe medical patients and calling it cannabis use disorder um or even just a physician that hears I use cannabis every day is like well that’s bad and it’s like okay well do you know I like lupus and this is manage you know who just you know who knows I A lot of times I feel that um disclosing to the wrong provider can really negatively impact your care within the medical system still so I’m rambling again now too but I think that like we have so much work to do around making making this work for patients you know making this work for people that are trying to feel well and not be riant potentially on Pharmaceuticals that are giving them side effects or have addictive qualities that they don’t want to deal with and like that is that’s that’s what I wish the medical cannabis Advisory Board was like that I wish that everyone’s mentality was that and I know like no hate on the the my colleague Dr Nichols who made that comment about feeling her role was being a gatekeeper I I believe that she works in like addiction medicine and rehabilitation so like she she has seen you know that’s what she sees you know more than the general you know more than a lot of the providers that are on this this panel you know more so than me she’s seeing people that are having you know potentially like active addiction and so she’s a little bit more concerned about making this widely available but again it is widely available it’s it’s a this is just allowing people to get a medical card and like some medical advice around utilizing cannabis so it’s a safer option right right like right um right because it’s legal it’s legal to get like most of the people that come see me are not like it’s my first time I’ve never used it they’re like I’ve been going to The Dispensary this is really helping me how do I get a medical card right you know like it’s people are trying it for themselves which is totally fine that’s how it’s been always you know yeah the person that’s asking for a medical card isn’t like they didn’t just try it last week right I mean you know that’s such a small that’s such a small portion of it it’s typically you know kids and really older people that I see um with that but you know there’s more and more people coming to me saying my doctor recommended I get a medical card but you know here or she can’t sign for it um so is there still I’m just curious is there still like kind of hesitation or is it is it mostly I’ve heard like sometimes if you work under like a bigger org they won’t let you sign for it so they have to like push to somebody like you or what did you mean yeah well because it’s schedule one still and so I wonder if it becomes schedule three but you know like that’s a whole another thing because it’s like the products at the dispensary or like is I don’t I don’t think it’s going to be they’re not not going to approve cannabis a ever you know a compound that has a unique amount of cannabinoids each time it’s grown is it’s is is slightly different versus what they’re going to want to do which is to isolate and make different forms of compounds and put them in a in a pharmaceutical type deliverable and those will be the things that are FDA approved schedule three cannabis medications and they will be prescriptions not recommendations right which is the a huge difference can you brief can you briefly unpack what you know like I don’t mean to so right now like my my medical cannabis certification that I write for someone is just me recommending that’s all I can be I recommend this person to the to be able to get a medical cannabis card you know because they have one of these qualifying conditions which I believe this could be helpful yeah and so that’s that’s all I can do the prescription is like when I’m going to write a prescription for something else for somebody you know if I’m writing you an antibiotic I’m giving the exact amount the dose it’s going to a pharmacy being distributed to you in a you know pill form or maybe you know what you know who knows they might have you know topicals they might have created some way to create a nasal spray yeah but it’s going to not be like full spectrum cannabis from the plant and um that’s the thing that it’s like I want to see we need to push for descheduling that plant should be available for people who want to use that like utilize the true form of the plant or make their own compound you know their own extracts their own topicals they want full control over the product that they’re ingesting that’s that’s good you know more people should have that ability um you know I don’t have to tell you that you know how I feel about some of the products that have been sold in dispensaries but um so a prescription is going to be like a prescription like I put it into the computer I mean it might be good that’s going to be covered by Insurance yeah but the other thing is it’s like it’s it’s highly controlled by me the provider I’m going to tell you exactly what to take right now cannabis is something that you know it’s it’s a beautiful thing to teach people about utilizing it in a way that’s fluid with their needs to support them the best way that they want for that you know what’s going on with you today like you know for so many really for everyone but you know chronic conditions are very e and flow sometimes so to have the ability to really manage that yourself versus getting a pill and right what we’ seen even with the the available FDA approved medications you know um epid dialects I mean that’s been shown that’s CBD it is made from actual CBD it’s not a synthetic it’s a medication that’s approved for use in two childhood epilepsy syndromes and um you know that and then we have um like things like Marinol or naalone those are synthetic THC compounds given to patients for chemo-induced nauseum vomiting compared to full spectrum THC like THC from the plant with the other tpine and the other cannaboids mixed in with it the therapeutic window um is narrower for those pharmaceutical drugs they have more side effects and people report them being less effective so that’s what you might get um with this schedule three and you know as like I I I had like a bit of an outburst during the um meeting yesterday because one of the other doctors had kind of brought up well cannabis was in schedule one like a very dangerous drug now it’s in schedule three like with ketamine and with you know Tylenol with Codine and with anabolic steroids so you know it’s not it’s not a safe drug and it’s like wait a minute you’re utilizing this classification by the da which is also incorrect it’s saying that cannabis is more dangerous than benzodiazapines like Xanax or Valium that’s not true these things have a higher risk potential for overdose death very severe withdrawal and addiction come on you know and and it would be classified higher than that I think it needs to be descheduled but I couldn’t stop myself because he was using that as a reason to say that it’s it’s cannabis is more dangerous than it really is and it’s like I I had to say something and they in the chat they were like please don’t speak out of turn I was like oh my God I broke deorum I’m a horrible board member so apologies for that but I so feel strongly that like those classifications and leaning back on those when they’re so um off base and we know that I mean the schedule one that’s been so ridiculous when the government was carrying patents on like certain medical properties of the plant and they’re saying it has no medical use for years so you know like the this this schedule three I mean everyone’s saying a step in the right direction and I guess that is correct like if it becomes pills that are covered by insurance it’s going to allow a lot of more people to afford it um I’m not saying that those medications that are made are going to be bad maybe they’ll find a way to create it in a bioavailable form that’s amazing that’s FDA approved um I’m not you know I don’t really trust big Pharma to take over cannabis that just seems like the worst possible thing that could happen um but you know if it’s going to open up doors for research if it’s going to make it a little bit easier for businesses to do business I hope that means all businesses including small businesses that’s all good you know is it going to stop criminalization it is not schedule three if you get caught with cannabis and you’re in a non-medical state you you know and even I mean could it be that if you’re caught with a cannabis plant instead of a bottle of pills that you’re going to be arrested like what does that mean you know part of all of the work we’re doing with this needs to be ending the drug war and this is not how you do it continuing to allow for criminalization and putting it in a category that’s going to continue that practice to me is like we have to push back against that because that’s the problem it needs to be decriminalized people should not be in jail for this when these Corps are making billions you know like straight up ranting ranting hey it’s okay this this was also meant to be a therapy session now I’m joking but it is though for both I will pay you after this 100% for this therapy session um to your point yeah I had noted yeah that that individual that said something to the effect of cannabis is not safe and I you know what I want to be clear that I don’t completely disagree with that statement but I don’t think anybody’s saying that it’s completely safe what is completely safe you can drink too much water like right you can you know so it’s like let’s just be clear here you know um like you say I don’t believe it should be scheduled at all like if we’re really talking about this like it’s like alcohol and tobacco are not scheduled and I know that nobody’s claiming that like broadly that those substances have medicinal use but I actually do believe that alcohol has some medicinal use you know like it’s in Nyquil it’s you know like it’s in mouthwash like I know you don’t drink it that way but I’m just saying there’s a lot of different and sometimes when I have a cold or a flu I might just take a shot of whiskey the oldfashioned way you know just before bed you know hey that’s both true 100% so you know I know that that’s not in wide practice anymore but I I think it’s you know a fair like analogy to draw so I it’s it just feels like this is motivated only by like business interests or like you know this is like everything comes out and it’s like oh what’s behind it somebody ready to make the money you know and it’s of course I mean I guess that’s just the way things are but one thing that I thought uh that in public comment from Ari and uh maybe maybe um Alicia said something um the one of the main points that I thought that was really great was the idea that kind of like agnostic of the condition isn’t more data better right like if we’re like collecting why people are using cannabis and that is a conversation with their doctor and they’re collecting that data like you get to draw from that totally and I mean I wish the division of medical cannabis was doing more than just that but yes there the more specific I believe that too the more specific on there or you know like if somebody has multiple conditions I list every single one of those conditions yeah on that you know like because you know like yeah that’s that’s what’s accurate and the more accurate we can be you know chronic pain on the one hand is um great because it allows a lot of people to utilize it but it’s like what kind of chronic pain you know like we do have neuropathy nerve pain on there but you know what location where like you know who who you know we’ll know who’s you know what is the gender what is the age of the person that is experiencing this um and they have the access of the patient database I mean there I wish there could be a voluntary survey study done the patients like that could be anonymous for them that the state would undertake to find out like is this helping you or how is this working for you like where patients could easily give feedback I that’s a solid idea you know I I like that I mean it seems like something that it’s like I guess worth proposing or talking about I mean they’re the ones that has everyone’s information right you could put it right in the portal and be like there’s something we need you to fill out Ding and just have them answer right well I guess that doesn’t make it Anonymous though but there’s ways there’s got to be ways yeah you know um totally I think that that’s something that we all should receive the email just like we recently did allbe everybody gets it at a different time but hey it is what it is it’s the best we can do uh about the new portal that’s potentially coming you know everybody receives an email so who’s to say they can’t like you say send a survey of sorts that’s that’s voluntary and Anonymous yeah you know and yeah right like I mean it might be yeah I I mean I’d love them to talk about like their use but also like the what are the barrier what are the barriers to car your experiencing like all the things what are the patients complaints here about the program like get their feedback on the pro program just patient feedback maybe not even like asking them how much cannabis they use I mean I’d love to know that but I asked that to everyone I talk to but feedback on the program at the very least are you having trouble affording this are you having trouble accessing the products that you need are you you know like how far do you drive to get to your dispensary although hopefully that’s going to be rectified soon that’s going to at least decrease for people but home delivery still could be so helpful for so many yeah and the fact that we’ll get we can talk about this later I’m not trying to take us on a tangent but the fact that like I just got 75 milligram THC ice cream delivered to my door and 50 milligram sodas delivered to my door and it’s like you begin to wonder like was legalizing it the problem like if we can get this other canab these these same cannaboids rather uh delivered right to our door but not through our state legal system it’s through the federal system you know it’s like wow but again we can get to that later um any other thoughts just on that meeting I do have something about uh a thought from the last meeting I wanted to give you props on but I wanted to give you more space just uh on this meeting while while it’s fresh in our mind anything that you’d like to recap or so well yeah like I think that it’s just so the the conditions that were voted yes and you approve were um the pain the painful ovarian cyst it’s likely going to have that modifier at the beginning um female orgasmic dysfunction endometriosis the one that didn’t not pass through is polycystic ovarian syndrome so that one was um divided there um you know we’ll see pending more research in the future but if you’re someone with PCOS and this is we asked that question so if you’re someone that does have polycystic ovarian syndrome with pain you can qualify under that General painful ovarian cyst designation so if pain is your symptom with PCOS you know get it under just the OV General ovarian cysts and that should be fine uh and then the ne the next um meeting we have in June we are going to be discussing uterine fibroids and generalized anxiety disorder so that’s a big one um I think that the generalized anxiety disorder is going to be quite divisive um and you know like I was one of the people I was the state actually asked to initiate this petition um or there was a uh someone within the you know like a couple years ago I don’t know if it was in a personal or an official context now but I was asked to supply one of the letters from a provider supporting the use or general anxiety so like I um you know it’s one of the most common things people utilize it for and yes we know it can increase anxiety in people so that’s what makes it complicated you know like at you know more therapeutic levels of THC which that amount is different for everyone it relieves anxiety go outside of that and then you may find that you have acute anxiety in the moment or sort of rebound anxiety like a worsening of anxiety symptoms but you know a lot of times that’s just you know are you utilizing other canabo like CBD CBG are you are you do you have an optimized treatment for anxiety are you seeking therapy are you exercising you know it’s it’s like you can’t just rely on one thing to fix a complicated problem which everyone kind of is it’s like it’s just a tool in the toolbox so um you know I I hope this goes through there’s a lot of reasons like not to overload but like we know in the brains of people with anxiety they have changes in their endoc canabo system so they have alterations in the amount of endoc canabo the the compounds that are so similar in shape to THC see that we produce in our body on demand in response to Stress and Anxiety that there’s diminished levels or sometimes increased levels because your body is constantly producing you know um to try to compensate to try to help reduce the stress the point of the endocannabinoid system is to balance um and regulate us back in homeostasis so the other really compelling thing is that we find in the brains of people with anxiety that they have more re canabo receptors CB1 receptors so they have like a higher amount of those that are out there looking to grab canabo molecules and what the canabo molecules do when they bind to that is calm the brain down they cut off that fight ORF flight response so um you know our own body is trying to use our canabo to do that so if you get the right combination of cannabinoid you know phyto canabo cannaboids from the plant you can potentially supplement if you have a deficiency there you’re not producing enough you’ve got all these receptors sticking out there because they’re like we need this we need more you give a little bit more in the right dose it can really reduce anxiety for people you know it’s there’s how much anecdotal evidence you know but the so I think that I want that to see this considered and I know there’s going to be a lot of push back but there’s there’s evidence supporting this you know there’s evidence supporting that this can be helpful and when you look at the things that are showing you know it’s bad for anxiety a lot of those are like you know people that have utilized the emergency room for like an acute kind of canabo Overdose where they had a massive panic attack like you have to look into what the research really is and who did it to to see like what does this picture look like and I think we need to con consider people as individuals for some people cannabis is really helpful helps them reduce their use of XX helps them come off of you know Zoloft or Lexapro if that’s not working for them or if it’s causing a significant side effect interfering with their life like sexual side effects that’s like one of the biggest complaints um and that that can make people more depressed when that goes away for them so uh that’s what that’s what I’m going to say next month at the Canabis Advisory board meeting when we’re debating this so if if anybody is interested in adding that or making a comment or if you utilize cannabis for anxiety or if you have something to say about it good or bad you know everybody can come you can register ahead of time to make a public comment I will share that you know I always will pass that information along so that people can sign up to make a public comment in this because that can make a difference if yeah know we hear from the public that can really sway some of these people that are on the fence about it um you know or if somebody has a a Horror Story it might sway them the other way so you know I think the more people that chime in here I think for this one the better there’s only a handful of states that have generalized anxiety as a condition so yeah uh but it’s honestly the most common thing I see people reported to me using it for yeah and would you agree that maybe some of those concerns that people have like you say valid uh could be addressed through what is called in the law a Bonafide relationship with your health care provider like in other words aren’t these things true of every medication we prescribe I’ve heard of people like they like take a medication and they go on this like work trip and they weren’t told that it doesn’t like mix well with alcohol and they almost get like fired because they like black out and they have this like bad interaction with the drug and then you know fortunately they’re able to explain you know hey like some bad interaction with the drug but maybe some people aren’t so fortunate the point of making is like this is unique to cannabis right right exactly it’s like it really is risks and benefits for anything you you really have to weigh that and just you know that Bonafide relationship is something that I know a lot of people aren’t getting when they sure um when they get you know some of the some of the places that are available to get your card from are like you can talk to them for five minutes they don’t really care they ask you a few things you’re signed gone like it’s an easy interaction I see why people do it whatever I meet with people for you know like minimum 20 minutes usually and I talk to them about like how they’re using cannabis do they have any questions if I think of a product that might be helpful for them that’s on the market because I’m always looking at that stuff talk to him about it or I try to like make my pitch for like grow your own you know uh because I really believe in that but you know I’m trying to do a little bit more there just because I know people people might have questions or people might not be might have something that they haven’t considered about this or yeah you know when you know or they might just think about oh I didn’t know that about like the medical cannabis program like I like to make sure people are just taken care of when it comes to this process so you know I think more more people and I’m I’m certainly not like the only one in the state of Illinois that provides like more robust service but there’s only a handful of us um sure but it’s you know it’s important if you aren’t having good results like on your own if you’re like if you’ve been using cannabis but you’re feeling like you know I’m not getting it anything out of this or I’m like using more than I want to and I’m not getting the same effect like that’s not a bad reason to talk to somebody you know if you’ve never done it before if you’re trying to use it on your little kid please come talk to me um you know or you know if you’re if you’re really old like you know there’s there’s some things you should consider when you start this so find someone that can help that Bonafide relationship is important but I don’t know the state doesn’t really care about that I don’t know how they would go about it mying it you’re you’re right but my point is if people need that help and they are concerned that they may or they have a bad experience that’s that’s why you know they should keep a relationship with their physician I guess is my point and maybe that can just be part of you know the the handouts people give or something like that I don’t know just hey just like with everything else I mean it almost feels like it goes without saying when you consider that like you said any other drug this could happen totally and you know just like that like and it’s just like anything else too I mean that’s how I’m explaining it to people when I’m kind of talking to them about it and if they have a problem or anything like that it’s like yes call me back like let’s figure this out it could happen with anything though and to be honest like you know I I do this because I prefer this I feel like it’s safer than many of the other alternatives for a lot of different things you know like I don’t give opioid prescriptions I don’t want to do that like that’s not something I I want to manage I don’t want people to have you know like if you want to come off the opioids or get a little bit of help feeling better but without raising your dose come to me and let’s talk about adding cannabis but you know I I just I don’t know I yeah please seek help if you feel like you’ve got questions like Google can sometimes bring some good stuff up but it can also bring some not great stuff up and like no hate there’s a lot of um people that are you know customer Representatives like Bud tenders there that are are well informed but honestly I feel like a a lot of the ones that I know that have been so good are like leaving the industry for something else they’re not some of these larger companies don’t really have an ethos to care for the medical patients as much like this is just what I’m hearing and you know like it’s we’ve seen dwindling services in some of these bigger dispensaries for Med patients so um you might not have someone at your local dispensary that you feel comfortable even getting a recommendation on if they don’t really know the products or if they don’t seem to know you know much about the medical use if you you know if you’re on a lot of medications something else like please call us just to check it out there can be drug interactions um you know it’s a very common enzyme system that is metabolizing this stuff so if they’re competing with other drugs it could mean that you get made way more High than you want or you end up with way more of another one of your medications in your system than you want so you know not that many drugs are like an interaction that severe but you got to check your med list if you’re on a lot yeah yeah definitely got to be careful and um you know like I say I wanted to give you plenty of space on this I thought it’d be fun to wrap up with the topic of uh descheduling uh and I’ll sprinkle in some hemp and then yes we can wrap um but any other thoughts on the medical cannabis Advisory board meeting uh no I think I Ram on about that a lot but it was interesting it was um you know it’ll be interesting next time so just anybody if you want to talk about anxiety and you’ve got experience um think about signing up and making a comment for our next meeting and I’ll try to share that info for people thank you for by the way for sharing that info and I’ll try to make sure that folks if you follow us on social media or subscribe on the co memo.com you get a notification with a link so that you can not only join the zoom call but also uh email to register for public comment it’s important that you do that they do give space but just please uh be better safe than sorry register for public comment and before we moved on I just wanted to quickly say this is the props I wanted to give you from the first meeting thank you for standing up and asking about uh possession limits uh in the first meeting I thought that was very important that that was like on the record and while we didn’t get an answer from them on that uh yet I would say I don’t want to you know rule out the possibility that we might um yeah thank you for asking that I mean we got the we got an answer from the croo we didn’t get an answer from medical cannabis but the cro answers was they were it was good enough for me I don’t know about you did you see yeah I mean I was like yes I saw it and I thank you I mean that was really your question I’m so glad you went on there and I was so disappointed I’m like come on like ask this out allowed to everybody but I think maybe they were like we don’t know the answer to this right now um who knows it was quickly I felt like it was a okay good response good yeah well it was quickly put I don’t think people meant to but I felt the question was quickly put down and the reason I told you to thank you for standing up for it is because people were like oh no you don’t got to worry about uh you know the state possession limit or your hom grow and they were saying you don’t have to throw out you know if you have more from the dispensary than your possession limit allows and that’s actually not true the only thing that you don’t have a limit on is homeg grow your limits still I thought that was kind of funny honestly your limits still apply to store bought cannabis so you cannot exceed your 2 and a half ounce possession limit even though technically everybody could buy 5 ounces a month personally I have a higher possession limit so I can buy much more than that but it is pretty funny that whatever is listed on your card that is your limit for store bought cannabis but homow no limit and I’m not complaining not complaining I liked that answer it was just yeah it I guess the point I’m trying to make is that I never knew that we had two possession limits as a medical cannabis patient I have my possession limit and then I have if I grow at home I I just must make sure that all of those amounts remain secured in the house well I didn’t know that either and I was thinking about like that as a purchase limit not like possessions so like if I bought my two and a half ounces and then I like decided I’m going to go buy my other two and a half ounces but they’re saying you can have two and a half ounces at a time so then even though my allotment is 5 ounces a month right and you know or say I don’t use it or I have it sitting around or I want to stock up on something that I need that doesn’t come in very often whatever that that’s ridiculous you know I thought I totally thought it was a Pur limit not a possession limit so like that’s important for me to add to tell my patients I would like to like kind of type up some summary of like these important laws when it comes to their rights as a patient so that they have it and I don’t you know that that’s not anywhere easy to find on a State website I agree and I’m actually creating one right now um I’d be happy to provide you with the information or whatever um I can give you a peek at it um but anyways uh yeah uh I agree um and that’s why I’ve been working with the state you know to add gifting it didn’t they I don’t know I haven’t asked yet I’m still working with them on the Homegrown possession limit thing I had another um question that that I will post their answer on when I get it in the future but but yeah um I’ll just give you a peek at this FAQ that I’m creating because I think it’s good it starts off with um you know who’s eligible to P purchase cannabis where can you purchase cannabis how much can you possess can you grow your own awesome can you consume in public this is actually a really awesome answer this is the why I really wanted to show you this the short answer to can I consume in public is no um but this is what a lawyer told me so there is a Prohibition on on public consumption however we do not know how this is will be enforced prior to this bill passing a lot of different jurisdictions created ordinance by violations for cannabis use in public so we assume if jurisdictions will enforce public consumption at all it will be similar to getting a traffic Tiff ticket there is not a specific penalty within the legalization statute that sets a penalty for public consumption to be clear the statute does does prohibit it but it does not give a repercussion specifically on what that activity is I don’t know I just thought that was interesting so basically it’s just like if your Township has laws on the books that you can’t smoke weed in public they’ll get you um but if they don’t then right it’s not that you’re allowed to but they also don’t have any like prescri yeah well don’t do it just put it out kids which is like how many well I wonder how many towns have enacted something like that so far yeah yeah but anyways I’ll put that article about POS possession and the the uh if if you have that like could I link it on our resources page to that when you’re done with it have it up oh that yeah absolutely but yeah like like you said earlier they did say um medical patients do have a possession limit at home although it depends on the source as stated above purchased cannabis must be under two and a half ounces or approved amount so if you have you know a higher amount you can have that amount at home but grown cannabis just remain secured so interesting well that’s I mean that’s important to know and that’s a you know another reason why I think like they need to create a different website they need to create something maybe if they could get that single agency dealing with cannabis it would be a lot easier to have all the rules and all the laws and everything in one place like so what you just made was incredibly helpful because you know you’re not finding that info when you’re searching for it on a State website there is the C fq which I will be like taking some answers from um so I got to give credit where credit is due but it doesn’t H it’s not going to be as expansive as mine you know yeah I don’t think so at least on the issues that truly matter uh from my perspective but um I just have to quickly address your comment and then we can we can start to close with our uh with our thing I don’t know it’s been a long time since I’ve heard since I’ve thought about agency um but I just will say for the record that I don’t know how I feel about agency I also don’t know how I feel about commission but one thing that I like about commission and I feel weird because it’s like in a weird way I’m agreeing with people that have put out commission as a proposal in the past which includes cbai but also includes Danielle Perry former croo um the element that I like about commissions is that there are public meetings and if you look at Massachusetts they’re streamed live on the internet I’m sorry but we don’t have anything like that with cannabis regulations in Illinois and as a result everything’s moving in the shadows now would a commission be perfect would it be filled with Stooges uh no and maybe um but uh I would rather I almost just putting it out there I it sounds like commission would be better in the in the sense that it’s public like kind of an Advisory board meeting where yeah the meeting is public uh the notes are public and oftentimes it’s recorded versus an agency which you know you can Foya I guess but that’s hard as I’ve learned so I agree with you that the transparency part of the commission is very attractive I mean that’s the only that’s the only part that sounds really good and I’m like yeah but it’s like I just they need to do something soon to just coordinate this stuff because it it it’s the delays that happen and the disconnect I think is is slowing a lot of things down that we could be getting done faster yeah okay well here we’ll we’ll wrap up with and I’m just curious I’m gonna make I’m gonna bounce around here to make a few points and and I’m curious to see I’m sure you’re going to see the point I’m making so first of all a little bit of History CBD and t uh THC and Delta 8 uh were all first synthesized by Roger Adams in 1940 Roger Adams oh there’s a Roger Adams Building in Champagne Illinois at the University of Illinois he’s a big time he’s recognized you know for his chemistry and scientific discoveries and uh just gotta say THC and CBD were first uh identified in a lab in Illinois give Illinois credit where credit is due um I did not know that and I I learned that through my uh series uh for hash Wednesday which is a University of Illinois Centric series if people want to check it out it’s at Co memo.com hisory now the reason I bring that up is because I know there’s a lot of talk about synthesis I personally not into synthesized products uh but I just want to say that since we talked about descheduling earlier I’ve got the farm bill of 2018 up and I think this is so cool this little part right here is what descheduled parts of the cannabis plant and that’s how easy it is I’m I’m trying to show people like that’s how easy duling is now obviously it created this hemp thing which is totally arbitrary and you know I’ve talked about it at length on the show and I’m maybe you agree maybe not but um no I I do agree I was gonna say it can be a divisive issue but the fact that this is so as easy as this is like look at this huge bill this is all like Farm [ __ ] like I could scroll so long I’m not going to but this little part that’s all it took to deschedule parts the Canabis plant I guess what I’m asking and this is the alluring part of hemp for me it’s like it’s like we did we descheduled this much of the plant it’s like if we just move the bar to the rest of the plant it’d be great it’s like problem solved right well I mean I I agree I feel like this is not going to be helpful we want to make sure there’s you know safety and products that people are making totally obviously we want that you know and like it but none of this is H is based in science really like you know uh and what’s going on right now in Illinois around you know this issue is it’s about money it’s not about anything else um I I felt like you know Scare Tactics around different canabo is just more propaganda like let’s just be real about this stuff and so I agree if it’s that easy to do um you know I mean I don’t have any faith that like that Biden would come through and like deschedule cannabis um like I almost want to show him this though it’s like you see if you just do this it’s really short just it just all it’s all you have to do just delete yeah and that it is so crazy I mean it’s the same thing with this um now house or the Senate bill um which what is it I don’t even want to say the wrong number um the Senate bill that’s coming up to change it so that PE people can shop at all dispensaries or medical patients can shop at all dispensaries these new social Equity dispensaries everything that’s opening near your house you can use your medical card there no more 55 dispensaries in the entire state that people have to you know travel far to so if this passes it’s Bill 3941 so once that comes up for like a witness slip situation I’m going to be trying to get as many people as possible to fill out one of those so if if you’re a medical patient who wants to be able to use your med card at any dispensary you want which I think is all of us um those witness slips which take two seconds to fill out um on the internet supporting the bill it they it does make a difference they look at what people are saying so yeah they pull them up and tally them in fact during uh the hearings so seriously folks it it makes a difference um right easiest way to support it you know like it even better to call your Senator if you’re someone that’s willing to do that and you know let them know that that you support this bill and that you’re a medical patient but the witness slip’s important and we’ll post that info too I’m sure everybody once that comes up will be sharing that around social media yeah I hope that this is an open question I don’t even know um I’ll have to look at the bill I wonder if uh medical patients will also still get priority at those dispensaries that that should be that’s kind of an interesting thing to say too because um that’s not in there I know that um they had negotiated to make sure that at least I think I have to go look I have to look at the actual tax the bill that this bill this bill also adds curbside and drive-thru available for everyone with priority for medical patients there’s supposed to be some language saying that medical patients who need to utilize curbside have you know special spots or they whatever are prioritized in some way but you know for the people coming in who are used to at least having like the medical line or a medical area um it might be worthwhile to you know talk to the sponsor talk to the advocacy groups like modern Compassionate Care is part of Ace the alliance for cannabis equity which includes cannabis Equity Illinois Coalition Chicago normal tons of other organizations so we’re trying to Advocate together for this bill so I will mention that because it would be nice to kind of ensure that medical patients wouldn’t have to be I don’t know it’s not like there’s so many long lines nowadays but I mean dude I would have missed a podcast the other day if it had not been for my medical card I went and really yeah oh it was a crazy line and I know that’s a stupid anecdotal like and obviously like that’s but I’m just saying like I jumped a pretty big [ __ ] line just because of my medical card I mean I guess that’s totally I always use curb sides yeah you know right now it’s only for medical patients so I feel you on that I mean I guess I don’t I don’t really know personally what the lines look like in there but it can be a lot actually can have you waiting and it’s like what if you know if you’re a senior citizen if you have a hard time standing like um that’s going to be harder on some people yeah they’re not lounges like they’re [ __ ] lines you know so uh like there’s no seats I guess is what I’m saying uh right right yeah it’s like you’re just standing there in like one of the lines they’ve pointed to you know having that that might be like hey if you’re going to serve medical patients you know I wish that there would be some like required training even like created by the state about how to work with medical patients something like that that they would give give to people you know and yeah have some of these things like medical patients have their own area or Their Own Line because especially if they’re up there and people are talking about their personal health conditions there you know there is some kind of like like a I’ve had to sign you know Hippa VI or Hippa releases in the dispensaries as a medical patient so like you know that having a little a side where the medical patients go where they can kind of have a little privacy to talk that might be important so yeah yeah so anyways uh I bounced all around um I was just trying to make the point that you know I I think that like you said and closed with on the topic of I think that we definitely need product safety and truth and advertising and you know not copyright infringement because of course that’s the main example that a lot of people use these are like copyright infringed products that wouldn’t exist in a licensed Market um but the Sour Patch Kids and stuff right like you would not find that in if you allow these people to operate above board um but anyways um you know I think all those things are not good obviously you know and um but like I say I think the main thing that we’ve realized is that the War on Drugs is a failure so if you’re concerned if you do have concern about these products you should welcome them being regulated so that you can um base your assertions on more data you exactly and that’s the problem it’s like they don’t they didn’t want to have that regulation you know the the motives became so clear it was first that they wanted to ban Delta 8 other intoxicating cannaboids the truth is there’s big is the state where like the Delta 8 is like there’s no ability for people to even get to a dispensary you know or they might they might not have a car they might you know the Delta 8’s widely available it can be shipped to you um or some of these other you know cannabinoids that that have have been synthesized the problem is you just need to make sure it’s a clean product look at the lab report you know like we need regulation to make sure that the the product is a clean product it just needs more testing um I don’t want to see this taken way is a it’s less expensive um and some people tolerate Delta 8 better than they do Delta 9 to be honest I have some patients have said the Delta eight is just right for me yeah Delta 9 gummy is too strong it’s you know I think that um taking that option away from people just to funnel them into dispensary only um and you know the this legislation is is created and backed by kind of this little partnership it feels like between you know the state and the businesses the Cannabis businesses the Cannabis Business Association of Illinois you know who represents the dispensaries to try to capture that market and as you know you I know you’ve talked about it and you’ve had such great podcasts but it’s like this to me is you know from my perspective as a medical provider wait a minute we yes we need to talk about regulating you know you’re going to find more unregulated products now in the black market if the stuff’s not going away that’s the other thing it’s not going away so if you if you ban it you’re going to be criminalizing more people you’re going to have more unregulated products on the street for people and you’re you know it’s people are going to be forced to go to The Dispensary which we know has Giant markups in this state on every product so the price is going to go up because one reason that Delta eight is attracted to people is it’s also less expensive to purchase than what’s in the dispensary we haven’t gotten the pricing right there you know the pricing is too high in the dispensaries for for the average person especially in this economy to afford um what they need many of the time so I just feel like th this is a step backwards it’s going to criminalize people it’s going to take an option for medication away from a lot of people it’s going to negatively impact some of these businesses that are offering this are doing making really good products making nice products that people like that are helping people yeah know there’s a specific like product on the market the the ice cream that everyone loves that is totally helpful for patients that have you know older swallowing issues that you can you know even little kids will be able to eat that if you need to medicate your child with you know who has a serious uh condition going on that’s a really cool product um I’d hate to see that go off the market for people right so well said yeah and that’s that’s all it is J and Mary’s is is the one I’m shouting out product you know like um well and it’s to your point you know when you peel off the I would say almost red herring of uh public safety issues um I think everybody agrees these tested should be labeled and not sold to miners without the consent of their parents um you know like uh I I think think that that’s agreeable what’s funny when you peel that away what it really becomes is you know I’ll quote somebody that said it themselves like these places will describe themselves as dispensaries except without the taxes and they’re you know these places that are easy to open up shop and this guy had to put his Blood Sweat and Tears and pay all these licensing fees and all these burdensome taxes and everything else and it’s like you’re making the case for him right now yeah and actually one of the press members of the press it took me a while to understand what they meant by this but they asked so was the problem legalizing it and it again took me a minute to understand what they meant by that but what I think they meant by that was like okay so these are these products a lot of these you know that have popped up are legal federally um and you’re complaining about the burdens of the state regulated market like why don’t you like [ __ ] address that then right you know why are you criminalizing these people that are have nothing to do with you they’re not under your program they don’t want to be in your program right or you know they tried and it’s like nope only certain people are getting these Li right true fair enough some people did say yeah I mean that’s right and I mean then it’s also like listen to what they’re saying it’s like all of these licensing like hey state of Illinois why are you trying to milk this for all it’s worth and make it so expensive to do business and you’re taxing every level of everything and you have all these fees for people you know the new dispensaries that are opening up you know those people should have been opening those shops years ago they were held up in stupid lawsuits and you know like that that Topic’s been said to death too but it’s like you know there why are you making it so expensive to do they’re like doubling down on the system that [ __ ] them and it’s like you should be suing the state of Illinois right really I mean I I feel like so many times people said you know I was um when I was at ISU speaking the other week that’s um you know uh I was talking about you know these the issue of the dispensaries and uh Jackie was like why aren’t the patients suing the state for limiting the the the amount of dispensaries and it’s like okay well now the legislation’s been introduced but if that doesn’t pass through that should be in I I guess I hadn’t thought about it like patients should be suing the state for that what they’re the ones getting screwed there it’s all the same products come on exactly and that’s provable when you go to these dual use stores I’ve asked them like I can pick anything off of any menu and they’re like yes Cole you can pick any you can if you find anything on the adult use menu that’s not on our Med menu have at it Cole even the Craft products it took them a while to figure that out but if you go to the me if you go to a medical dispensary that has adult use and medical and they carry craft you can buy craft at the medical canab tax rate but you know uh that can’t be said at you know these adult use dispensaries of course that’s the problem you’re trying to address so totally and I mean it’s for these businesses that are just now getting off on their feet being able to open up and serve the medical patients that are in their neighborhood their local clientele right that’s a win for kind of everybody except for the people with the medical licenses who are just trying to hold this you know limited license framework when now we’ve created a system medical patients have the least access in the state right well and I’ve gone to just for to prove your point really quickly I’ve gone to like a city like champagne and they have two medical dispensaries and like three or four adult use dispensaries I’m not going to go to the adult use ones why the [ __ ] would I I’m gonna go to the two medical dispensaries because I’m not gonna they have all the same things and I’m not going to pay as much you know what I mean so right why would I go to the delious ones and when the taxes here are 30 % plus it’s a huge difference it might be a difference between I can afford it and I can’t yeah um and you know and it’s and it’s sad too because what’s I’ve had patients have issues where it’s like they’re looking for one thing and I mean this is like it’s like a pediatric patient where it’s it’s like we need this particular product an RSO um on the it’s on it’s only available in the nearest like 100 miles for this family at an adult use dispensary they don’t have it at any of the medical dispensaries so like they’re and and they when they get it when they find the this particular RSO they go by as much as they can because their child is using the specific product so they’re going to because they know that they can’t necessarily get this again and there’s been you know shortages of what they need they’re going to go pay close to 40% more because it’s a concentrate right to get this product which is medicine for their child so um you know that would end with this passage of this new bill which is why it’s so important like you know I’ve seen that situation happen more than I want to and it’s like these are families that really need the you know total support from us and instead we’re sending on Wild Goose chases around the state to find medicine for their kids you know there’s no way to ship it there’s no way to get it directly to them they got to drive and get it no matter where it is so we can do better yeah and I feel and I feel that that we might because of people like you thank you so much for being uh an advocate and being so vocal and not afraid to speak up and I know you know you may have broke theorum once and I know that whatever but thank you you know thank you uh for for just because I know where your heart is and I know you didn’t mean to and and I know what you mean to do and I I just am thankful that that you exist Katie so thank you yeah I was so like oh but I appreci appreciate you I am so glad to be um you know just in connection with you CU I love what you’re doing I hope I wasn’t too rambly today but D end of a long um not week but day yeah not no just just a long day I know so um oh and I totally forgot to shout out to my so this summer I’m going to do a special at monion care for medical cards 99 bucks June July August maybe you need to come get your medical card before you you go off to college or some such thing I have a college or a high school graduate um this weekend so uh in honor of this summer come to modor Compassionate Care and get your medical card renewed for $99 hell yeah we’ll put the details in the podcast description folks and um yeah just thank you for your time and you know you always have a home here so if you ever need to come on or have something exciting like you know any promotions or stuff like that come on reach out um and you know if if I don’t hear from you you’ll hear from me I guess is what I’m saying totally yeah next time we should talk about ketamine we I should bring Beth on here you know my business partner if you ever want to talk about the Psychedelic assistant therapy we are down to do that yeah absolutely I would love to so awesome I’ll talk to you soon Cole cool take care everybody thanks everybody yep bye
The Cole Memo 
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