There is a major problem for Illinois residents who are interested in getting medical marijuana, once the dispensaries open up later this year.
Friday, August 14, 2015, UnityPoint Health-Trinity Chief Medical Officer Paul McLoone said that employees under their system, will not be recommending medical marijuana to patients in the state. Friday, officials at Genesis Health System came out with a similar statement.
"As medical marijuana is not a regulated drug that has the research behind it, there's not going to be that comfort level with it," Mcloone said.
The announcement is disappointing to Aledo resident David Dawson, who runs a cannabis consulting firm out of his home. Dawson says there has been enough research done to prove medical marijuana is safe for qualifying patients but not by doctors in the United States.
"They don't understand what medical cannabis can do," Dawson said in reference to Genesis and Trinity. "There's plenty of research out there from Israel, from Canada, from England, from Brazil, from Italy, the Netherlands, from Germany."
Dawson has tried to get interested veterans in the area, to apply for medical marijuana. In order to get the drug, a doctor has to sign your application. If Genesis and Trinity physicians won't sign your application, it will be harder to get.
Physicians who aren't employed by Genesis or Trinity could still prescribe the drug, but McLoone doesn't know of any local physicians, who are interested in doing that.