disease. While marijuana smoke delivers THC and other cannabinoids to the body, smoking it delivers harmful other substances, including most of those found in tobacco smoke, as well, the authors write.

With respect to the argument often raised by opponents that marijuana use will lead to abuse of hard narcotics, the study notes that “data on drug use progression neither support nor refute the suggestion that medical availability would increase drug abuse.”

Furthermore, the report states, cannabinoids are “promising for treating wasting syndrome in AIDS patients. Nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting, and all can be mitigated by marijuana.”

Nevertheless, nobody wants Illinois to become the next California, where regulation of medical marijuana is so lax that reports have abounded about doctors writing marijuana prescriptions for such nuisances as baldness and eczema.

So by all accounts, Illinois’ bill, in its current form, is intended to be very restrictive. “It’s not going to be some kind of Wild West where as soon as the law passes anybody who has a sliver or a hangnail can start using that claim of medical marijuana,” says Dan Linn, director of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Even though his organization advocates for the legalization of marijuana for adults, he calls decriminalization a good “starting point to protect people who are suffering from different ailments and diseases.”

Although there is also hope that President Barack Obama will follow through on campaign promises that his administration will take a hard look at current drug control policy, most agree that substantive change will occur first at the state level.