Illinois MMJ Program Success Requires 600% Patient Growth
January 18, 2016 | By MJD Press Associate
Michael Mayes, CEO of Quantum 9 Inc., a Chicago-based cannabis consultancy, told the paper that adding “chronic pain” to the list of qualifying conditions would be a major boost for the program, possibly tripling the number of patients.
However, the state’s medical cannabis program is receiving petitions for adding conditions to the approved condition list, but prior to that, the Illinois health department must take action on 8 ailments that an advisory panel in October recommended. Those include:
- Intractable pain;
- Osteoarthritis
- Chronic pain syndrome;
- due to trauma;
- postoperative pain;
- Autism;
- Post-traumatic stress syndrome; and
- Irritable bowel syndrome.
Between November 9, when the first dispensary opened, and the end of 2015, dispensaries generated about $1.7 million in medical cannabis sales.
Twenty-two (22) dispensaries currently operate in the State of Illinois, and another 12 to 14 could open before the end of March.
