The legalization of medical marijuana in Illinois could soon be a possibility as Illinois lawmakers will vote on the act in December.

            If passed in the Illinois House of Representatives, the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act will allow qualifying patients over the age of 21 who are under medical care to buy and use up to 2.5 ounces of medical marijuana during a two week period.

Those with a prescription would not be allowed to grow their own marijuana, but would have to buy it from a state-licensed dispensary. The bill would limit the number of outlets to 59 — one per Senate district.

The bill would be the most restrictive medical marijuana law in the nation and would be used as a three-year pilot program. Meaning that after three years, the State would review the progress of the bill and then decide what to do from there.

But here’s an interesting fact: marijuana is technically already legal in Illinois. According to section 11 of the Cannabis Control Act, the production, manufacture, and delivery of marijuana is allowed. The catch is that the state police need to give written permission, which they will not do.

            Human Services is “pretty much waiting for the Illinois State Police to give them rules to implement, and the police say that they’re waiting for the Department of Human Services,” according to Dan Linn, the director of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

            Some think that the legalization of marijuana could have an adverse effect on teenagers perspective of the drug.

 “The worst part [of marijuana becoming legalized] would be that it allows kids to pay attention to the medical benefits of marijuana and not the harmful consequences,” Kristin Finnigan, PE and health teacher, said.

A study found that 9 percent of teens, nearly 1.5 million across the US, smoke marijuana heavily, which means at least 20 times in the past month. Overall, the results for the past month’s heavy marijuana use are up 80 percent among U.S. teens since 2008. Lifetime use of marijuana is up 21 percent, which means nearly 8 million teens, according to The Partnership Attitude Tracking Study.

At LZHS, 20 percent of students have smoked marijuana in the last year, while 80 percent have not, according to a Bear Facts survey. Of the students who said that they disagreed with the findings from the 2012 LZHS Youth Health Survey, 79 percent of them believed that more people at LZHS use marijuana than the survey reported.

“Perception is always different from who you are. If you are the person using then you’ll feel like you’re not the only one, and if you aren’t using in high school, maybe you’ll feel like everyone is,” Finnigan said.

Using marijuana at a young age can have long term consequences.

Roughly 9 percent of people who use marijuana, especially those who begin using marijuana during their adolescence, eventually meet clinical criteria for dependence, according to US National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health. Dependence means a state in which a person displays withdrawal symptoms if drug use is halted suddenly.

In addition, the drug’s adverse impact on learning and memory can last for days or weeks. Someone who smokes marijuana every day may be functioning at a suboptimal intellectual level all of the time.

 Over 83 million Americans over the age of 12 have tried marijuana at least once, and over 12 million had used the drug in the month before the survey, according to Minnesota Medicine.

Yet there are also some medical benefits to the drug. Marijuana can be used to help with Alzheimer’s disease, Epilepsy, Multiple sclerosis, Glaucoma, Arthritis, Depression, Anxiety, Hepatitis C, Morning sickness, Cancer, HIV/AIDS, and chemotherapy, according to an article by the International Business Times.

In many states, the laws regarding marijuana use have become less strict because of the vast prevalence of the drug in today’s society.

Around 750,000 people every year get arrested for possession of marijuana, which is double the number of 20 years ago.  It means spending an estimated $7.7 billion on enforcement, which could be used to go toward other government projects or agencies.

 “If passed, I think that we will see a greater number of people get involved with using marijuana regularly,” Finnigan said. “Eventually we’ll see the long term effects of using marijuana, mainly on the brain and with lung cancer.”