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More problems at IDPH

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Illinois

* Sun-Times editorial…

People in severe pain need care and sympathy, not red tape.

Unfortunately, medical marijuana patients in Illinois have been getting the red tape. When doctors certify that patients have a qualifying disease, the state is supposed to give the patients a card permitting them to buy medical marijuana from an authorized dispensary. But though the law says patients should get the cards in 30 days or less, it’s reportedly taking the Illinois Department of Public Health far longer to issue them.

Even patients who have emergencies or terminal illnesses and who are supposed to get cards within 14 days are finding themselves snarled in red tape, lawmakers say.

That’s appalling. No one should have to suffer day after day and week after week because of bureaucratic understaffing or because the state government is doing a slow walk on an important program. Special taxes on businesses supplying medical marijuana have piled up, unspent, to a total of $11.6 million instead of being used to hire enough staff to process applications, says state Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago.

Unreal.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 9:52 am

Comments

But all those IDPH emails got a lot of staff attention and were processed - err redacted - promptly.

Priorities.

Comment by Henry Francis Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 9:57 am
No one should have to suffer like this when people are dying from opioids. Please stop already with “we don’t know enough about marijuana” when deadly prescription drugs are easily available and killing people. Let’s make it easier for patients to get MMJ and finally stop living in the Reefer Madness era.

Comment by Grandson of Man Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 9:58 am
Thousands of patients of have waited longer than the statutory 45 days, pretty sure most of them have standing to sue. Is that what it’s going to take to get Rauner and Shah to hire enough staff to follow the law? $11 mil and counting….

Comment by Ali Nagib Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 9:59 am
I’m sure the delay here involves some incompetence (see Quincy Veterans Home), but more likely it’s rooted in the administration’s hostility to the entire program. They are slow walking it.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 10:01 am
some of us waited over 75 days and that was with no problems with paperwork

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 10:04 am
Cruelty to medical marijuana patients is the Rauner way.

Get on a campaign hit on this issue, Team JB.

Comment by hisgirlfriday Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 10:08 am
This is ridiculous. Every time my herniated disk flairs up prompt care is more than happy to offer me norco (an opioid). I just ask for the horse pill ibprufen and the anti-inflam stuff because how I feel on norco is a little terrifying. But the point is I could get an opioid for pain management within two to three hours. But medical marijuana for pain management? I haven’t even bothered because the system seems so confusing, time consuming, and arbitrary.

Comment by Chicago_Downstater Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 10:14 am
Are you suggesting that IDPH take time out from killing veterans in Quincy to help relieve the pain of terminal cancer patients?

What are you smoking? Pun intended.

Comment by Incognito Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 10:17 am
Must have been trained by the staff at the FOID office.

Comment by Leave a Light on George Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 10:19 am
The thought of a delay for someone with a terminal illness is unconscionable

Comment by Jocko Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 10:41 am
It’s cruel and criminal. Fix it. Err on the side of offering relief.

Comment by A guy Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 10:47 am
I do business with a number of different state agencies and the delays have never been as bad as they are currently. The Rauner administration has managed to make government incompetency reach levels even the Democrats never reached. State agencies are all about constant budget compliance and nothing about actual service delivery. Particularly galling when the state is 3 months behind in its payments.

Comment by NeverPoliticallyCorrect Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 10:47 am
–Cruelty to medical marijuana patients is the Rauner way.–

Given the ridiculous court fights Rauner is waging, sure seems like this could be deliberate slow-walking to indulge his ignorant reefer madness.

Now that IDPH is done with their Quincy redacting party, maybe they can catch up on their medical journal reading. Seems the AMA has figured out that med-mar reduces opioid use.

That’s good, right?

Gee, you mean all those chemo and chronic pain patients weren’t lying all these years so they could get weed to party? What a shock.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomangell/2018/04/02/legal-marijuana-states-have-lower-opioid-use-new-studies-show/#1b9e82955696

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 10:48 am
Any part of government where i am in charge, and we dont need cooperation from madigan, we have been drivin’ results, usin’ transformative management, with the Best Team inAmerica. /s

Shameful. If they were capable of shame.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 10:58 am
>…seems like this could be deliberate slow-walking to indulge his ignorant reefer madness.

Could be, but I agree more with NeverPoliticallyCorrect. Some of it might be all the issues with the computer systems, but it seems like state agencies are more dysfunctional than they’ve ever been.

Comment by Earnest Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 11:01 am
And don’t forget IDOL sits on cases until the statute of limitations runs out. I’m sure the administration would love to just dismantle the agency but you need to have somewhere to park the patronage hires.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 11:03 am
Looks like all you people missed the GovJunk memo advisin’ he is in tank with BigPharma. Got it?

Comment by Annonin' Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 11:05 am
Or maybe this is the agency with no computers that Rauner was talking about? /s

Comment by Skeptic Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 11:20 am
If it’s anything like my agency they are

Critically short in staff- especially unionized staff who tend to be the ones processing

Struggling with a new computer system that doesn’t work as promised

Overworked with additional duties because of understaffing.

Folks, I’ve said for years the workforce was going to collapse because of what Rauner is doing

Well…..here we are.

Comment by Honeybear Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 11:57 am
Simply unacceptable.

Comment by El Conquistador Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 1:27 pm
==State agencies are all about constant budget compliance==

I would say one of the primary issues are the artifical headcount restrictions placed on agencies. Headcounts are set without regard to actual needs.

Comment by Demoralized Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 1:28 pm
@hisgirlfriday:

* 100 day delays in new applications
* Advisory board disbanded so no new conditions can be added unless through GA so Shah saves face
* Annual petition period with no intent of actually adding any conditions
* Conditions that were recommended to be added and were required by law to be considered after SB10’s passage in 2016 still have not been touched
* The state doesn’t have a lot of money to spend, but apparently Illinois has enough money to continue fighting rulings against Shah where judges site his behavior as not complying with the law
* Shah enjoyed reappointment recently without a hearing in the GA just prior to the Krabbe hearing where parents justifiably raked him over the coals for inaction

Here you go JB. No charge. Have at it.

Comment by Earnest Not Borgnine Friday, Apr 6, 18 @ 2:31 pm