Judge Orders Illinois to Add PTSD as Qualifying Medical Cannabis Condition
Cook County Judge Neil Cohen – responding to a lawsuit filed by an Iraq war veteran – has ordered the Illinois Department of Health
to add post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a qualifying medical cannabis condition within 30 days. This is the first court decision among eight lawsuits filed by patients upset with rejections by Governor Bruce Rauner’s administration of recommendations made by the state’s medical cannabis advisory board.
Veteran Daniel Paul Jabs, who filed the lawsuit, praised the court’s decision, saying that it; “feels this decision gives him and other military veterans suffering from PTSD the respect they deserve from the state and the governor’s office,” according to attorney Michael Goldberg.
On Friday Governor Rauner rendered the decision moot by signing legislation adding PTSD and terminal illness to the list of qualifying conditions.
Other lawsuits recently filed seek to add osteoarthritis, polycystic kidney disease, chronic post-operative pain, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, intractable pain and autism as qualifying conditions for medical cannabis use.
Judge Cohen is the judge in the chronic pain and osteoarthritis suits.