Seven Point medical cannabis dispensary owner Brad Zerman poses with Oak Park Police Chief Anthony Ambrose on opening day, Aug. 10, 2016 (Photo courtesy of Brad Zerman)

It took 12 years for the state of Colorado to go from approving medical cannabis to the sale of recreational pot, but Illinois appears to be on a much faster track.

Illinois approved Illinois Medical Cannabis Pilot Program in 2013, but many dispensaries and grow sites were not up and running until last year.

In November, several states voted by referendum to approve recreational cannabis and Illinois is also moving in that direction. Lawmakers believe up to $115 million in revenue could be generated by tax on recreational pot.

Because it is so difficult to get a statewide referendum on the ballot, the Democrats in the General Assembly are proposing legislation to approve recreational cannabis for individual use. The bills are unlikely to be ready for passage in Springfield until next year, sponsors Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago) and Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) said.

The state’s medical cannabis business owners say they’re fine with an expansion of the market, and hope their experience will put them at the front of the line to open recreational or “rec” pot businesses if they become legal in Illinois.

“We’d like to be sitting at the table when the program rolls out, and be there for that part of the industry,” said Brad Zerman, owner of Seven Point, a medical cannabis dispensary in Oak Park. “We’re operational, and ready to go.”

Zerman’s company partners expanded to include a fledgling medical cannabis business in Massachusetts, but as they were setting up, voters approved recreational cannabis sales in November. “We’re scrambling to figure out how to keep in play,” Zerman said.

Ross Morreale, co-founder of the Medical Cannabis Alliance of Illinois, said illegal recreational “street” cannabis is used right now by patients who could benefit from medical pot, but whose conditions have not been approved by the Illinois State Board of Health. About 40 life-threatening and chronic diseases and conditions were initially approved for access, and then in 2016, the ISBH approved medical use for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

But medical pot is not approved for pain, and that’s a mistake, he believes, especially since it could replace opioid prescriptions, which run the risk of leading patients to addiction, he said.

“[Pain patients] can benefit from the products we sell, but they can’t buy from a regulated and safe source,” Morreale said. “There is no tax benefit or job creation on the economic side for those transactions.”

Morreale is owner of Ataraxia, which runs a growing operation in downstate Albion, and The Clinic dispensary in Effingham.

Zerman thinks it’s ironic that the state has spent resources fighting lawsuits from patients who want to expand the list of conditions that qualified for access, but now wants to approve recreational uses. About 30,000-40,000 patients are now registered to buy medical cannabis, he said.

Experience in other states shows tax revenues on recreational cannabis can be significant. In Colorado in 2016, the state collected nearly $200 million in tax revenue from $1.1 billion in sales of recreational marijuana.

But the road to recreational pot may be bumpy. The Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police opposes recreational marijuana, said spokesman Ed Wojcicki.

“We think there will be considerable traffic safety issues with impaired drivers,” Wojcicki said. “Also, the science is not really there to test for impairment, and it’s impossible to test on the street,” he said.

Colorado saw a 48 percent increase in marijuana‐related traffic deaths since the state legalized recreational marijuana compared to prior to legalization, according to a 2014 report issued by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a group of law enforcement researchers. Additionally, all traffic fatalities increased by 11 percent, the study said. Marijuana‐related traffic deaths increased from 71 to 115 persons after recreational marijuana was legalized in 2013, or more than 60 percent, the study said. About 500 people die a year in traffic fatalities in Colorado.

Countering evidence is presented in a 2013 study published in the Journal of Law and Economics at University of Chicago. The study asserted that the legalization of medical marijuana in nines states was associated with an 8-11 percent drop in auto accident fatalities in the first year.

“The impact of legalization on traffic fatalities involving alcohol is larger and estimated with more precision than its impact on traffic fatalities that do not involve alcohol. Legalization is also associated with sharp decreases in the price of marijuana and alcohol consumption, which suggests that marijuana and alcohol are substitutes,” the study said.

Police may be more equipped to charge impaired drivers high on marijuana soon. A portable “potalyzer” test has been developed by Stanford University researchers. The test detects THC molecules in drivers’ saliva within three minutes, according to a 2016 article in Analytical Chemistry magazine.

Local police agree that charging and arresting persons with small amounts of marijuana is a strain on police resources, Wojcicki said.

“We’re fine with decriminalization, which has to do with how you enforce the law when someone has marijuana in their possession,” he said. “We just think recreational marijuana is bad public policy.”

— Medical cannabis operators hope to be first for recreational pot —