Christine Bernard, of Arlington Heights, describes the process to be certified by Illinois to use medical cannabis at the Sugar Beet Food Co-op in Oak Park Jan. 13.

The cannabis-curious gathered Jan. 13 in an Oak Park food co-op to hear a presentation about medical cannabis from a patient who’s tried it.

“We would like to have [medical cannabis] come out of the closet and see it on the shelf here at Sugar Beet,” said Christine Bernard of Arlington Heights, who is a patient with rheumatoid arthritis, one of the 39 medical conditions allowable under Illinois law.

Ending Jan. 31, the Medical Cannabis Advisory Board of the Illinois Department of Public Health is accepting petitions to expand the list of debilitating medical conditions eligible for certification under the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program.

About 15 people attended the event at 812 W. Madison St.

The certification process begins with a trip to the doctor, Bernard said.

“This is not a prescription, but a certification,” Bernard said. A doctor must send in a form to the Illinois Department of Public Health acknowledging the patient has an eligible condition. Patients undergo a background check and must be fingerprinted, she said. Patients must commit to a specific dispensary. The cost is around $160 for all fees and registrations, less if the patient is on SSI or disability. Patients can pay an extra $25 to register a care-giver to pick up the product.

Starting this year, the state board will be evaluating petitions to expand the list of medical conditions to include autism, irritable bowel syndrome, osteoarthritis and Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Patients with several types of chronic pain are also seeking certification: These include post-operative pain, intractable pain, chronic pain syndrome and “pain due to trauma.”

Seven Points Medical Cannabis Dispensary holds regular information sessions in suburban Cook County libraries and community centers. Representative Amy Lee will be at Brookfield Public Library Jan. 27 at 7 p.m.

The Seven Points dispensary is scheduled to open in the spring at 1140 Lake St. Illinois’ pilot program allows 60 dispensaries to open in Illinois by 2017, selling product from 21 grow centers. Seven Points works with the Cresco Labs Grow Center, located about 80 miles from Kankakee.

Seven Points was supposed to open in fall of 2015, but the company encountered asbestos that had to be taken out during renovation, said Lee.

Bernard’s presentation walked the crowd through the Illinois certification process. Illinois is among the states with the strictest rules to get a card, she said. Buyers pay cash because cannabis is still a Schedule 1 drug, according to the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Medical pot cannot be purchased with a credit card in Illinois, because banks are federally administrated.

Bernard said she paid $45 cash for an eighth of an ounce. Medical cannabis costs around the same price as the street drug. Card-holding patients may buy up to 2.5 ounces of product every two weeks. Children under age 18 cannot qualify for certification. Neither can police officers, firefighters, school bus drivers or commercial drivers.

Bernard said later she applied right away for certification in 2014 when it first became available.

“I brought my doctor the form expecting to be rejected,” she said.

She said she was able to buy her first product in early November at the Schaumberg dispensary. She said she was currently using “leaf product” but was looking forward to “edibles” which are not yet available in Illinois. “My doctor told me he’d prefer if I didn’t smoke it,” she said. Bernard said she was able to give up painkillers by substituting medical cannabis.

Some attendees were frustrated that the process could take weeks when a patient in hospice might need pain relief right away.

Oak Parker Rita Williams, who had chemotherapy treatments for Stage 3 cancer in 2003, said she would have liked to try medical marijuana.

“The pain of chemotherapy was not bad enough for me to institute a felony,” she said. “But I would have tried it for the euphoric effect. That would have helped a lot.”

— Medical cannabis talks describe steps to acquire a card —