Illinois medical marijuana vote deadline Jan. 8th. Will it pass this time?

The Illinois State House will vote for the umpteenth time to approve Illinois' medical marijuana bill, HB 30. The Senate has already approved it, and Illinois Governor Quinn said he would sign it if it passed. The deadline for the vote in the Illinois House is January 8, 2013. Major props to the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Lou Lang (D) for working so hard and being so persistent.

Now for the bad news. Lou Lang is like Charlie Brown convinced that this time, Lucy (The Illinois House) won't pull away the football at the last minute. The last two times the bill came up for a vote, a number of promised "yes" votes turned to "no" votes at the last minute and the bill failed by a slim margin. Illinois' HB 30 has been called the most restrictive medical marijuana in the country. It can be reversed after three years and growing is prohibited.

I have Crohn's Disease (which is included in the language of the bill), so even this restrictive law would benefit me greatly. Unfortunately, I'm not optimistic. The vote is expected to be close, but its chance of passing are slim.

Illinois' medical marijuana bill, HB 30, should come up for a vote during the Illinois House's lame duck session Jan 2-8. I say should because the House has a LOT on its plate. Since it is the lame duck session, this is the bill's best chance of passing so far. A number of outgoing Republicans who privately supported the bill, but voted against it twice, might actually vote their consciences since they have nothing to lose with their conservative constituents.

This is the last obstacle to making Illinois medical marijuana a reality. If there is time for a vote on HB 30 during the lame duck session, it will be VERY close. As the weeks have passed, I've become more optimistic: I give passage about a 50% chance now. Hopefully "Lucy" won't pull away the football at the last second.

Yesterday was the deadline and I hadn't heard any news about it, so I went ahead and looked for myself:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=30&GAID=11&DocTypeID=HB&SessionID=84&GA=97

1/8/2013 House Rule 19(a) / Re-referred to Rules Committee

"Re-referred to Rules Committee" --- From my understanding, it looks like this will be dead for another year.

It looks like it might come up for a vote this spring. Keep your fingers crossed!