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Louis Lang Advocates for Medical Marijuana in IL

attorney-louis-lang-profileLouis Lang is of counsel at Goldberg WeismanCairo, Illinois largest personal injury law firm, and is also the Deputy Majority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives.

As a committed union advocate and labor leader, Lang is often referred to as the Voice of Labor and has cemented his place among the states most powerful legislators. Lang devotes both his legal practice and his political representation to defending the interests of everyday middle class Americans whose voices often go unheard.

It is only natural that the partnership between Representative Lang and GWC has continued to thrive; after all, both are equally committed to championing the rights of workers and citizens in Illinois. Particularly, when the workers are injured by the negligent or intentional misconduct of others.

For more than six years, Rep. Lang, a Democrat who represents Skokie, Illinois, has been hard at work advocating for ill patients who need medical marijuana to manage their conditions.

Although Rep. Langs medical marijuana bill passed in 2013, the first medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation centers wont be open for business until the summer of 2015.

Recently, reporters at Crains Chicago Business had a chance to sit down and interview Rep. Lang about the road to medical marijuana dispensaries in Illinois.

While many other states have made medical marijuana available, Illinois will have the most controlled and highly regulated medical-marijuana laws in the United States.

Lang devoted years to gathering the votes necessary to get the bill passed. He ran into challenges because legislators wanted to ensure that criminals could not purchase marijuana.

In response to concerns about how long the program has taken to get off the ground, Rep. Lang responded that Its important that this be done right, because if its done wrong, the program will fail.

The states medical marijuana is currently limited to a four year-pilot program that runs from 2014 through 2018.  The pilot program will help legislators evaluate the dispensaries and make additional changes, before implementing a permanent bill sanctioning the existence of medical marijuana dispensaries in the state.

Lang anticipates that there will be changes ahead as the state figures out how to tax dispensaries and how many permits to issue. Lang ended the interview on an optimistic note, noting the importance of gathering comprehensive data during the pilot process in order to make good decisions about the future of medical marijuana in Illinois.

From all of the attorneys and staff at GWC Injury Lawyers, we send Representative Lang a hearty thanks for his efforts on behalf of chronically ill patients in our state!

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