On May 22, 2017, the Illinois First District Appellate Court upheld reversal of the Illinois Department of Public Health’s (IDPH’s) refusal to add chronic postoperative pain (CPOP) to the list of accepted diseases in the Illinois medical marijuana program in Three v. The Department of Public Health et al., 2017 IL App (1st) 162548.
John Doe Three (Doe) applied to the IDPH to add CPOP as an approved condition for the legal use of medical marijuana. In 2015, the IDPH’s director, Nirav Shah, denied the application, claiming a lack of scientific research to support the condition. However, at the time, the newly minted Illinois medical marijuana program only required a majority vote of an advisory panel that considered applications by Illinois citizens. Doe obtained that approval of the panel, which considered information about the condition and why conventional therapies were ineffective.
Doe filed a petition for administrative review...
