Illinois County forces pharmacies to post warnings about “mental health risks” and “suicidal ideation.”

A county official in Illinois recently issued a change to pharmacy rules that officials say is unsupported by science and goes too far. McHenry County, Illinois, will require pharmacies to label cannabis with mental health warnings about the possibility of psychosis, depression and suicidal ideation.

The county’s new approach was pushed by the county attorney, who has long believed that cannabis laws are destroying the country – an opinion not shared by the Illinois Cannabis Regulatory Oversight Office and four state lawmakers who felt compelled to change his Rejecting allegations in a statement Joint statement.

Axios reports that starting this month, McHenry County-based pharmacies will be required to display signage in their stores highlighting Cananbis’ possible link to “psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, increased suicidal thoughts and attempts, anxiety and depression.”

In an editorial published in the Chicago Tribune, the district attorney dismissed the medical benefits of cannabis, saying cannabis does more harm than good and leads to suicide.

“Cannabis dispensaries in McHenry County will now be the first in the country to warn customers, through in-store signage, of the mental health dangers associated with cannabis use, which include psychosis, depression and suicidal ideation,” wrote McHenry County Prosecutor Patrick Kenneally.

“Pharmacies will also be required to purge their marketing and websites of any suggestion that their products have any medical use,” Kenneally continued. “They agreed to these consumer protections as part of a settlement with the McHenry County Attorney’s Office in lieu of a consumer fraud lawsuit.

“Pharmacies that have refused to warn consumers will face litigation,” he warned. Those who fail to comply face consumer fraud lawsuits from Kenneally itself.

Merge data and correlate without cause

Kenneally joined the McHenry County District Attorney’s Office in 2007 as an assistant district attorney. The conservative Republican led the way in the 2022 McHenry County Coroner’s Office Report, authored by Dr. Michael R. Rein, DC, reported a record number of suicides. This year, 45 suicides were recorded in the district.

Kenneally linked these suicides to cannabis: “About half of our recent murders have involved cannabis or cannabis-induced psychosis. [and] Cases of driving under the influence of cannabis have doubled,” he wrote.

The studies cited by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration have linked cannabis use to depression and anxiety, but to clarify, they acknowledge that it is not known “whether marijuana use is the cause of these disorders.”

State officials strongly disagree with Kenneally’s stance. “Legalizing adult-use cannabis in Illinois has always been about equity, safety and justice. “The Governor is disappointed to learn that the McHenry County Attorney is choosing to focus on spreading disinformation rather than addressing the issues that actually keep residents safe,” the Illinois Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office said in a statement Axios.

Kenneally accuses Illinois officials of recognizing the dangers of marijuana in order to protect the flow of cannabis tax revenue. “To advance their strategy, pharmacies have appropriated the scientific lexicon to create their own fraudulent field of medicine, so that you no longer get a ‘bong rip’ but instead receive a specific ‘dose’ that is determined by the cashier the milligram is measured precisely.”

Kenneally said McHenry County named “Balderdash” because of the “pseudoscience” behind medical cannabis. The 219,926 medical cannabis patients in Illinois as of 2022 may have a different opinion. Qualifying patients in the state are allowed to possess two and a half ounces of cannabis every 14 days.

Illinois lawmakers are responding to Kenneally’s claims

Four current and former Illinois state legislators responded to the Chicago Tribune op-ed with a sharp rebuke:

“Kenneally strikes again [Harry] Anslinger playbook,” wrote Rep. Kelly Cassidy

Speaker Pro Tempore Jehan Gordon-Booth, former Senator Toi Hutchinson and former Senator Heather Steans. “In an announcement that he will force state-licensed cannabis dispensaries in McHenry County to post unscientific cannabis warnings to consumers, Kenneally claims that “half of the county’s recent murders involve cannabis or cannabis-induced psychosis.”

“Like Anslinger a century before him, Kenneally’s connection between cannabis use and these tragedies remains unclear,” the four lawmakers continued. “In a convoluted editorial, Kenneally flippantly links cannabis use to the most complex societal problems that our own researchers, institutions and community leaders in Illinois work together every day to understand and improve. For the McHenry district attorney, the tragedies of violent crime, addiction, mental illness and suicide can be boiled down to an oversimplified, incredibly obvious common denominator – they are all one group of marijuana users.”

Illinois, like several other states where cannabis is used by adults, already requires different cannabis health warning labels that indicate possible dangers, similar to nicotine warnings on cigarettes.

In California, a bill requiring cannabis labels to warn about potential mental health risks failed to pass last year.