Medical marijuana debuts in Illinois but some patients turned away

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Illinois' medical marijuana dispensaries opened their doors Monday and have begun processing patients who will receive the first batches of the drug under the state's four-year pilot programs.

At EarthMed, a dispensary in Addison, the first patient to legally purchase pot, Chris Favela, 19, emerged with a small, opaque canister of a strain called Grape God. He paid $180 for about nine grams of the marijuana.

"I think it's fantastic," Favela, of Itasca, said of the program. "It's going to help patients that are suffering. I take a lot of medication and if this reduces it … I'm a fan."

Favela hopes the drug will relieve muscle spasms he has as a result of multiple sclerosis.

The long-delayed program has not been without early glitches, though. Some patients were turned away from EarthMed because they were not registered as customers there.

One such patient was Ryan Flannigan, 24, who has...

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