CHICAGO — Warning: Marijuana use during pregnancy and breast-feeding poses potential harms.

That message would be written on medical and recreational marijuana products and posted wherever they’re sold if the nation’s most influential doctors group has its way.

The American Medical Association agreed Monday to push for regulations requiring such warnings be written on medical and recreational pot products and posted wherever they’re sold.

The decision was made based on studies suggesting marijuana use may be linked with low birth weight, premature birth and behavior problems in young children.

Critics say evidence of harm is weak, but while advocates agree that more research is needed, they say erring on the side of caution makes sense.

Illinois has given 3,300 people licenses to use medical marijuana, but it hasn't set a threshold at which it considers them safe to drive.

That means it is up to a police officer to decide if someone with a medical marijuana license seems impaired and should be charged with driving under the influence, says Pete Baroni, a professor of law at Loyola University of Chicago and former DuPage County prosecutor.

Medical marijuana users would commonly have signs of the drug in their blood or urine, since it can show up for weeks after use.

CHICAGO (AP) - Illinois' new medical marijuana shops sold nearly $211,000 worth of cannabis in the first week, with less than a quarter of eligible patients buying so far.

The state's first regulated marijuana dispensaries opened Monday.

Program director Joseph Wright said Friday the dispensaries served 806 customers. They purchased about 460 ounces of marijuana, or about a half an ounce per person, on average.

Green Thumb Industries CEO Ben Kovler says the numbers are "a very strong start."

Illinois medical marijuana dispensaries sold nearly $211,000 worth of medical cannabis to patients in the first week of legal sales, as reported by the Associated Press.

Illinois has opened up medical marijuana dispensaries in several different cities. (Photo : Twitter Photo Section)

The first medical marijuana dispensaries in Illinois opened for business Monday, attracting the attention of patients from a variety of cities.

"It's a big surprise. I've been waiting forever for this to happen. It's a good thing. It's a good thing for everybody," said medical marijuana patient Michael Witfoth, from Chester, according to WSIL. There are currently eight state-licensed locations that provide medicinal marijuana to patients in Illinois.

Wright, 31, director of the Illinois Medical Cannabis Pilot Program

The state’s medical marijuana czar explains the hurdles still facing prescription pot as it goes on sale in Illinois for the first time. 

Only 3,300 patients have been approved for the program, which is not even close to what the state expected. Why so few? 

The largest projection I’ve seen for the number of patients who could be approved is several hundred thousand, so we are aware that there is a lot of room for growth. Lack of awareness and [doctors’ and patients’ unfamiliarity with the program] are reasonable explanations. In other states, there’s a natural progression in patient count. It starts out low, but as the program develops, it grows. 

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.

Since recreational use of the marijuana has became legal in several states, authorities report a major jump in the number of pot-filled packages being sent through the mail.

Mailing marijuana is a federal crime - even if it originates from a state where the drug is legal. Marijuana by mail has nothing to do with Illinois medical marijuana, which started Monday.

This is the story of illegal marijuana delivered to the doorstep, and experts said most of the marijuana stashed inside mail goes undetected.

The U.S. Postal service handles more than 155 billion pieces of mail a year and more than a billion of that in Chicago. Forty thousand pounds of pot were seized nationwide from the mail last year.

Medical marijuana became legal in Illinois on Monday, but qualified Metro East patients will have to travel at least two hours to pick up their prescriptions.

Illinois approved nine locations for the first day of dispensation. More sites are expected to open in the weeks ahead, but a spokesman for a state regulatory agency said he’s not allowed to say if any applications are pending for the Metro East or anywhere else.

Meanwhile, the nearest dispensaries are the Harbory, in Marion, 120 miles to the southeast, or Herbal Remedies, in Quincy, 140 miles north.

The second and third patients in line when the doors of the Harbory opened Monday were Trever Oliver, 25, and Drew Perkinson, 24, both of Godfrey. They got there at 7 a.m., Oliver said.

Medical marijuana will be available for sale at eight dispensaries in Illinois as of Monday, November 9, 2015.

It’s only the first wave of dispensaries to open in Illinois.  State officials expect up to 15 dispensaries will be registered by the end of November 2015, and up to 25 will be registered statewide by the end of the year.

The first dispensary license was issued to a facility in Marion in August.

A dispensary called Nature’s Treatment was under construction near Stern Beverage in Milan, and awaiting approval from the state.