CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) - FOX 32 has learned that Illinois' first legal shipments of medical marijuana could depart from grow houses as soon as Friday.

The man in charge of the state's program told FOX 32 News that the first legal retail sales by dispensaries could come early next week, perhaps Monday. But a woman who worked tirelessly for years to legalize medical marijuana in Illinois is turning her back on the program.

Julie Falco has painful, incurable multiple sclerosis. Back when she could still walk, she was well known in the State Capitol as a tireless proponent of medical marijuana. But now with the program at the tipping point, she says she won't be part of it.

The long, slow road to a legal medical marijuana regime in Illinois is finally approaching the point of getting the drugs to patients. This week, regulators expect to send official identification cards to qualified patients, the Chicago Tribune reported, one of the final few steps required before full implementation.

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Illinois isn’t the first state in the Midwest to allow medical marijuana. Minnesota and Michigan have active cannabis programs for patients, while other nearby states are considering legislation. Some states allow children with seizures to be treated with cannabidiol oil, or CBD, a marijuana extract.

Here’s a look at where Illinois’ neighbor states stand:

- Wisconsin: Allows possession of non-psychoactive CBD oil to treat seizure disorder. Legislation to allow adults to use marijuana for recreational or medical reasons has been introduced, but it is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Illinois will begin its first medical marijuana sales within the next two weeks and public sentiment ranges from cautious to elated.

State officials said Thursday that required ID cards are being mailed this week to 3,200 approved patients. Lab testing of legally grown marijuana has started. A half-dozen retail shops are licensed and ready.

It will be a big moment for the 2-year-old pilot program. Patients will finally get a chance to buy a drug legally that some admit they now purchase on the black market.

Some say they will drive long distances to buy their first legal weed. Neighbors worry about loitering and crime. Police plan extra patrols when the first dispensaries open.

Thousands of cannabis plants are sprouting — and they have been since July — inside a nondescript warehouse off Andalusia Road in Rock Island.

Green Thumb Industries, or GTI, a Chicago-based medical pot company, won rights to operate a Rock Island cultivation center in February. It became the first facility this summer to earn the state’s OK to grow the plant.

“We got through all the inspections and requirements and now we’re ready to go,” Ben Kovler, GTI's CEO, said. “It’s been a long journey, but our wait pales in comparison to the wait patients have had to endure.”

But that wait may soon be over, as well.

State officials said Thursday that Illinois will begin its first medical marijuana sales within the next two weeks.

MUNDELEIN, Ill. (AP) - Patients say they will drive long distances to buy their first legal weed. Neighbors worry about loitering and crime. Police plan extra patrols in towns where dispensaries will sell, for the first time, medical marijuana in Illinois.

Public sentiments range from cautious to elated as Illinois prepares to join more than a dozen states that allow medical marijuana sales. There is still no official start date in Illinois, but Joseph Wright, director of the state’s pilot program, said Thursday that sales should begin “within the next two weeks.”

CHICAGO (AP) - The road to legal medical marijuana in Illinois began more than a decade ago, when proponents first began pushing legislation in Springfield. After many defeats, a law establishing a pilot program was approved in 2013.

Here are key dates since the law was passed:

Aug. 1, 2013: Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, signs the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Act, making Illinois the 21st state allowing marijuana for medical use. The law authorizes a four-year pilot program that expires at the end of 2017.

July 15, 2014: A legislative committee approves the program’s rules for patients, growers and retailers. Public comments from patients, entrepreneurs and city officials helped shape the rules.

AUKEGAN, Ill. — A judge in Lake County has dismissed a lawsuit that claimed a Denver consultant was highly involved in too many Illinois medical marijuana growing facilities.

Judge Mitchell L. Hoffman last week ordered the complaint against Kayvan Khalatbari (KAY’-vohn Kahl-aht-BAR’-ee) dismissed “with prejudice,” a legal term that generally means the plaintiff can’t file the same complaint again.

Khalatbari is a co-founder of Denver Relief, which has retail and cultivation operations in Colorado and offers consulting services in other states.

ILLEGAL AND UNFAIR PROVISIONS?

Many of the observers at the City of Detroit Zoning Board meeting on October 15 objected to some of the punitive and outright illegal proposals contained within the city’s ordinance regulating medical marijuana distribution centers in the city. Several attorneys who spoke to the Commission pointed out that at least one of their provisions likely violates state law, and others are just mean.