Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner wants the state's medical marijuana program to be thoroughly reviewed before a decision is made on whether to extend it beyond 2017, according to a spokeswoman.

"The governor believes there is a lot of time left to evaluate a pilot program, and we should not extend the program until it has been fully evaluated," Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said in a statement.

The Republican governor's position on extending the program was first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Rauner was reacting to a bill backed by Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat who sponsored the original medical marijuana legislation. Lang's bill would extend the program four years from when the first dispensary begins officially operating.

High Times magazine’s New York-rooted editor-in-chief Dan Skye has spent plenty of time in Colorado researching and photographing the state’s medical and recreational systems, but his current, pre-Cannabis Cup trip to the state has been uncommonly eye-opening.

“The Colorado cannabis industry is an economic miracle,” Skye said Monday from a stop in Pueblo, where he’s meeting cannabis business owners and reporting on the state’s first-of-its-kind legalization. “Everyone in the United States is following Colorado’s lead.”

The CEO of a medical marijuana company fighting the state in court has died unexpectedly.

Andrew James, 51, was found unresponsive on Thursday at home in Kenilworth, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, which said Friday an autopsy was inconclusive. Authorities are awaiting the results of more tests.

James headed PMRx, a company that had applied for a medical marijuana-farming permit in the Kankakee area. When the company lost out on its bid, it sued, accusing the state of failing to follow its own licensing guidelines when scoring applications for the coveted and potentially lucrative permits.

CHICAGO  •   Illinois residents have petitioned the state to add more than 20 medical conditions to the medical marijuana program, including anxiety, migraines, insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Petitioners identifying themselves as veterans of Vietnam and Iraq asked that PTSD be included, making emotional pleas for help, according to 269 pages of petitions obtained by The Associated Press through the state's Freedom of Information Act. The state blacked out the names of petitioners before releasing the documents to protect patients' privacy.

CHICAGO -- Late one Saturday night, Rob Sampson had a confrontation with his 15-year-old daughter about marijuana. But it was his daughter doing the confronting and it was Sampson defending the drug.

Sampson and his wife, after a long night of polishing his new company's applications to grow medical cannabis, returned to their suburban Chicago home to find their daughter waiting up. They hadn't yet told her their business plans.

"She said, 'What is going on?"' Sampson recalled. "'I know something's going on and you guys aren't telling me."'

Cannabis entrepreneurs can now submit applications to take part in a mock investor pitch session at the Spring Marijuana Business Conference and Expo to be held in Chicago next month.

The deadline for applications to participate in the Marijuana Business Pitch Slam is April 10. The session will be held from 11 a.m. to noon on May 20 at the Chicago Hilton.

The five companies selected to present will deliver a short investment pitch in front of a live audience of industry professionals and a panel of experienced investors. The panel will then critique the presentations to provide insight into what investors look for when evaluating a pitch, and will select a winner for the “Best Pitch” award.

As cops, part of their jobs was to put away drug sellers and users. Now, former law enforcement officials are doing private security work for Illinois’ now-legal medical marijuana industry.

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois approved about 400 new patient applications for medical marijuana during March, bringing the total to 2,000 patients with complete paperwork.

The Illinois Department of Public Health released the updated numbers Wednesday.

The health department said about 19,500 people have started the patient registration process. Of those, about 2,700 have submitted at least part of the application.

The tally is still far short of the number of patients the program’s coordinator hoped would enroll in the first year. In July, program coordinator Bob Morgan said “thousands, hopefully tens of thousands” were expected to enroll.

Qualifying patients pay an annual fee of $100 for a marijuana card and need a doctor’s written certification.

While campaigning for governor, Bruce Rauner said, “The application process for medical marijuana should not be held in secret where insiders win and taxpayers lose; it should be open and transparent.”

But now, lawyers for the state are fighting to keep from having to turn over information about exactly those bids.

A Rauner spokeswoman said the the state is simply “complying with the rules set forth in the Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act.”

The issue will come to a head Wednesday in a Cook County courtroom as part of a significant lawsuit.

A thick line of people formed inside a Doubletree hotel Saturday afternoon, all of them waiting to learn if they had earned the distinction of certified budtender, one of many titles for a person who works behind the counter at a medicinal marijuana dispensary.

Hemp Staff, a Florida-based company that aims to educate, certify and assist jobseekers in the medicinal marijuana industry, hosted two sold-out budtender training and certification sessions Saturday morning and afternoon at the hotel in Rosemont.

Though marijuana is still illegal under federal law, a state pilot program that took effect last year has allowed for up to 21 cultivation centers and 60dispensaries to grow and sell medicinal marijuana in Illinois.