This is big.
It was only, what, last week that New Hampshire became the 19th state to legalize medical marijuana. Today, Governor Pat Quinn is scheduled to sign legislation making Illinois the 20th MMJ state! That’s not just a round number, but it happens to represent 40% of the states. I believe this also marks a “tipping point”, because of the wide distribution of MMJ states across the country — now including all of New England — and covering a full one-third of the entire population. The states are coming faster now, and we only need five more to have a majority (since Washington, DC has not only approved it, but started selling it!).
In spite of the extremely restrictive nature of the regulations in Illinois, getting medicinal cannabis approved there is a major victory, as Illinois is traditionally a very conservative state in terms of allowing freedoms to its citizens. Also, President Obama first came to political office in Illinois, so this is bound to make some kind of impression on him. And finally, the more states that allow medical cannabis, the more people will be exposed to the fact that it actually works!