--- title: Illinois House Approves Medical Cannabis for Epileptic Kids description: Minors suffering from epilepsy should be allowed to use medical marijuana to reduce seizures, the Illinois house voted on Wednesday canonical: https://time.com/108621/illinois-house-approves-medical-cannabis-for-epileptic-kids/ author: Michelle Arrouas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-22T09:01:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:59:14.286Z article:section: Health og:title: Illinois House Approves Medical Cannabis for Epileptic Kids og:description: Minors suffering from epilepsy should be allowed to use medical marijuana to reduce seizures, the Illinois house voted on Wednesday og:url: https://time.com/108621/illinois-house-approves-medical-cannabis-for-epileptic-kids/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66597a7baab0de2e/698690741eebf787ed371011/rtx180xx.jpg?branch=production&width=800&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 800 og:image:height: 450 og:image:alt: A home-grown marijuana plant og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Illinois House Approves Medical Cannabis for Epileptic Kids twitter:description: Minors suffering from epilepsy should be allowed to use medical marijuana to reduce seizures, the Illinois house voted on Wednesday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66597a7baab0de2e/698690741eebf787ed371011/rtx180xx.jpg?branch=production&width=800&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Illinois House Approves Medical Cannabis for Epileptic Kids > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Michelle Arrouas](https://time.com/author/michelle-arrouas/) ## Michelle Arrouas May 22, 2014 9:01 AM UTC  A homegrown marijuana plant is seen at an undisclosed location on Jan. 28, 2014 A homegrown marijuana plant is seen at an undisclosed location on Jan. 28, 2014 Baz Ratner—Reuters by [Michelle Arrouas](https://time.com/author/michelle-arrouas/) ## Michelle Arrouas May 22, 2014 9:01 AM UTC Kids under 18 could be allowed to [use](http://politics.suntimes.com/article/springfield/house-expands-medical-pot-law-include-epileptic-children/wed-05212014-1110pm) medical marijuana after the house in Illinois expanded the state’s medical-pot law to include epileptic children. The plan to let minors use medical marijuana [passed](http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=&SessionId=85&GA=98&DocTypeId=SB&DocNum=2636&GAID=12&LegID=&SpecSess=&Session=) 98-18 in the house on Wednesday and will now go back to the state’s senate. It was passed there in April but will now be reviewed as the house made an amendment stipulating that the marijuana must not be smoked. “These people are not interested in getting high,” Democratic state representative Lou Lang, who sponsored the bill, [told](http://politics.suntimes.com/article/springfield/house-expands-medical-pot-law-include-epileptic-children/wed-05212014-1110pm) the Chicago _Sun-Times_. “These are folks that are interested in alleviating their seizures.” The active ingredient in marijuana can help reduce the seizures of epileptic minors, parents have said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/108621/illinois-house-approves-medical-cannabis-for-epileptic-kids/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/108621/illinois-house-approves-medical-cannabis-for-epileptic-kids/"},"headline":"Illinois House Approves Medical Cannabis for Epileptic Kids","datePublished":"2014-05-22T09:01:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:59:14.286Z","description":"Minors suffering from epilepsy should be allowed to use medical marijuana to reduce seizures, the Illinois house voted on Wednesday","url":"https://time.com/108621/illinois-house-approves-medical-cannabis-for-epileptic-kids/","keywords":["medicine","Marijuana","Children","medical marijuana","kids","States","Illinois","epilepsy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66597a7baab0de2e/698690741eebf787ed371011/rtx180xx.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Arrouas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/michelle-arrouas/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66597a7baab0de2e/698690741eebf787ed371011/rtx180xx.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A home-grown marijuana plant","caption":"A home-grown marijuana plant is seen at an undisclosed location in Israel","creditText":"Baz Ratner—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/medicine/","name":"medicine"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/108621/illinois-house-approves-medical-cannabis-for-epileptic-kids/","name":"Illinois House Approves Medical Cannabis for Epileptic Kids"}}]}] ```