The Illinois Secretary of State’s Office has implemented numerous changes in recent years, but two dramatic shifts are on the horizon.

The most noteworthy change is a bill passed by the Illinois General Assembly that would allow the Secretary of State’s Office to issue driver’s licenses that will remain valid for double the current four-year term.

Under the provisions of SB 0275, Illinois motorists will be given the option to receive a driver’s license that would remain valid for eight years, a similar figure to those offered by states like Florida and Georgia.

That change won’t go into effect immediately in 2025, as the General Assembly has mandated that the Secretary of State’s Office formulate rules and policies related to the eight-year license, and to submit those rules by Jan. 1., 2027.

The new licenses would then be offered no later than July 1, 2027, according to officials.

Another significant change will impact Illinois residents sooner than that, with the Secretary of State’s Office having the ability to issue mobile ID cards and driver’s licenses by the end of 2025.

The new policy would allow motorists or residents to download a specialized app that would display their identification cards on a mobile device, with law enforcement and other entities required to accept that type of identification.

The bill does not require motorists or residents to have the mobile ID cards.

Finally, Illinois and other states will face a soft deadline of May 7, 2025 to require that identification cards be REAL ID-compliant in order to enter federal facilities, or when passing through TSA checkpoints at airports.

There is still some uncertainty of how strictly that policy will be enforced, as it is possible the TSA will instead implement a warning system to alert passengers whose identification cards aren’t compliant with the legislation.

More information can be found on the TSA’s website.

CHICAGO (WGEM) – Illinois lawmakers are looking for new ways to help people struggling with behavioral health issues in the state. Tuesday, the state House Mental Health and Addiction Committee held a hearing in Chicago looking into psychedelics as a potential treatment tool.

“We are in the midst of a behavioral health crisis in this country and in this state. And that includes mental health, it includes addiction, it includes an urgent need for trauma support,” said state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, D-Chicago, the committee’s chair.

This isn’t the first committee hearing. Lawmakers have already held subject matter hearings on the state’s behavioral health care shortage and how to spend opioid settlement dollars to increase access to care.

Tuesday, they discussed a less traditional form of care, psychedelic drugs. The specifically talked about psilocybin, which is also known as “magic mushrooms.”

“Psychedelic medicines work in a completely different manner than traditional meds. When we look at psychedelic medicines, they really have two prongs of how they approach. One is a psychological benefit, and one is a medical benefit,” said Dr. Abid Nazeer, a psychiatrist and Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director for Hopemark Health.

He said psilocybin allows people to look at their previous trauma or at themselves in a new light allowing them to potentially reframe their trauma and get to the root cause.

There are bills in both the state House and Senate to legalize psilocybin for medical purposes. Known as the Illinois Compassionate Use and Research of Entheogens (CURE) Act, it would create a state-regulated psilocybin program allowing licensed facilitators to provide supervised therapy.

“Those with mental health issues deserve better. They deserve more than what they’ve been given, and they deserve hope. And we, as providers, researchers, government officials, policy makers, have a responsibility to our part in advancing new and promising treatment options for them,” said Dr. Jessica Punzo, a clinical psychologist.

The drug would remain illegal for recreational use.

Two states, Oregon and Colorado, have legalized psilocybin for supervised use.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration still classifies psilocybin as a Schedule I drug, which it defines as “drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” The FDA, however, granted the drug “breakthrough therapy” status.

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