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  1. #1
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    Chicago Passes Ordinance Decriminalizing <15g of Marijuana

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,7253062.story

    The Chicago City Council overwhelmingly voted today to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana possession.

    Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposal passed 44-3, allowing Chicago police to issue pot-possession tickets starting Aug. 4. The move makes Chicago among a growing wave of states and several of the largest U.S. cities to adopt reduced penalties.

    The ordinance gives Chicago police the discretion to issue citations between $250 to $500 for someone with 15 grams or less of pot.

    Chicago officers would continue to arrest people caught smoking marijuana or carrying it on park or school grounds. Authorities also would arrest anyone younger than 17 caught with pot or anyone they believed was trying to sell the drug.

    Emanuel made changes to his original proposal to appease aldermen concerned that the city was sending the message that it was going soft on pot. Those changes include allowing potentially forcing those ticketed to take part in drug awareness or education programs. Violators also could be required to do community service. In addition, the city still could impound offenders' vehicles.
    “I respect the conflict people had in this process,” Emanuel said after the vote. “It wasn’t a slam dunk either way. . . I expect us not to end the debate here, but to continue scrutinizing.”
    “This is one piece of correcting what I think has failed year in and year out,” Emanuel said. “We will evaluate this on an ongoing basis.”
    In making the case for the city’s new approach, Chicago Police Department Superintendent Garry McCarthy said charges are dropped against the "vast majority" of about 20,000 people arrested each year for possession of small amounts of marijuana, McCarthy said. And each arrest takes up to four hours of police time, compared with about half an hour to issue a ticket and test the confiscated weed.

    Several of aldermen spoke about how the black and Hispanic communities are disproportionately affected by the city’s current policy to arrest people who possess small amounts of marijuana.

    “If you had been white and privileged, marijuana has already been decriminalized,” said Ald. Howard Brookins, 21st,who spoke in favor of the measure. “The only people arrested for these crimes have been black and brown individuals. . .This is a way to potentially level the playing field.”

    Ald. Ameya Pawar, 47th, said that the new approach will give officers the ability to fight more serious crimes.

    “We need to distinguish between people who are part of criminal enterprise and people who are casual users,” Pawar said.

    Aldermen who voted against the measure expressed concerns about the message it would send to children. Ald. Roberto Maldonado said 15 grams is a significant amount of marijuana and he felt the new policy would lead to a spike in public use of weed.

    “With the adoption of this ordinance, many of those thugs will perceive and misinterpret the law that it is a license to smoke marijuana in public,” said Maldonado, 26th. “That’s why I cannot come to terms to vote for this ordinance.”
    Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, an influential alderman who was among the first to voice concerns about the change, said today that “my skepticism has turned to support.”
    “We all come to this debate with different life experiences,” he said, noting that while his generation did not use the drug, he is the foster parent of a “cocaine baby.”
    Citing figures provided by the CPD, Burke said that among the roughly 20,000 arrests made for marijuana possession in the last year, more than 16,000 of them were African-American.
    “Just as I don’t want to send the wrong message to kids, I also don’t want it to be the case that young Walter or young Travis are going to be 16 times more likely to get locked up in the city of Chicago than some kid from Sauganash or Beverly,” Burke said.
    “This is re-criminalization, a more intelligent and effective way of addressing a problem," he added.
    Ald. Nicholas Sposato, 36th, cast the other vote against the pot ticket plan.
    For those of you who don't know a lot about Chicago/Illinois politics: typically, we're absolutely terrible at it, but this is a nice piece of progress. I don't smoke that much myself anymore and could care less about the pot-related part of it, but taking something that is frankly not that big of a deal and putting an end to wasting thousands of police/public defender/city worker man-hours, while at the same time potentially increasing city revenue and cutting some slack to young minorities rather than forfeiting the rest of their lives with prison terms is a fantastic step forward. One of the first times I've seen some common sense come out of a political machine that is mostly known for through-and-through corruption.

  2. #2
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    Now if we can get this done in D.C...

  3. #3
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    Fuck it because it's the only thing I think of when I hear Chicago.


  4. #4
    Chram
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    well its a good start, but decriminalization is really kind of a bullshit grey area where the state basically says you can do this but if you get caught we're going to fine you. still certainly better than jail time.

    they should just legalize, tax, and reap the profits.

    unsurprisingly the biggest financial supporters of the "war on drugs" are the tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical industries.

    if you ever wanted to know some of the reasons why marijuana was made illegal a good documentary about the history of cannabis prohibition is the union, i think the whole documentary is on google video.

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    This is not news its happening all over the country.... move to Wops thread.
    Edit: this and legalizing for medical use.

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    NJ's trying to do this too.

    Now if only they'll do something about drug testing at work, and having it pop up in your system from weeks ago during a random drug test.

  7. #7
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    The ordinance gives Chicago police the discretion to issue citations between $250 to $500 for someone with 15 grams or less of pot.
    Well that's a start...

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by djzombie View Post
    well its a good start, but decriminalization is really kind of a bullshit grey area where the state basically says you can do this but if you get caught we're going to fine you. still certainly better than jail time.

    they should just legalize, tax, and reap the profits.

    unsurprisingly the biggest financial supporters of the "war on drugs" are the tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical industries.

    if you ever wanted to know some of the reasons why marijuana was made illegal a good documentary about the history of cannabis prohibition is the union, i think the whole documentary is on google video.
    Couldn't agree more. tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical companies have way more money to spend on anti-weed commercial. Legalizing would make shit so much easier, lower crime(wouldn't eliminate it, but would help), and make us more money.

  9. #9
    I'll change yer fuckin rate you derivative piece of shit
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    Whoa, 15 grams is over a half ounce, that's a decent amount.

  10. #10
    King of the Jews
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    Quote Originally Posted by archibaldcrane View Post
    Whoa, 15 grams is over a half ounce, that's a decent amount.
    Yeah lol. In Fairfield, if you are caught w/under an ounce its a 50$ fine I believe.
    Edit: And in Rohnert Park cops dont give a shit about weed lol.

  11. #11
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    How much does 15g translate to, in terms of number of average joints?

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Boyiee View Post
    NJ's trying to do this too.

    Now if only they'll do something about drug testing at work, and having it pop up in your system from weeks ago during a random drug test.
    No go fat governor says he going to veto it and NY senate shut down the bill for 25g pos.

    http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/we...xrs=share_copy

  13. #13
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    Your turn, Pennsylvania.

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    What a fuck. As if I didn't have enough complaints about him, being a civil service employee.

  15. #15
    Blackice
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alleya View Post
    How much does 15g translate to, in terms of number of average joints?
    Rough guestimate... ~20-30.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by djzombie View Post
    well its a good start, but decriminalization is really kind of a bullshit grey area where the state basically says you can do this but if you get caught we're going to fine you. still certainly better than jail time.
    And such grey areas are pretty convenient. For the state, not youse guyse.

  17. #17
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    Your turn, Pennsylvania.
    Dood we still can't buy booze anywhere other than liquor stores and beer distributors. That ain't gonna happen.

  18. #18
    Tagus
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    This is definitely a step in the right direction. It really goes to show who ultimately has the power in our society... they can criminalize something nonsensical, but if we keep doing it anyway, eventually they'll just be like "fuck it, we're tired of throwing people in jail for this shit."

    Now if they would just legalize it and tax the crap out of it, we'd be fine. It seriously amazes me that something could be illegal, and nobody ever says that they like it that way. Just a matter of time, really.

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