Earlier today, the Chicago City Council voted to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana for personal possession. The one sided final vote was 43-3, which will allow Chicago Police the ability to write possession citations as early as this July. Citations will be written with police discretion ranging from $250 to $500, for the personal possession of 15 grams of marijuana or less. This legislation will mean the majority of the 20,000+ people arrested every year in Chicago for personal possession of marijuana will avoid arrest and prosecution. This will free up valuable police resources, allowing them to address more violent criminals. This vote comes just in time, as Chicago is facing record high murder rates for 2012, and has been forced to bring in outside help to curb rising murder rates within the Windy City.
Read more about the new legislation here.
most excellent!
Chipping away at the evil empire’s “drug war”, small victories, a little at a time! Drugs weren’t always illegal, people once had freedom to heal themselves! The government can’t do ANYTHING right, having them rule over our bodily functions is what’s wrong with America!
Sounds like its time to move back to chi town!
This isn’t worthy social change. Whereas before I had to go to jail and pay fines, now I still have to pay fines. This doesn’t mean that people are more in control of their choices or that the War on Drugs is leaving. This means that the state is finding ways of seeming lenient, but still reaping the benefits of the war on drugs. Am I wrong in saying that it’s taken 40 years (since the 1970 substance control act was implemented) for Chi-Town’s government to decrease punitive measures to just short of jail time? How much longer must we wait for the state to leave us alone to smoke what we want? And of course, non-whites and those less economically well off will still be harmed the most from insane taxes. This isn’t the state becoming a friendlier state. It’s an abusive parent saying it will still hit you, it just won’t lock you up in the closet (immediately, that is, until you can’t pay your fines).
Hemp hemp hooray