While Rahm's Undecided on Ticketing Pot Busts, Moreno Says "Legalize It"

Image Credit: Laughing Squid

Mayor Rahm Emanuel stopped short of putting his full support behind an ordinance proposed by 25th Ward Ald. Danny Solis calling for Chicago Police to ticket people found to be holding small amounts of marijuana, a proposal that has the support of other aldermen.

"If you look at other cities that have done something like this, they have also created their own set of problems," Emanuel said. "If we do it, and if I put my support, which I'm not doing yet, I want to look at it from both sides and be thoughtful."

Sounds like the mayor needs to have a smoke break to figure it out. Solis' ordinance calls for having police write $200 tickets to people found to be holding 10 grams or less in pot. Solis is thinking progressively, but considering ten grams of pot would average $140*, that's cutting into some buyers' budgets.

(*We came to that number by using the average price of an ounce in Chicago, according to the Price of Weed index and converting to metric measurements. .353 ounces = 10 grams.)

Maybe another option to consider would be to legalize it. 1st Ward Ald. Proco "Joe" Moreno became thee first alderman to call for decriminalizing marijuana yesterday.

“Legalize it, control it, and tax it,” Moreno says. “Regulate it as a controlled substance. How many people do you know who have overdosed on marijuana? It doesn’t happen. The effects of alcohol are much worse.”

Moreno also introduced an ordinance to ban plastic bags yesterday that have some questioning if he was high when he drafted it. BUt Moreno's comments during yesterday's City Council meetings mirror those of County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who's called for the decriminalization of marijuana for years.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@chicagoist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Chuck Sudo in News on November 3, 2011 10:00 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

chee1rs

keep the hopeless with no futures drugged-up so that they can never succeed .... legalize it

High_n_Dry

The way the law currently stands, if a cop caught me walking around smoking a joint, he or she would probably scare me a bit then let me go because of the waste of time doing paperwork and the lack of danger I present to the community but if they are able to ticket me for $200 and not have to deal with as much paper work of an actual arrest, thatsa buzz kill. Decriminalize it completely and let me grow my own, please.

archie_manning

10 grams is roughly 3/8oz. So, say you could get 5 or so joints out of an eighth (depending on how fat you rolled them), I would say somewhere in the ballpark of 15 joints. So I hear...

oonagh1

At the risk of laughed off this board, what other cities only ticket for small amounts of pot? And, how many joints do 10 grams make?

BlueFairlane

I'm against the bag ordinance because it results in me increasing my plastic consumption. I use my grocery store bags as trash bags, and if those aren't available I'll have to buy plastic bags (of a much thicker plastic) I otherwise wouldn't have bought.

The marijuana thing, I'm all for.

Joseph Finn

Actually, I'm all for the bags ordinance; they're a horrible waste off petroleum and are a littering disaster.

Now, because I'm curious, how many joints would you get out of 10 grams of pot?