Wednesday, November 30, 2011
The Reefer / Politics / Clout City Evanston decriminalizes reefer!
Posted by Ben Joravsky on 11.30.11 at 11:23 AM
No, they didn't beat New Trier at football—sigh. But what they did was almost as good—they decriminalized marijuana.
It happened the other night by virtue of a unanimous vote of the Evanston City Council.
In contrast to the Chicago City Council, which unanimously voted to close neighborhood mental health clinics and cut money from libraries.
Still can't get over it—not one no vote!
Back to Evanston . . .
Thanks to the new law, if you get busted with less than ten grams of marijuana, the powers that be in E-town will sock you with a fine between $50 and $500, as opposed to hauling your ass off to jail.
So now all the kids from Wilmette and Winnetka will be pouring over the town line to buy their reefer in Evanston.
Oh, wait, they already do that.
Just kidding . . .
Look, as Mick and I have been trying to tell you for the last several months, our marijuana laws are unfairly enforced and ridiculously costly.
Everybody smokes it, but only black people get busted for it.
Other than that—what a system!
Most people I know favor at least some sort of decriminalization, if only because it makes more sense than the idiocy we have now.
So, rah-rah, Evanston—time to sing your song!
Actually, there's one big-time pot head I know who favors the current laws over decriminalization.
Let's call him Pony Boy—not sure why, it's just the first thing that popped into my mind when I tried to think of a nickname that would not give away his identity.
And I don't want to give away his identity because, like I said, he smokes lots of marijuana. Which, as I was also saying, is illegal. Even though pretty much everyone does it. Or has done it. Or knows someone who's done it. Or, at the very least, laughs at jokes about doing it.
(Speaking of which, this bit by Dave Chappelle pretty much sums things up.)
Anyway, Pony Boy says he's against decriminalization on the grounds that the current system works well for him.
"As a white male, it's very unlikely that the police will bust me. For me, marijuana's already effectively legal."
And if it's decriminalized?
"Then police will probably write me up if they catch me smoking cause they'll view it as a way to raise money—like writing parking tickets. So I will be punished for something I currently get away with."
But isn't our current system unfair to the people—mostly black males—who get busted for doing what you get away with?
"Absolutely. That's why I favor legalization—not decriminalization."
Well, I guess it sort of makes sense. And he wasn't even that high when he said it.
Comments (20)
Showing 1-20 of 20
I agree with Pony Boy. Right now, everybody assumes that smoking pot is a victimless crime because they don't live in the neighborhood where the black market finds its victims. Unfortunately, neither current laws nor decriminalization seem to have any positive effect on the black market. While I support legalization, a more immediate way to address these serious issues is a boycott on marijuana.
If you buy pot, your money supports major criminal organizations that sponsor murder, violence, abuse, and slavery. Your "dime" for that bag is directly linked to violence around the city we all pretend to be concerned about. You have more power to stop violence than any other group.
Just because you are a good guy, and your dealer is a good guy doesn't mean your money isn't doing harm. Stop pretending you're not responsible for where your money goes after you buy a "legal" bag of pot.
like
dislike
And if your dealer grew it himself, what violence are you supporting exactly?
Bah!.....It's Not Nothing.....Yeah, cuz everyone smokes that brick weed from mexico, your comment is misinformed, the majority of good smoke comes from the most prosperous cottage industry in the US right now, if fully legalized it will definitively have a huge impact in our national economy. Kind caregivers, or as you might call them, dealers, should be aware of their products precedence and work with good growers, and not violent cartels which go against the principles of a good high. Besides, weed doesnt yield that much for cartels, guns, coke & heroin, that is how you chase that paper$$$.
Let's not go overboard - weed makes cartels and street gangs a ton of money. However, I doubt they are selling to the same people that the Humboldt county and BC growers are.
Mick & Ben's analysis is good as far as it goes, but it doesn't account for the reality that the people who tend to get arrested for weed tend to be those who are dealing it in broad daylight. Why black gangs seem to be more oblivious to this reality than Latino gangs is an interesting question (I've seen older gang members disciplining their shorties for being too stupidly blatant), but since making a plant illegal is grossly immoral and in this case unquestionably racist (going back almost a century at this point) it's irrelevant - just legalize it already.
"If you buy pot, your money supports major criminal organizations that sponsor murder, violence, abuse, and slavery."
I had better not buy any gasoline or bananas then.
I commend you for your restraint, as we could add 1,000 products (or just say "Made in China") without blinking an eye...
"I had better not buy any gasoline or bananas then."
"Why black gangs seem to be more oblivious to this reality than Latino gangs is an interesting question"
Sounds like you might be on the cusp of a racial theory!
"I've seen older gang members disciplining their shorties for being too stupidly blatant"
You ought to get together with @yo60640 and IrishPirate of Uptown Update and swap some ethnic slang sometime. IrishPirate actually refers to the cops as the "po-po," but I'm lived in Chicago all my life and have never heard anyone utter that phrase. And one of the most blatant drug-dealing idiots I've ever known is half-black and half-Puerto Rican, so I'm not actually which side of his family is to blame for him negotiating wholesale cocaine purchases in the hallway outside my old office. I mentioned this clown to this vice cop I know and she immediately knew who I was talking about. What the Cappleman!
*(or just say "Made in China")*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIzivCJ9pzU
"but since making a plant illegal is grossly immoral and in this case unquestionably racist"
I'm glad to hear that you'll support my new reptile importing business, because I don't see why it wouldn't be equally immoral to make animals illegal. It's speciesist, even. Unquestionably!
Hey Capone reefer should be legal as should licking toads.
Think of the children!
Onto your 'po po' comment. I have heard it used ironically often. Whether your Uptown brothers were doing so I do not know. Either your deaf or you are not from Chicago. Maybe both.
"Onto your 'po po' comment. I have heard it used ironically often."
Are you a Second City Cop or Chicago News Report regular?
"Whether your Uptown brothers were doing so I do not know."
Oh, they are not my brothers and neither one of them is originally from Uptown.
"Either your deaf or you are not from Chicago."
I was born at Edgewater Hospital, just like noted Chicagoans Rahm Emmanuel and Hillary Clinton.
FGFM, it's just a poverty thing. Open air drug markets are in poorer communities, which in Chicago are often black. In today's news they talk about a meth crisis in Kentucky, same story, different place.
As for the idea Mexican cartels don't make money selling dope, from today's news:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-mex…
>MEXICO CITY — The most elaborate cross-border tunnel ever found linking Mexico and United States — a passageway complete with electric rail cars, hydraulic doors and an elevator — was uncovered in a San Diego warehouse this week, along with a record haul of 32 tons of marijuana, authorities announced Wednesday.
“This is without a doubt the most sophisticated tunnel we’ve ever found along the Mexican border,” said Derek Benner, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s special agent in charge of investigations in San Diego, in an interview.
btw, "po po" sounds like something a toddler babbles. that's just weird. now paddy wagon is some ethnic slang - originally referred to who the wagons locked up, then turned into who was driving them. progress, of a sort.
"Open air drug markets are in poorer communities, which in Chicago are often black."
Funny how they don't bust more white people for buying smack on the West Side.
*btw, "po po" sounds like something a toddler babbles. that's just weird.*
It appears to have originated on the West Coast from the big PO on the jackets on bike cops and spread from there. Like I said, it's not Chicago slang, but people appear to have picked it up from song lyrics. I'd bet a solid quarter on it.
"now paddy wagon is some ethnic slang - originally referred to who the wagons locked up"
Oh, how those poor Irish have suffered in this town.
Smack and weed aren't even close to the same thing in terms of the # of users. No doubt there are some white junkies coming to Chicago, but I wouldn't assume junk isn't available in the burbs.
Regardless, white suburban kids sure as hell don't have to come into the City to buy weed.
This is just common sense- commit a crime (which I think we both agree shouldn't be one) in broad daylight, you're more likely to get popped.
I'd like to see it legalized & not decriminalized, but in the meantime, if your gang or "social club" has the audacity to make your open-air drug market a regular event, you're daring the cops to bust you, so don't be surprised when they do.
"Funny how they don't bust more white people for buying smack on the West Side."
"Regardless, white suburban kids sure as hell don't have to come into the City to buy weed."
Oh, come on. White kids from Evanston and parts further north have been buying herb in between Howard and Juneway for decades. Where the fuck are you from? And the scene on the West Side is very well-known and getting worse as far as I can tell.
FGFM the wanna-be junkie speaks. How much "herb" have you purchased in the Jungle, exactly? You a regular in West Side smack dens?
I lived right down the street in the late 90s. It may indeed be the closest thing the North side had to an open-air drug market (Exedus was close), but it was pretty damned tame relative to videos I've seen of the west side.
The person buying on the street isn't being smart, but that's an individual with a sickness - not an organized group that decides to stick it to their community by selling drugs in the open day after day after day.
What do you expect from the cops when groups of guys are out there selling drugs in broad daylight, often close by schools - a cookie?
You want to help prevent people of any color or background from being arrested for drug crimes, than support legalization. Than this is a non-issue.
But that doesn't excuse the assholes who sell drugs to schoolchildren, or recruit them into gangs - that's where me and you differ in a VERY major way.
"Oh, come on. White kids from Evanston and parts further north have been buying herb in between Howard and Juneway for decades. Where the fuck are you from? And the scene on the West Side is very well-known and getting worse as far as I can tell."
*How much "herb" have you purchased in the Jungle, exactly?*
Zero, but it figures that you did know the racist name for the neighborhood.
"videos I've seen"
You sound like a real expert, did you watch them on Chicago News Report?
"What do you expect from the cops when groups of guys are out there selling drugs in broad daylight, often close by schools - a cookie? "
Yes, a cookie! But your shopworn theory does not explain a 10-1 racial conviction ratio for drugs between blacks and whites when both groups consume at roughly the same rate. I would suspect that a tiny percent of arrests for possession are directly connected to street dealing.
"But that doesn't excuse the assholes who sell drugs to schoolchildren, or recruit them into gangs - that's where me and you differ in a VERY major way. "
Yeah, I'm always selling drugs to kids and recruiting them into gangs.
FGFM, Juneway was known as the jungle as far back as the 1930's when the inhabitants were mostly Irish.
If you were half as smart as you think you are, which is about one quarter as smart as an amoeba, you would have known that. Assclown.
"FGFM, Juneway was known as the jungle as far back as the 1930's when the inhabitants were mostly Irish."
Well, the Irish are well-known for living in jungles and I'm sure that everyone has that in mind when they use the term.
"If you were half as smart as you think you are, which is about one quarter as smart as an amoeba, you would have known that. Assclown."
Methinks that you protest a bit too much.
