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Evanston eases marijuana penalties
Jennifer Brandel | Nov. 29, 2011
North suburban Evanston is easing penalties for marijuana possession. Anyone caught in Evanston with 10 grams of marijuana or less will be getting a ticket instead of being sent to jail.
The Evanston city council voted unanimously in favor of the ordinance Monday night. Councilman Donald Wilson cited two main reasons for it.
"One is to reduce the load and burden on the criminal justice system, but also with regard to someone who is guilty of such a violation, not to put such a dark mark on somebody's permanent record," Wilson said.
Illinois state law punishes those with small amounts of pot with up to six months in prison and a $1,500 fine. But Evanston offenders will instead face a city fine between $50 and $500.
Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl said the idea first crossed her radar a few months ago. A friend called her up after hearing an NPR story about a similar law in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Tisdahl said the more she thought about it, the more sense it made.
The National Organization on the Reform of Marijuana Laws spokesperson Allen St. Pierre said 14 states and about 50 cities around the country have similar marijuana laws. St. Pierre said he's not surprised Evanston would take up this ordinance because college towns are among the leaders in this trend.
Alan Cubbage is the vice president for university relations at Evanston's Northwestern campus. He said he was surprised to hear of the ordinance, and he doesn't think that it will have much of an impact on the university's approximately 15,000 students in Evanston.
"At least to my knowledge there has not been a real problem or concern in terms of Northwestern students being arrested for possession of marijuana," Cubbage said.
Mayor Tisdahl said she hopes the ordinance ultimately helps young people get jobs as small amounts of marijuana possession won't result in them having a criminal record.
Cook County and some Chicago alderman are also pushing for similar measures.
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Comments
"The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world."
Legalized? Pot?? OMG we're all gonna die the sky is falling civilization is going to collapse etc..
Prohibition bears many strong and startling similarities to Torquemada’s inquisition, it’s supporters are servants of tyranny and hate who’s sole purpose is to make the rest of us suffer their putrid legacy of incalculable waste and destruction.
Prohibition engendered black market profits are obscenely huge. Remove this and you remove the ability to bribe or threaten any government official or even whole governments. The argument that legalized regulation won’t severely cripple organized crime is truly bizarre. Of course, the bad guys won’t just disappear, but if you severely diminish their income, you also severely diminish their power. The proceeds from theft, extortion, pirated goods etc. are a drop in the ocean compared to what can be earned by selling prohibited/unregulated drugs in a black market estimated to be worth 400,000 million dollars. The immense illegal capital, gifted through prohibition, is what gives these criminal cartels and terrorists power. Power that has allowed them to expand into other areas with near total impunity.
Each day you remain silent, you help to destroy the Constitution, fill the prisons with our children, and empower terrorists and criminals worldwide while wasting hundreds of billions of your own tax dollars.
Millions of fearless North Africans have recently shown us that recognizing oppression also carries the weight of responsibility to act upon and oppose that oppression. Prohibition is a vicious anti-constitutional assault on ALL American citizens by a criminally insane and dysfunctional government, which left unchallenged will end with the destruction of the entire nation.
Yeah.... Well pay that Evanston weed ticket, and you have a drug conviction for the rest of your life.... Try to get a teaching certificate in Illinois with that... There is no way to expunge that conviction.... Much rather have my clients go to court, and in the worst case, get supervision, which can be expunged after a couple of years.... Most likely case will be thrown out because Evanston PD will not bother sending the weed to a crime lab because of expense....
The Mexican Cartel's must be happy. Until they decriminalize CULTIVATION, where are Americans supposed to buy their Marijuana? Evanston just encouraged the Drug Cartel's in Mexico to come further into town. Time to stop talking HALF STEPS, and just LEGALIZE IT.
It is time to free all non-violent drug offenders, including all the Marijuana Growers you threw in prison, who you now need to supply your "decriminalized" pot.
SMH