The Cook County Board passed an ordinance decriminalizing possession (tho not in Chicago) of less than 30 grams of marijuana (to $200 - $1,000 fine, arrest not necessary). It still must be signed by CC President Todd Stroger to go into effect.
Now all the sudden, marijuana smoking is good for you. Can we take Lucky Strikes, mix ‘em together and say, ‘Smoking is coming back in the United States?’"
Chicago Mayor Daley said of the ordinance. Daley, dude, IT WILL STILL BE ILLEGAL. Nobody is advocating smoking weed.
The rest of this diary looks at more on marijuana from Daley, Todd Stroger, Mark Kirk, also coal and Obama.
The issue is really clouded. It’s a health issue. We’re worried about health care for everyone and, all of the sudden, we think marijuana smoking is the best thing if someone drives down the expressway, someone’s driving a cab, someone’s driving a bus, someone’s flying a plane. After a while, where do you go? the mayor said.
This is the public executive who stymied a wildly popular ban on indoor smoking for years. Also, he continues to protect the single biggest sources of air pollution in the city often referred as the asthma capital in the world, coal powered plants that export their energy way out of site. Evidently, when talking about mandating clean air for public health, he is strongly for doing nothing. Of course, he used to be for decriminalizing marijuana, so it is a crapshoot what he will say next.
Todd Stroger, Daley's tacit installation after former CC President Stroger, Todd's father, passed after a stroke (ironically, he did not seek care at the public hospital bearing his name), says
"I'm not really an advocate of trying to decriminalize the drug that people start before they move on to the higher stuff."
Tobacco, it's just been given a free pass by Obama from ever being made illegal. Talk about gateway drugs. BTW, Todd Stroger's first ever veto was an ordinance putting a cheap soot tax on the largest sources of soot in the county, primarily two coal powered plants that export their energy way out of sight, to help fund health care (before he started closing clinics).
Mark Kirk, favorite and moderate in Sen-IL (R) upcoming primary would make it punishable by up to 25 years for a first offense for dealing super-weed. It seems a nuance is needed to distinguish the Chicago Democrat machine politicians and the kooky Republicans next door. Kirk is a hero of certain douchebag environmentalists in one of Obama's favorite think tank, for supporting big coal, as the Chicago machine is also given the highest green marks. Should Kirk win, the current most likely Sen-IL D candidate to oppose him (with most $ now in bank), Obama's tacit installation and b-ball buddy, first-term State Treasurer with mob ties (as loan officer) Alexi Giannoulias, is destined to be no different in any real way.
Bottom line, it is really hard to find hope in the political cogs of the Chicago machine, a subset of Illinois Democrats that were so high on Milorad Blagojevich (strong supporter of Peabody Energy, Corp., one of the largest coal companies in the world, and recipient of the first ever gubernatorial endorsement by the Illinois Sierra Club).