Illinois isn’t just in the news about taxes and abortion liberalization. The Chicago Tribune reports that Illinois will become the 11th state to legalize recreational marijuana usage:
Marking a historic moment in an expanding national movement, Illinois lawmakers Friday approved recreational marijuana legalization.
After a contentious debate in Springfield — during which one lawmaker even cracked eggs into a frying pan to depict the “brain on drugs†— the House of Representatives voted 66-47 to allow possession and sales beginning Jan. 1, 2020. The Senate had approved the measure earlier in the week.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker plans to sign the bill into law, which would make Illinois the 11th state to legalize cannabis and the first state in which a legislature approved commercial sales. Vermont lawmakers legalized possession, but not yet commercial sales. Approval in other states came via referendum.
I’m going to put down a marker. I do not think that the Illinois legislature has the restraint necessary to realize the revenue that the governor has been predicting from the sales of legal marijuana. If there’s one thing of which we can be confident it’s that if the cost of legal marijuana becomes too high a black market will quickly emerge. I also think that the notion that sales can be limited to those over 21 is laughable.
I don’t think this move is either a tragedy or a great stride in human rights. I also think that the rewards have been greatly exaggerated while the risks have been unduly minimized. I have reluctantly supported marijuana legalization for some time, as much through fatalism as anything else.
Dave? Dave? Dave’s not here………
I didn’t expect this to pass. Was not surprised by opposition from black caucus (who would have easily supported decriminalization). Occasional articles in the newspaper debated the nature and extent of the impact on minority youth from legalization in other states. At some point, there was a dreaded fact-checker, which I didn’t read.
Somewhere along the line, it was pointed out that the number of marijuana felons in Illinois could fit on a school bus (44?), and following multiple administrations and various release programs, these probably aren’t poster children for simple pot possession.
The last I read, the taxes and fees for the distributors is extremely high in comparison to other states. Significant concerns about whether there is sufficient supply for the state anyway. Some portion of the proceeds are to go to a committee set up to distribute development funds to communities hurt by the war on drugs. If I am not on the committee, it is clearly a partisan slush fund. Other slices of the money go to drug rehab, added law enforcement expenses, just-say-no campaigns in the schools, and the added civil service bureaucracy.
I’m just curious how they regulate the potency, or THC content. Take a whole new enforcement agency right there. And open up a black market for “better stuff”.
The entire movement is heavily driven by wishful thinking, not just here but everywhere.
Not to hijack the thread, but seems to me “disgruntled employee”is overused. I’d like to suggest deranged employee.
There is considerable evidence that use of weed, especially in its now much more potent varieties, is strongly correlated with mental illness. Studies are hard to locate on-line, but this is a good article on the dangers.
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/marijuana-mental-illness-violence
The bottom line is, if the number of heavy pot smokers starts approaching the number of alcohol abusers, IMO the reaction from many current pro-legalizers will be ‘WTF were we thinking?’
Sadly, I doubt it.
I think there are a number of things going on. Just as with alcohol some percentage of those abusing are self-medicating. And it may also be the case that THC affects those with genetic predispositions towards mental disorders differently.
I, too, think it’s foolish but, as I suggested in the body of my post, inevitable. I suspect that few of the benefits will materialize and we’ll have a host of unforeseen run-on effects.
There is a canard propounded by advocates of legalization: that Prohibition didn’t work. That’s a lie. It succeeded by most measures but it also had adverse run-on effects.
I suspect that one of the run-on effects of marijuana legalization will be to invigorate movements for broader drug legalization and the legalization of prostitution.
My only suggestion to manage the risks.
Strict liability for anyone producing or distributing marijuana.
As to legalization harder drugs or prostitution.
Colorado, New York and Canada show all 3 are occurring.