Monday, September 27, 2004

New stories today The Chicago Tribune is finally playing catch-up with the Chicago Sun-Times, which broke this story just a week ago. The Trib has had some sporadic coverage since then, including a fairly solid endorsement of the plan on the editorial page, but today on page one the paper follows a couple arrestees through the court system as they face charges of minor marijuana possession. It sounds like the police sergeant who made the proposal knows what he's talking about. Here's the story (you'll probably have to register with the Tribune, if you haven't already). Also, the suburban Daily Herald features a Chuck Goudie column on the subject. The tagline at the end suggests this is all really connected to the big money proposal for the Windy City - casinos: We're not in Bedford Falls anymore. With all this attention to weed smoking and liquor, you'd think gambling casinos were coming next to Chicago. I don't know. I think the City is trying to cut costs while enhancing revenues, and this is an obvious first step. Although, as I've stated before, if they really want to cut costs and raise revenues, then officials should create a regulatory plan and a mild tax. 12:24:13 PM    comment [] The story so far... Here's my analysis from late last week. If you want to read pretty much all the print media coverage on the issue thus far, go to the excellent Media Awareness Project Drug News Archives and complete a power search on terms like "Chicago" "marijuana" "arrest" "decriminalization" and you'll get the stories, or just limit your search to Illinois, since much of the drug news coming out of the state in the past week is related to this issue. 12:03:46 PM    comment [] Welcome to Decrimwatch! Last week, a police sergeant in the city of Chicago recommnded a change in policy toward people who possess small amounts of marijauna. Our purpose here is to keep up on developments related to this issue. While this is a not-too-radical proposal with its own built-in pitfalls, it could have significance for the rest of the country, as well as international relations (remember the feds have threatened to tighten the Canadian border because of a similar proposal by officials in that country). This could be a quick ride, since Chicago's mayor, Chicago's major newspapers, the police chief and even the federal freakin' drug czar have not expressed oppostion. But, of course, we'll have to wait and see. 11:15:08 AM    comment []

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