Decriminalization – it’s about time!

For as many times as I have taken pot shots at the actions of Gov. Bruce Rauner, I feel it’s the least I can do to acknowledge that Illinois’ governor actually did something right.

 

RAUNER: Got something right

He did something that should have been done so many governors ago; something that will reduce much of the bureaucratic nonsense that often springs up with our police trying to protect and serve us.

I’M REFERRING TO the many arrests that have been made throughout the years related to drug possession – particularly the possession of small amounts of marijuana clearly intended for personal use.

Rauner on Friday signed into law a measure that decriminalizes the offense. It is now something about as legally lasting as a traffic ticket.

You will still get cited and face fines if the police catch you possessing pot. After all, the local governments would still want that source of income.

But the idea of someone developing a lasting criminal record from such actions will now be a thing of the past. It’s definitely not something that is going to get one locked up in jail – unless they happen to be doing something else particularly stupid at the same time as being stoned.

WHICH IS ALWAYS a possibility. So it’s probably not a good idea to rush out and get stoned. There’s still too much of a risk.

But we’re not going to have people building up criminal records for an offense that really doesn’t hurt anybody but themselves.

Just like we don’t criminalize someone who gets intoxicated on alcoholic beverages unless they do something seriously wrong while in a state of drunkenness. The intoxication itself is not a crime – or at least it hasn’t been in most of the country since the repeal of Prohibition!

I suppose this means we’re going to start having to figure out a legal standard for being stoned – how wasted can one be before it is considered to be an impairment on one’s physical abilities?

IT HAS BEEN a few decades since I was last around people who engaged in marijuana use to any serious degree. In fact, most of the people I deal with these days who are exposed to large quantities of pot are the cops who make all the drug arrests.

It just always strikes me that there are more serious offenses they ought to be concerned about fighting. Particularly in this day and age when the homicide rates are high and catching the public’s attention.

It seems that the people who are opposed to decriminalization of drug offenses (and I know they exist, because I’ve heard them erroneously argue that decriminalization and legalization are one and the same thing) are really interested in making a political statement.

They want to keep the image of marijuana use by liberal hippie freaks and no one else. As though the idea of enforcing pot possession bans is their way of penalizing people they want to blame for everything that is wrong with our society.

OF COURSE, I’VE found that drug use in the modern era spreads across people of all ideological bearings. In fact, it seems to me that the people who can most afford the cost of illicit drugs are the ones with incomes that would make them part of the conservative elite.

In short, it is as though Rauner made a point to not make a political statement when he signed into law the measure that was approved earlier this year in the General Assembly.

Where legislators from across Illinois gathered together to put together this particular legislation, which basically means police can focus their time on scouting out real crime.

I feel safer already!

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A marijuana expert? Or just being politically contrarian, Rauner is!

What should we make of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s amendatory veto Friday of a bill meant to reduce the penalties people would face for possession of small amounts of marijuana?

Lege will quarrel this fall over 5 grams

Is our governor some sort of expert in the scientific propensities of pot? Does he comprehend the effects of “Mary Jane” in ways that we mere mortals do not? Is he protecting us from our worst instincts?

OR IS RAUNER merely being contrarian, saying “no” because he can?

I’m inclined to think the latter, mostly because he seems to want to keep elements of the mentality that marijuana is some serious criminal offense – rather than just an addictive substance that weak people can let get the best of themselves.

Just like alcohol, if you want to know the truth. But while the majority of society realizes that “prohibition” was an absurd mistake our society engaged in nearly a century ago, there are those of us who seem determined to want to think of pot as a crime.

Something that ought to be punished by locking people up for as long as possible! Personally, I think it is because there are those in our society who want to think of marijuana as a “hippie” drug – and they want to punish the image to keep the "hard hats" and "flat-tops" happy.

THAT MENTALITY REALLY does nothing but clutter our prisons, jails and court systems with people who ought not to have to face such charges.

Which is what inspired the Illinois General Assembly to approve a bill that lessened penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana. Possession of that single joint or two wouldn’t be a criminal offense in and of itself.

But Rauner issued the amendatory veto, suggesting changes that are meant to make the measure more restrictive.

The Legislature’s version called for anyone caught with under 15 grams of marijuana to merely pay a fine without having to go to court. Fines would top out at $125.

RAUNER, HOWEVER, CLAIMS he thinks the standard should be 10 grams, and that the fines ought to go as high as $200.

Does anyone seriously believe there’s a significant difference? That the additional 5 grams (which could be enough “grass” for about six or seven hand-made pot-stuffed cigarettes) is somehow a difference that makes it worth the time and effort for police and prosecutors to lock someone up and clutter up the court system with more and more of these cheap cases – all to create an image of “law and order” that really doesn’t do a thing to make our society any more safe?

Rauner may have made his millions that could allow him to buy a more sympathetic General Assembly in coming years. But that doesn’t make him an expert in the law, or in narcotics.

It will be interesting to see how this situation resolves itself. Will Rauner’s changes be permitted to stand? Or will the General Assembly feel compelled to take their original version they approved earlier his year and ram them down the governor’s throat?

I WOULDN’T BE surprised to see if it turns out to be the latter. This is a veto-proof majority for Democrats in both chambers of the Illinois Legislature. Over-riding the governor on this seems like a rather mild gesture of rebellion by them against all the hostile rhetoric related to the failure of the sides to agree on a state budget.

And in the end, it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference in the way police handle the people they encounter who are a little too toasted to comprehend what is happening around them.

Although if we’re going to make a point of toughening up laws that are meant to acknowledge that the current drug laws are a bit too tough, then perhaps another Rauner action on Friday is timely – the governor signed into law a measure that declares pumpkin pie to be the Official State Pie of Illinois.

Something to satisfy that craving for junk food one might sense if they smoke that extra 5 grams of pot that Rauner thinks elevates the offense to a higher standard of crime!

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