Wednesday's Sun includes a story by one of our Sun-Times News Group sister publications about how police in the nearby town of Sugar Grove plan to start writing tickets instead of making arrests for first-time offenders caught with small amounts of marijuana. Should Naperville and other towns follow suit?
Sugar Grove Police Chief Bradley Sauer said the change will keep officers from spending long hours in court on minor drug charges and also allow those who slip up just once to keep their records clean.
"This is a warning on steroids," he said.
Tickets for first-time marijuana possession or drug paraphernalia possession will be $200. Sauer said those fines were in line with the fees judges typically hand down in court.
Both marijuana and paraphernalia possession are state violations, but towns can change those to town ordinances if they want, said Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti. However, village ordinances cannot carry any jail time, only fines.
Sugar Grove's new ordinance appears to be a Fox Valley first. Neither Barsanti nor Sauer know of any other area towns that write tickets instead of making arrests for marijuana possession, and several local police departments said they hadn't ever considered doing that.
Bravo to Sugar Grove for exhibiting common sense.
Yes. Absolutely. I think marijuana is less harmful or threatening than alcohol and it mellows you out, not a bad thing for many people.
But the problem is: it is not socially accetable.
I smoked up two weeks ago, along one of the paths near the Millenium and was stared at by a few residents from a distance like I was death. I can see that they got on their cell phones to report me so I had to leave the area.
It's not like I was near children or anything.
I was going to read a book afterward and that's the problem, everyone seems to lump weed in the same category as heavy drugs...and their not
Like Holland, the US should decriminalize most of the drugs and allow hospitals to dispense the hard stuff to addicts that want to poison themselves. When the bars in Holland had to choose between selling marijuana or having a liquor license, the vast majority choose to go with the liquor license, which is where the money is.
Decriminalization would put the gangs, smugglers and a lot of the legal system out of business. Let them OD.
The latest news from the southern border is that smugglers with less than 500 lbs of drugs are set free and returned to Mexico since there are too many to prosecute. Read, the Federal Government does not budget for prosecutors guaranteeing that the smugglers go free.
The war on drugs is a joke with most of our Chief Legal Officers (read Presidents) green lighting the drugs across the border and making sure the drugs keep coming north. The border patrol agents that shot a smuggler were prosecuted by the Bush Administration and sent to prison; the message “stay away from the drug smugglers".
-Why are so many Border Patrol Agents quitting?
-Why are they having trouble attracting new agents?
-Why does President Bush want to intimidate the Border Patrol when it comes to stopping drug smugglers?
-While we do see huge seizures of drugs, we never see huge seizures of cash. Why?
How can Sugar Grove stop the drugs in their community when it is Federal Government policy to flood our streets with the stuff? Yes, decriminalize it!
It's about time. Our prison system is clogged with this ridiculous nonsense. Talk about wasting our tax dollars - it disgusts me that I am financing prison stays for some poor stoner caught with a joint or two, who is, in the long run, far more harmless than many of his fellow convicts.
Frankie,
It also can make people VERY PARANOID.
We already have enough paranoid people in the world who think everyone is out to 'get them'.
I don't think it should be decriminalized but I do believe we need to change the way it is dealt with from an enforcement angle and use that 'paranoia' to our advantage.
For example, if we said the penalty for being involved in an accident if a blood tests comes back as Positive for MJ, then you risk complete confiscation of ALL of your personal property. The ultra paranoid would park their butt on the couch while stoned :)
Where there are food stores and restaurants that are struggling for business, we can have 'we smell nothing' nights. Let's face it, stoned people love to eat. 'We smell nothing' is a way to look the other way on scheduled days to boost the local businesses.
Yes, a lot of this was said tongue in cheek and some has basis. You can determine for yourself which is which.
Anonymous and Downtown --
Can we use your comments in a new public service announcement to demonstrate how smoking weed destroys brain cells? Today's youth can't handle their likker -- and just what I want in my town is a bunch of kiddies driving around, smoking marijuana in the SUVs their parents bought them. Get in trouble in Naperville? Your parents will call a lawyer. My dad would have left me in jail and kicked my a** when I finally got home.
Then there's this from Joe: "For example, if we said the penalty for being involved in an accident if a blood tests comes back as Positive for MJ, then you risk complete confiscation of ALL of your personal property."
Yeah, great idea. We should legalize pot and nail people AFTER they are involved in accidents that might cause death and injury. Clear thinking there, too.
Finally some common sense around here. Yes de-criminalize it
I don't think that DUI laws should change, Tommy, but I don't see what the big deal is if someone wants to smoke up in their own home. You know, just like someone having a beer or two in their own home can do now.
WOW! I would like to congratulate your town officials for making a decision based on things other than marijuana hysteria. Good job, your stance is realistic and reflects the social movement to balancing the justice system. I think you will be suprised by the eventual benefits you should see by making this policy change. We are slowly but surly moving in the right direction all over this country; now if we can just get D.C. to follow in step with the will of the people.
P.S. Anonymous and Downtown, you need to get over it. You seem to be stuck in the Ha80s. Marijuana will not cause your streets to be any different than they are now. The only way to make the streets safer is to close all establishments that serve alcohol. I mean honestly what do you think people do in bars? They don’t have just one drink, 90% of the time they have 3 or more. They get their buzz on and drive home. I honestly don’t even know why its legal to serve in public knowing that driving will happen shortly after they drink in public. What do you have to say about that Anonymous and Downtown?
To: By FL MIke on April 24, 2008 10:33 AM
Mike from reading your post, I think you have me confused with someone else. You might want to scroll further above to read my comments.
A&D
Legalize it, regulate it, and most importantly, tax it. Marijuana is no more harmful than alcohol, and believe it or not, actually has valid medical uses. By de-criminalizing marijuana, stress would be taken off the already over-crowded and costly to the tax payers penal system. Regulating it would destroy a good part of the illegal drug trade and all the other crime that goes along with it. But most importantly, taxing it would create a new massive income source for our government to be used in more ways than I could even begin to imagine.
Prohibition doesn't work! I t never has and never will. If you research the origins of Marijuana prohibition, you will find some of the most pathetic, illogical and downright stupid reasonings for a law in all of US history.
FACE IT...
Marijuana is comparatively safe.
-Produces no direct deaths.
-It is involved in less traffic accidents than cell phones
-The argument that says "you cant tax a plant" apparently hasn't taken into consideration tobacco.
-The idea that marijuana shoudl be illegal because of it's potency is just as illogical. Look at what happened during alcohol prohibition. Drastic increase of the production of gin, whiskey and moonshine. Hardly any wine or beer. Why? Cause the black market dictates that your more profitable when your have higher potency per given volume.
PLEASE...when considering marijuana, think THROUGHLY before forming an opinion.
We have had to ban over the counter meds because children abuse them. We know children empty liquior cabinets at home. The messages we send are the only way we can impact the future for our kids. I'm guessing Sugar Grove did this so they could ticket the life out of college students at Waubonsee college. They are notorious for speed traps and ticket writing in that small village and this is just more revenue. You should be careful what you wish for. Marijuana is still vastly understudied and does show longterm lung damage and the number of chemical compounds in pot have not been studied. That being said marijuana off the streets is often tainted and is very unsafe overall. Marijuana is a gateway drug. Ask any drug addict. Should we legalize it so it will be a controlled substance? Do you want to buy it like cigarettes? At what age? You can't make a bunch of blanket statements about a drug that while it is popular it is not without blame for socital problems.
Actually...alcohol is a "gateway drug". So are cigarettes. Both are legal and both are often used by drug abusers before moving on to illegal drugs.
Ease up on pot smokers to free up police assets to go after kingpins? It's a great sound bite but it wouldn't work.
Cracking down on supply while ignoring demand would increase the profit, even if demand stays flat. Increasing profit in ANY business draws in more entrepreneurs, and if the business is an ILLEGAL business, they will tend to be violent men, disrespectful of the law. Consider the legendary violence during National Prohibition in the 1920s, when we arrested alcohol kingpins but not alcohol drinkers. The profit, illegal, untaxed and huge, attracted men like Al Capone and Roy Olmstead. Ultimately, it was the violence, disrespect for the law and the need for liquor tax revenue that ended our "noble experiment."
Exactly the same logic applies to marijuana today. Legalization is the ONLY way to put drug kingpins out of business for keeps and divert their revenue to the public treasury.
Again how are you going to legalize it? Are we going to legalize it before the compound studies are done? Long term marijuana use translates into long term health issues. Remember cigarettes people? Yes alcohol and cigarettes are gateway drugs and legalized, and what good has come of it? A government tax. Big deal, the long term implications of alcohol use and cigarette addiction on the society costs far more than the tax brings in! Domestic violence and crime can be tied to drug abuse and yes much of it is simply alcohol use. What makes you think pot is any better. One silly little statistic shows emergency room visits for accidents (household that is) and pot use are linked. "WOW man I forgot to turn off the stove." Lastly I'd like to tie the cost of police overtime to legalization of yet another drug. You think you have court overtime costs now.? Legalize marijuana and see how much more court time officers have for pot violations. How many more accidental fires the fire department responds to! Keep teaching prevention and never mind legalizing another stupid drug.
I applaude Sugar Grove! It's a step in the right direction! Don't arrest innocent kids for having a little pot on them. With cigarettes and alcohol, it's the safest of the three. Give the parent's more trust and control on how to raise their kids. I strongly suggest speaking to your local and state official about a similar law in your town.
God Bless America
I think the idea is great. Alcohol is the scariest drug out there and is linked with much more health risks and violent behavior than marijuana. If the youth of today smoked pot instead of turning to alcohol we might see a much safer and well-behaved society.
To Anonymous: Your last comment was way over the top and thus deleted. That hypothesis you cited may have been accurately stated, at that point in time, but it boggles the mind that you would actually submit such a racially-charged comment. You must have been trying to wind us up. You failed.
Taking a line from good ole Jimmy Carter, the punishment for mairjuana shouldn't be more damaging than the effects of abusing it. Having a criminal record for smoking marijuana has the same effect on your life as having a criminal record for violent crime. In the eyes of most imployers, property managers, banks, credit agencies, etc, a criminal record is a criminal record. It is far more devastating to ones life than responsibly smoking marijuana in the privacy of their home.
I can appreciate peoples moral arguments and opinions for maintaining the prohibition. Unfortunately, most of what is written here to support the prohibition makes me think that the authors are basing their opinions more upon what they've been told / read / seen in the media than on actual, personal experience with marijuana. You really have to look deep into this type of propaganda to see the truth - it can't be taken at face value. For example, the 2008 marijuana report released by the white house uses the fact that marijuana is the #1 cause for illegal drug use as its primary point in prohibition - its actually on the cover. The intelligent observer will realize that this is only because it's illegal. Make alcohol, cigarettes or even sugar or caffiene illegal, and there is no longer any point.
Google "Drug War Clock" and find out for yourself why prohibition is useless.
i understand that it is harmful n alot of ways but in the constitution it says u have the right to free will ass long as u dont harm others so if i wanna relax after work n smoke a blunt its against my rights to criminalize me for that now there could be rules like no driving etc.
another thing alot of ppl have wrong belifes bcuz they have never tried weed n mommy n daddy say no no
but you can drink at 21
look at the facts how many ppl died from alchohal the number jus went up between drinking to much n dui its crazy now tell me how many ppl died from marijuana..
nuff said