* From a Taylorville Daily News interview of the Christian County sheriff…

Sheriff Bruce Kettelkamp and the Sheriff’s Association along with the Chiefs of Police are very concerned over the pending legalization of marijuana put forward in the State of Illinois and Sheriff Kettelkamp is urging citizens to contact Senator Andy Manar and let him know that the proposal for the legalization of marijuana is a very bad idea and that it is creating a public risk and putting at jeopardy the safety of the citizens of Christian County and the state.

Sheriff Kettelkamp is also concerned with the home grown part of the law which would allow citizens to grow up to five plants in their yard. Kettelkamp says that he’s worried about the drug cartel coming in and buying up the houses and selling on the black market cheaper than at the commercial places.

Sheriff Kettelkamp says that while Representative Avery Bourne is against the bill, he doesn’t believe Senator Andy Manar is, and he hopes that everyone contacts Senator Manar to tell him to vote against it.

Last I checked, Sheriff Kettelkamp himself hadn’t yet called Sen. Manar about the bill. Manar told Bernie this week he’s still on the fence…

State Sen. ANDY MANAR, D-Bunker Hill, said he thinks there is “zero” chance of the session going into June — though he is also skeptical about quick passage of recreational marijuana legislation. Such a big change in policy “usually doesn’t happen in a matter of months,” he said, and he is not yet in the “yes” column for the change.

And as far as home grow goes, I have a tough time believing that a Chinese or Jamaican drug cartel could descend upon Christian County, which is 96.6 percent white, and remain unnoticed for very long.

* Possessing five or fewer pot plants is currently a Class A Misdemeanor in Illinois. According to the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council, 42 people were arrested in Illinois for that particular violation in Fiscal Year 2018. That’s way down from the 125 busted in FY 2010. A SPAC chart provided to lawmakers…

* Meanwhile, stubborn prohibitionists are helping the black market thrive in California…

It’s been a little more than a year since California legalized marijuana — the largest such experiment in the United States — but law enforcement officials say the unlicensed, illegal market is still thriving and in some areas has even expanded. […]

California gives cities wide latitude to regulate cannabis, resulting in a confusing patchwork of regulation. Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose and San Diego have laws allowing cannabis businesses, but most smaller cities and towns in the state do not — 80 percent of California’s nearly 500 municipalities do not allow retail marijuana businesses. The ballot measure legalizing recreational marijuana passed in 2016 with 57 percent approval, but that relatively broad support has not translated to the local level. Cities like Compton or Laguna Beach decisively rejected allowing pot shops.

Regulators cite this tepid embrace by California municipalities as one of many reasons for the state’s persistent and pervasive illegal market. Only 620 cannabis shops have been licensed in California so far. Colorado, with a population one-sixth the size of California, has 562 licensed recreational marijuana stores.

* Related…

* Hundreds rally in Springfield to demand pot tax revenue go to communities hard hit by low-level drug crime: Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton told the crowd at Thursday’s rally in Springfield the “best kind of policy-making is done when we hear directly from the people from our communities.” … “There’s another part of justice, and that is making sure that communities that have been harmed through decades of disinvestment also know that in order to restore our communities, we must also invest in our communities,” Stratton said. “And this means we have to make sure that as investments are made and we look at budgetary considerations, communities are not left out.”

* Here’s what’s holding up the Illinois marijuana bill: “I’m feeling cautiously optimistic that we’ll get this done,” Steans said. “Threading the needle on expungement is probably the most challenging part.”

       

32 Comments - wordslinger - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:06 am: –* Meanwhile, stubborn prohibitionists are helping the black market thrive in California…– And after the Volstead Act was repealed, dry counties still had bootleggers. Still do. Anyone think it’s difficult to get some Jack Daniels dry Tennessee counties? Or some Wild Turkey in dry Kentucky counties? Same as it ever was. - Da Big Bad Wolf - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:07 am: So if I read this right, Sheriff Kettlecamp is afraid cartels will buy houses to grow five plants per house? Houses are that cheap in Christian County for that to be a viable business plan? - IT guy - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:10 am: Cartels buying up houses in Christian county? How much additional property tax revenue will that bring in? I’m sure there is plenty of marijuana being grown in Christian county already by Christian county residents. If the cartels wanted to buy properties in Taylorville, I don’t think they are waiting for the 5 plant homegrow law to be passed. These guys are really out of touch with what is already going on out there. - Rich Miller - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:12 am: ===if I read this right=== You didn’t. - TopHatMonocle - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:16 am: Sometimes I wonder if opponents of this bill actually believe what they’re saying. Drug cartels clearly don’t care that what they’re doing is illegal. If cannabis stays illegal they continue operating as usual. On the flip side, why would a cartel come to a place where it was just made legal. They would have to compete with legal businesses that provide a better product, more variety, better customer service, and whose customers can make purchases without fear of prosecution. If anything, continuing prohibition encourages cartels to enter our market because they’ll be pushed out of places that have legalized recreational use. - Grandson of Man - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:23 am: All the worry in the world about what cartels might do if we legalize five plants per household doesn’t remotely compare to what cartels are doing now that they have the entire recreational marijuana market for themselves. Reefer Madness should be entered in the DSM as a mental disorder. - Glenn - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:23 am: “[T]he legalization of marijuana is a very bad idea and that it is creating a public risk and putting at jeopardy the safety of the citizens of Christian County and the state.” A law that’s purpose is to serve the interest of public safety should not be a greater threat to public safety than the danger that has been legislated against. The public has been under a greater threat from police and the courts under laws that criminalize use of a relatively harmless and commonly used recreational and medically useful drug. - Jocko - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:23 am: ==drug cartel coming in and buying up the houses== Why stop there? Maybe the cartel could “turn” someone on their the police force and have a “man on the inside”? He and his detectives should set to work and find out how high this conspiracy goes…possibly the White House (exclamation point) /s - Huh? - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:24 am: Home grown pot will be the next crop to end up on the office kitchen counter, along with the tomatoes and zucchini. Just imagine a few blunts or baggies of loose leaf, free for the taking. - XonXoff - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:33 am: – Just imagine a few blunts or baggies of loose leaf, free for the taking. – Given that would be illegal in Illinois, under the current bill as written, I rather doubt it. - Collinsville Kevin - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:35 am: Get off that fence Andy Manar. Time to prove you have a bigger brain than Avery or the sheriff. - Grandson of Man - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:40 am: If I didn’t understand Republican Christianity I wouldn’t get why Republicans are against expunging criminal records of “the least of these” who suffered the most due to marijuana prohibition. - Louis G. Atsaves - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:41 am: It seems like the “home grown” component and the automatic expungements of prior convictions of possession/sale of marijuana is causing much of the consternation. Perhaps it would be logical to proceed without the “home grown” and automatic expungements first, then integrate those problematic proposals at a later date once fears are allayed? - Rich Miller - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:46 am: ===Perhaps it would be logical to proceed without the “home grown” and automatic expungements=== A bill won’t pass without expungements. - wordslinger - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:46 am: Have Downstate coppers so little to worry about that they can get wound up about a few pot plants? I was under the impression that meth and opioids were serious problems in rural Illinois. You know, those highly addictive drugs that can kill you, peddled by murderous gangs? Good to know that those scourges have been eradicated, and the coppers are looking for something to keep busy. - Donnie Elgin - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:48 am: ” Republicans are against expunging criminal records of “the least of these” who suffered the most due to marijuana prohibition” expungement is a legal process that requires a court filing and approval by a judge. “Blanket” expungement is not a thing and it look more like a “pardon”. Either way the legislature has no power to grant either retroactive expungements or a pardons. Go back and rewrite with some input from States Attorney groups - Pundent - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:56 am: If the cartel was really interested in trafficking drugs for profit in Christian county, they’d do it the old fashioned way. Buy a house and open a meth lab. Far more lucrative than growing 5 plants. - vole - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 10:59 am: For many, occasional, recreationalists, using an ounce or two at most per year, there will be absolutely no incentive for messing with home grow. And much incentive to not be contributing to the illegal trade that does sometimes end with deadly consequence for traffickers: https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/local/old-hawthorne-killing-linked-to-high-grade-pot-trafficking-operation/article_54f45c54-782f-11e9-896b-e721208ff2ae.html - Arsenal - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 11:02 am: ==A bill won’t pass without expungements.== Nor should it. But you can probably rein in the number of expungemenements a bit. - Pundent - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 11:09 am: =It seems like the “home grown” component and the automatic expungements of prior convictions of possession/sale of marijuana is causing much of the consternation.= The intent of this consternation is not to improve the bill, it’s to kill it. - Rich Miller - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 11:10 am: Pundent is exactly right. - wordslinger - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 11:26 am: –The intent of this consternation is not to improve the bill, it’s to kill it. Pundent is exactly right.– Bad faith. - NeveroddoreveN - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 11:53 am: Can the General Assembly in Illinois really screw up something that nearly 70% of its voter base desire? - BCOSEC - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 12:57 pm: For what it’s worth (and maybe apples and oranges) Mexican Drug cartels do have direct contract with local meth dealers in Downstate Illinois. Review some Federal prosecutions in the S.D. of Illinois in Benton. - Kentucky Bluegrass x Featherbed Bent x Northern California Sinsemilla - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 1:12 pm: Isn’t this the same Sheriff Kettelkamp who was terrified of medical cannabis and decriminalizing cannabis? Perhaps he should be telling us of the horrors in Christian county since those laws were enacted because he is starting to come off as chicken little with all these claims. Expungements are necessary but so is homegrow. Homegrow provides a check against the very limited cultivation center growers in IL who will struggle to keep up with the demand. If this bill passes Jan.1 sales will see some of the worst shortages of cannabis of any legalization rollouts seen yet. And that will just keep in place an illegal marketplace and possibly screw the medical patients despite the language about adequate inventory for the medical market. Perhaps after a few years and craft growers bringing product to market the supply will come close to meeting demand but as it stands IL will come up very short in meeting the expected demand for legal sales. - Rich Miller - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 1:15 pm: ===Expungements are necessary but so is homegrow=== I don’t think homegrow is absolutely necessary to pass the bill. Expungements are, however. - Anonymous - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 1:31 pm: ====Perhaps it would be logical to proceed without the “home grown” and automatic expungements==== It probably wouldn’t make a difference. The prohibitionists would gravitate to some other obscure issue with legalization. They are flat out against it no matter what. - Jarhead - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 1:35 pm: There is no bounty in Christian county. - Ill,res - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 1:42 pm: Thanks cap.fax. These posts make my day. So funny. Who knows ,this may play in taylorville. I can’t imagine this sherif is really this dumb. Sounds like somebody is afraid of the big bad cartel. Lol - vole - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 1:52 pm: I thank Sen. Heather Stearns and Rep. Kelly Cassidy and their staffs and co-sponsors and supportive members of the state legislature, who would enable the vast majority of us with interests in their legislation to be law abiding citizens and contribute to the commonwealth of Illinois. All of their efforts in crafting this complex and difficult legislation is much appreciated. - Kentucky Bluegrass x Featherbed Bent x Northern California Sinsemilla - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 2:24 pm: After consulting my attorney i was informed that most charges for those found growing actually don’t get charged with a cultivation offense but with the weight of the plant including the dirt, so that may reflect why the SPAC numbers are so low. - Rabid - Friday, May 17, 19 @ 2:46 pm: Afraid of Jamaicans, they did shoot the sheriff Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.