* Naperville…
Council members were offered the options to begin the process of amending zoning code to allow retail sale of adult-use cannabis, prepare documentation for the city to opt out of the sale, or administer a community engagement survey to get resident input.
The council members chose to start the opt-out process…
Stores selling recreational marijuana will not be permitted to open in Naperville, city council members decided in a split vote, saying they want to protect their family-friendly brand and await data on how adult use affects communities.
“We have a great community here and we need to keep the protection of it paramount,” council member Kevin Coyne said.
The move makes Naperville among the first suburban communities to ban sales of the drug, which will be legal for adult possession and private use across the state beginning Jan. 1 under the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act.
Council member Patty Gustin on Tuesday sent an email to contacts encouraging them to speak out and said she fears the costs of increased addiction as well as the potential for “big marijuana” to profit from legal sales.
Prohibiting sales, she said, will safeguard Naperville’s families, and losing potential tax revenue won’t hurt the city’s bottom line.
“The true cost is not opting out and sitting on our hands until this is forced upon us,” she said during more than two hours of debate on the topic Tuesday night. “There’s no dollar amount worth selling out our kids.”
Um, your kids are gonna buy it from dealers who don’t check ID cards. The more towns that allow sales, the more pressure is put on the illegal and often violent criminal networks which grow, transport and deliver the product.
* The argument that a couple of dispensaries will kill “the brand” is ridic…
“There is nothing family friendly about recreational marijuana. Family friendly is Naperville’s brand,” resident Jennifer Taylor said.
Councilwoman Brodhead countered that position, saying a handful of marijuana businesses would be unlikely to have any effect on people’s perception of the city.
“I don’t see there is going to be any loss of brand by allowing a limited number of recreational marijuana dispensaries in Naperville,” Brodhead said. “I think we are afraid of something that will not happen.”
The city looks at alcohol in a very serious way, particularly in times when it had to deal with such negatives as bar fights and DUI accidents, but there’s still a lot of alcohol sold in Naperville, she said.
I thought I was finished dealing with the misinformation on this topic when the GA passed the bill. Apparently not. Ignorance and panic abound.
…Adding… A golden nugget from comments…
So, let me see if I’ve got this right. Naperville won’t partake of the tax dollars of legal marijuana, but it will be legal there, so residents will spend their money elsewhere. Good plan.
* On to Springfield…
Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder said with a medical dispensary already operating in the city, he expects city alderman to find the best place to allow recreational sales.
“What’s that right number of dispensary areas and that’s what we’ll have to determine,” Langfelder said. “We’ll at least have one for the first year. After that, that’s where we’ll really fine-tune things and see how it’s working.”
Existing medical dispensaries can apply for licenses to sell recreational cannabis. The state will then roll out more licenses for additional growing and selling licenses to other applicants.
Langfelder said city leaders will likely be cautious.
“We don’t want the proliferation like video gaming, everywhere,” Langfelder said. “And that’s really the concern. I was at the Levitt [AMP] Concert Series [an outdoor concert in downtown Springfield] and I could smell it in the air so I think people are already testing it out.”
Yeah. People are just now starting to smoke weed. Right.
* Springfield-area politicos have been saying the same thing since at least 1938…
Sangamon County resisted “reefer madness,” but marijuana finally arrived in Springfield in 1938.
“Brilliant raids” by two Springfield police detectives resulted in the arrests of three men — two locals and one from Youngstown, Ohio — on Aug. 6, 1938, the Illinois State Journal reported the next day. The officers seized “enough marijuana to manufacture more than a thousand of the cigarets that are proving a plague to some of the youth of the nation,” the newspaper said.
The bust seems to have been the first ever in Sangamon County. In fact, county juvenile probation officer Gwendolen Sherman told the Journal in December 1937 she had seen no evidence of marijuana being used locally.
“If there is any marijuana in Springfield, it’s certainly well hidden,” Sherman said.
* That SJ-R lede was totally wrong as well. From the Sangamon County Historical Society…
Marijuana had been a component of some prescription and patent medicines before passage of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, which regulated and taxed marijuana and other forms of Cannabis sativa. The law drove use of psychoactive marijuana underground; it also basically destroyed the production of industrial hemp (which does not have intoxicating properties) in the U.S.
The new costs and red tape led Springfield pharmacists to stop using marijuana in medicines they compounded almost immediately, the Journal reported in November 1937.
* A bit more history…
In the early 1900s an influx of Mexican immigrants came to the US fleeing political unrest in their home country. With them, they brought the practice of smoking cannabis recreationally. And it took off. The Spanish word for the plant started to be used more often too. Marijuana. Or as it was spelled at that time, marihuana, with an “H. This is when the more sensational headlines about the drug began to appear.
In 1936, a propaganda film called Reefer Madness was released. In the movie, teenagers smoke weed for the first time and this leads to a series of horrific events involving hallucination, attempted rape, and murder. Much of the media portrayed it as a gateway drug. […]
Harry Anslinger took the scientifically unsupported idea of marijuana as a violence-inducing drug, connected it to black and Hispanic people, and created a perfect package of terror to sell to the American media and public. By emphasizing the Spanish word marihuana instead of cannabis, he created a strong association between the drug and the newly arrived Mexican immigrants who helped popularize it in the States. He also created a narrative around the idea that cannabis made black people forget their place in society. He pushed the idea that jazz was evil music created by people under the influence of marijuana. […]
In the first full year after the Marihuana Tax Act was passed, black people were about three times more likely to be arrested for violating narcotic drug laws than whites. And Mexicans were nearly nine times more likely to be arrested for the same charge.
* Photo of the folks arrested in that 1938 Springfield bust…
Surprise, surprise.
* Related…
* Naperville gas station worker suspended after telling Latino customers ‘ICE will come’
* Naperville leader calls for Stava-Murray’s resignation over ‘white supremacist policies’ comments
- Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:18 am:
So those Napervillians will still drive to the city to buy their weed.
That’s a big change.
- MakePoliticsCoolAgain - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:20 am:
=“We don’t want the proliferation like video gaming, everywhere,” Langfelder said.=
But YOU and the city council voted to allow pretty much every business and new establishment to install video gaming machines. If Langfelder allows the city of Springfield to lose out on the tax revenue from recreational marijuana, the Langfelder name will be done, as well as his brother in the Recorder’s office, who is already looking for his next political gig.
- TheInvisibleMan - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:21 am:
The reefer madness that will come out of neighboring plainfield shortly will be one for the books.
You should have heard the fear mongering they were spouting even when merely discussing medical dispensaries a few years ago.
But back to the subject;
There are a lot of areas in Naperville that are not technically in Naperville. They are unincorporated land. There are unincorporated stretches of 75th st. with commercial outlots that are likely the next destination of anyone looking to open in the Naperville area.
Unless the entirety of DuPage county opts out, the Naperville area will have a merchant, but not technically in naperville.
- NaperThrill - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:22 am:
As a former Napervillian, I am not surprised in the least. They take that family friendly thing seriously and I can only imagine how terrified they made themselves thinking what type of crowd would start appearing if marijuana shops opened up downtown. It’s goofy but not surprising. The big question for me is if they would ever actually reconsider when it turns out they were wrong, or just exaggerate a couple of rare cases to justify maintaining the ban.
- Dotnonymous - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:23 am:
Just like today…apparently only dark skinned people consume Marihuana…or at least that is who is prosecuted…don’t you already know.
- RNUG - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:24 am:
I thought it was more liberal with North Central College there. Guess the board members are all a bunch of NIMBYs.
- Homer J. Quinn - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:26 am:
that’s some fascinating local history on the arrest photo. let’s make Happy Hollow great again.
- Annonin' - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:26 am:
Here is a potential QOTD —- exactly “brand” is Naperville protecting ? Home of whack jobs like Wherli, moderate wealthy folks miles from the Loop with a handful of copy cat restaurants to make them forget about the sometimes gritty Aurora. Just checking
- Bruce (no not him) - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:29 am:
So, let me see if I’ve got this right. Naperville won’t partake of the tax dollars of legal marijuana, but it will be legal there, so residents will spend their money elsewhere. Good plan.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:30 am:
I personally think folks drinking the equivalent of six six-packs of beer at Hugo’s Frog Bar and then driving home isn’t “family friendly” either, but what the heck do I know?
- Scaramucci Cuccinelli - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:31 am:
I guess I’d expect this from the Wheaton City Council (maybe), not Naperville’s. This vote may be a campaign issue - not sure if a fair poll (not a push poll) has been done on the issue in Naperville. Younger voters and new arrivals just don’t care about this issue at this level and if a town on the border allows for Rec sales, what’s the point of not allowing it in Naperville where smoking it will still be legal?
- Ben James - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:33 am:
The U.S. Federal government’s position on cannabis is, and has always been blatant bold faced lies. More evidence comes out every day proving that cannabis is much safer than alcoholic beverages or tobacco products. The DEA “drug schedule” has absolutely nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with politics and government corruption. Based on the DEA cannabis is more dangerous than Methamphetamine, Cocaine or Fentanyl!! Serial killers tobacco and alcohol are not even on the DEA drug schedule!
* SCHEDULE 1
Heroin, LSD, Marijuana (cannabis), MDA (ecstasy)
* SCHEDULE 2
Cocaine, Methamphetamine, Oxycodone, Fentanyl, Dexedrine.
* SCHEDULE 3
Tylenol with codeine, Ketamine, Anabolic steroids, Testosterone.
Enough with reefer madness, Legalize, regulate and tax recreational cannabis!
- par - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:36 am:
Very anti Naperville councilwoman/realtor Patty Gustin sent out an email to her mailing list telling people to sign up to speak which is very unusual.
Later at the meeting:
“Resident Jim Hasselhorst asks city how if he was first to sign up for public comment how several coordinated “anti-marijuana” speakers got to the queue in front of him. No one seemed to know, though there was some suggestion of online registration, which is apparently down”
How convenient.
Ref 1: https://twitter.com/erin_hegarty/status/1151151156107890688
Ref 2: https://twitter.com/erin_hegarty/status/1151324769620566016
- Iggy - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:36 am:
I fully expect to have to drive an hour round trip to make purchases once it is legal. All of the townships around me will be shrieking in horror with even the thought of some green neon signage attracting the less desirables to their town.
- Pyrman - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:38 am:
In 1977 my freshman year at Carbondale my roommate arrived from his hometown of Naperville with a half pound of weed, in case he couldn’t find any in Carbondale.
- NaperThrill - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:39 am:
@Annonin
If I may help, the brand is basically “live the stereotypical upper middle class white lifestyle without having to deal anything that threatens to disrupt the illusion.” They call it the Naperbubble for a reason, because the local government and police view it as there job to keep anything they deem unpleasant out. When I was younger, I remember so many Naperivlle people who were terrified of going to Aurora or Joliet because it was “bad”. Like Rich quotes in the article, we don’t even allow happy hours because the threat of people drinking to much would disrupt the illusion of the idealistic suburban life.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:40 am:
Last weekend while in Naperville driving down Ogden Avenue passed a number of yard signs in front of businesses selling “CBD” products. No evidence of medical clinic, etc. on the buildings. In Lisle, one CBD sign was posted in front of a Family Video Store.
Jumping the gun a bit? Reason for the panic?
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:43 am:
Aurora is happy.
- lakeside - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:45 am:
==So those Napervillians will still drive to the city to buy their weed==
Cool. Come spend that money in our economy. Pick up some take out in the neighborhood while you’re here. You know, for later.
- Norseman - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:46 am:
Naperville has a history of poor judgment. Aurora is the beneficiary of the ignorance of its leaders so long ago. I still remember the precinct map of Aurora after it agreed to annex a large tract of land around Fox Valley Mall. Precinct 72 was huge because it encompassed a lot of unoccupied land. It became a major population and money win for the city.
- Shemp - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:50 am:
Cities don’t allow the proliferation of gaming. ===But YOU and the city council voted to allow pretty much every business and new establishment to install video gaming machines. ===
You either ban it or it’s everywhere. The State determines who gets the licenses and if you have a liquor license and don’t have a questionable record, you get a gaming license. The only way to limit video gaming locally is to limit the number of available liquor licenses. At least with the marijuana, cities have a little more control with the zoning.
- Dotnonymous - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:51 am:
Did you catch Darin (Harry) Lahood…The newly crowned King of Reefer Madness Redux…stating he was “against” marijuana legalization…and that he still considered cannabis a gateway drug…?
- Roadrager - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:51 am:
CBD and marijuana are two completely different things, even if one is technically derived from the other. You can buy CBD at any Family Video store, get it shipped to you via Amazon or through the U.S. Mail, buy it in baked goods at some places in the city trying too hard to be trendy, wherever.
Expressing shock at CBD being for sale is like driving through a dry county and saying, “I can’t believe the stores here sell grape juice.”
- West Side the Best Side - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:51 am:
Reading the story of the arrest, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Springfield PD had black detectives (the two gentlemen on both ends of the photo) back in 1938. Maybe Rocco, the guy in the middle, was the Outfit connection. (Joking about that part.)
- crazybleedingheart - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:51 am:
More money than sense, that’s Naperville’s brand.
- Wallinger Dickus - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:52 am:
“Careful man, there’s a beverage here.”
– The Dude
- Don’t ban me - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:54 am:
Naperville? Where key parties and wife swapping is prevalent and also has one of the highest heroine overdose rates per population in Illinois? They don’t want to sell legalized weed? **ultra high palm slap to the forehead and walks away…
- Practical Politics - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:54 am:
Meh.
I assume Naperville is a home rule unit of government. I cannot recall people being angry when various municipalities opted out of video gaming by exercising home rule.
- Diverdown - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 11:54 am:
TheInvisibleMan hits the nail on the head. There are lots of unincorporated parts of Naperville. I hope they come to their senses and zone for dispensaries as there is plenty of cannabis usage in Naperville.
- Dotnonymous - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 12:09 pm:
I’m fairly certain many of the opt-outers are opting out of their own seats.
Beware simply means be… aware.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 12:14 pm:
===I cannot recall people being angry when various municipalities opted out of video gaming===
I’m still peeved at Chicago for opting out. Cost the state a lot of dough.
- OneMan - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 12:23 pm:
Just like Napervillians can cross RT 59 into Aurora to play video poker, we will be more than happy to welcome them to Aurora to buy their legal pot.
I am sure they are going to come to Aurora and say ‘opt out too’ I really hope they are given brochures about various places next to the border where Aurora will more than happy to allow dispensaries.
If they wanted it ‘on brand’ for Naperville it would be made hypercompetative for their kids somehow with all sort of professionals willing to play to fears of your kid somehow ‘falling behind’ who would have facilites to train your kid so they could play ‘travel stoner’. That would be on brand for Naperville.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 12:24 pm:
===The only way to limit video gaming locally is to limit the number of available liquor licenses===
Right. And Langfelder could’ve easily prevented these little gambling bars from sprouting up everywhere by not giving them liquor licenses. Yet, he bemoans their prevalence. Makes no sense.
- James Knell - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 12:28 pm:
Harry Anslinger should be in the first rank of the Racist Crimes Against Humanity Hall of Shame.
- Illinois Resident - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 12:38 pm:
Completely pointless by Naperville and hypocritical if they sell alcohol. So residents there will now have to drive 20 minutes to another township. Reefer madness at its finest.
- Flat Bed Ford - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 12:41 pm:
Well, Any chance of Rich Miller ever visiting Naperville just went up in smoke.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 12:45 pm:
===just went up in smoke===
Meh. I got bigger no-go zones right now. lol
- Very Anonymous - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 12:53 pm:
Graduated from Naperville Central many years ago. There was a headshop that sold graphix bongs in Naperville. Anybody remember that place. Weed was always strong and plentiful in Naperville. (No knowledge about the present situation
- Grandson of Man - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 12:56 pm:
“saying they want to protect their family-friendly brand”
Maybe, unless they’re Mexicans or other Latin Americans. Naperville has to clean up a PR mess now. A white gas station clerk told a Mexican citizen that her family members, who were visiting from Mexico, have to go back to their own country and are illegals, because they spoke Spanish.
[Gee, what could be influencing that?]
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1031071
Reefer Madness started because of Mexicans, so it kind of figures.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 1:06 pm:
=Council member Patty Gustin on Tuesday sent an email to contacts encouraging them to speak out and said she fears the costs of increased addiction as well as the potential for “big marijuana” to profit from legal sales.=
Very Anonymous is right. There used to be a head shop in Naperville before it exploded in population and self righteousness.
A friend of mine used to grow weed under his bed (until his mom busted him) back in the 1980’s.
But what evs. I am sure Ms. Gustin s also going after Big Pharma (opioids) and Big everything else right?
Probably not.
- Just Observing - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 1:08 pm:
Deerfield’s Mayor’s take (who actually is supporting allowing a facility in town for tax revenue but opposes legalization overall):
““There are going to be people driving in the village,” Rosenthal said. “They’re going to be on our streets. There are going to be people who have episodes. There are psychotic episodes that go along with this. There are other types of health issues. They’re going to call for ambulances.””
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/deerfield/ct-dfr-recreational-marijuana-planning-tl-0718-20190712-dq4t6cqll5eztebszehqc4opzi-story.html
- Last Bull Moose - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 1:21 pm:
As a resident of Naperville, seems I have an educational task.
Marijuana is a gateway drug because it uses the same transportation and marketing channels as harder drugs. Break that link and the gateway effect is reduced.
- Blue Dog Dem - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 1:35 pm:
Get#Weedwise.
Californias legalization has not made a dent in the black market.
Wiil the same be true in Illinois.
- Left Leaner - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 1:40 pm:
This reminds me of people freaking out about tattoo parlors in neighborhoods years ago. Everyone thought they were going to ruin the neighborhood and kill the family vibe.
And then it turns out that the vast majority are really good neighbors and bring more businesses into the neighborhood.
- sulla - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 1:58 pm:
Honestly? Good. I hope that affluent suburbs pearl-clutch their way out of this market for now.
My fervent hope is that come Jan 1, the majority of new dispensaries will be in cities and towns that actually need the revenue, have vacant real estate to fill and have large numbers of unemployed to hire. Let Quincy, Danville, LaSalle, Kankakee etc. get in on the ground floor of this new industry.
- OneMan - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 2:17 pm:
They’re going to be on our streets. There are going to be people who have episodes. There are psychotic episodes that go along with this. There are other types of health issues. They’re going to call for ambulances.””
You take out the phrase episodes and pyshotic epiosdes and replace them with fractures you could be talking about a trampoline park Mr Mayor
- Grandson of Man - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 2:33 pm:
It is beautiful to finally get out from under the thumb of Reefer Madness.
The Naperville racist incident is now on national TV. Gov. Kasich said it made him sick to his stomach.
- Chicago Cynic - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 2:49 pm:
I don’t know what the problem is with communities choosing to opt-out. I suspect a lot of communities up and down the state will follow suit. They are choosing not to receive the modest tax revenues in their communities (assuming they even have local sales taxes). That’s their choice.
- XonXoff - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 2:59 pm:
Their family-friendly brand…
“Mr. Mayor, I have someone named Karma for you on line 2 and CNN is in the lobby.”
- Anyone Remember - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 3:24 pm:
Blue Dog Dem -
Nearly 80% of CA municipalities do not allow legal marijuana sales. Hence the black market’s continued existence.
- zatoichi - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 4:08 pm:
I am sure whatever weed shop opens up across the street from Naperville will do just fine from the family friendly Naperville residents.
- CEA - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 4:33 pm:
My heart goes out to all the Napervillians who will be forced to undertake the perilous journey to Aurora or Lisle or Bolingbrook for their weed.
- Maryjane - Thursday, Jul 18, 19 @ 5:10 pm:
Imo: Positive reinforcement is something people usually don’t expect and it makes a good impression. If your town opts out and you have to drive to another municipality to legally purchase Cannabis, I suggest filling up your gas tank, go to Walmart or Target if you need to, and do your grocery shopping there, in the friendly town, Perhaps treat yourself to a meal at a restaurant, etc. Inform the Manager on Duty everywhere you make a purchase, that they are getting your business because their community supports the right of an adult to legally purchase Cannabis.