By: Diane Benjamin
The City of Bloomington is holding a Committee of the Whole meeting tonight. On the Agenda:
The last time appointments to Boards and Commission were discussed it got contentious. Renner wanted an appointment many on the Council objected to. The entire process was tabled until tonight for more discussion.
Video Gaming licenses could get contentious too. I imagine there will be comments about government’s need to protect citizens from themselves. Tari will be appalled at the amounts plucked in machines. Even though the City rakes in a lot of money, Tari would rather people get their entertainment at government establishments. Have popcorn ready.
Pages 25 and 26 of the packet aren’t on the agenda: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=22187
The topic is Adult Use Cannabis. Maybe they can explain why smoking cigarettes has been vilified for decades, but smoking pot is now a government run revenue program.
Unlike Colorado, growing your own is still illegal unless it’s for medical use.
Maybe this is why the two pages are included:
Is somebody seeing Dollar Signs?
I just want to make sure that non smoking rules apply to marijuana. I don’t care what you do in your house, but I have asthma and don’t want to have issues when I go out.
The ONLY reason pot was legalized was for the greedy politicians to get more spending money from taxpayers. Public safety be damned.
Big misconception is all cannabis is smoked. There are edibles. It is legitimate medicine for some. I understand the concerns about public use. Most using for medical reasons will not be an issue.
No objections to licensed cannabis companies. A word of caution to Tari & Co. seeing dollar signs, Colorado and California got greedy by overtaxing and overregulating cannabis to the point where the licensed market can’t even come close to competing with the black market. (Yes, the illegal market will always have an advantage because they don’t play by the rules, but in order to get people to go from illegal to “legal”/licensed purchases, consumer pricing needs to be at least close.) In CO and CA, there are 20% percent state and local sales tax and hefty legal/compliance costs to jump through regulatory, permitting and other hoops at both state and local levels. With this dynamic, the licensed cannabis space unintentionally provides cover for gray and black market players.
Colorado allows citizens to grow their own, I don’t know about California. Why buy it?
Getting quality seeds can be difficult and if you are not experienced in growing your results will be less than ideal. In Colorado legal cannabis is about 1/3 the price of Illinois legal medical cannabis.
Never mind the psychosis that chronic smokers in Colorado have shown and the health benefits therein. But then the POLITICIANS will have ALL the money and expect US to pay for the idiots health needs..
IF you look at Colorado, it’s NOT all they thought it would be…
Initially there was talk that if issued of a medical marijuana card one would agree to give up their 2nd Amendment rights. Although that doesn’t seem to be the case now, I wouldn’t trust ’em any farther than I could throw them. There’s got to be a bigger reason than money that all of a sudden the government now is wanting to legalize it.
The more distracted people the better?
Distraction for sure. Still there’s got to be more. Too may politicians turned too easy.
Regarding cannibis. Why can’t we, as true and duly taxed citizens, declare for ourselves which laws we will and will not observe and obey?
And as such, if I decide to grow pot or tomato’s, which are both eco friendly, I would still be within the confines of the laws, as I see and observe,.
I’m sure there would be no problem with such a scenario. Everyone can do as one’s desires go. Everyone would be content. No laws would be broken. Therefore, law enforcement would be unnecessary. Ergo, government would be unnecessary.
Free stuff. Just take what you need.
Just don’t take my stuff
Why did they ever allow alcohol in the USA to be legal for adults. Weed is a safer drug by far inhale 5 times of weed. Drink 5 shots of whiskey…. Which would be safe to drive? Whiskey or alcohol?…. You know the answer.
So you will be driving high?
idiot drivers + pot = more car accidents,more deaths . is this what Pot is all about? its bad enough we have opioid addiction now we get pot mixed in. bad enough we have illegals killing Americans with cars but now we have pot mixed in. you cant get people to obey rules of the road when they are sober. think what it will be like with them hopped up on pot.
Ask Colorado law enforcement how they like it. Driving high or drunk. If you are impaired, same results.
imagine if you will walking into your local bank. walk up to the teller nibbling on pot brownies. would you really want that person having access to your accounts? imagine walking into an industrial business. presses/drills/ dangerous machines. imagine that worker on pot. get the picture? imaging a car load of mom and pop and their 2.5 kids. skippy the dog in the back with the kids. now, see the guy who is nibbling on a pot brownie in his semi truck. mr. semi driver is feeling fine,nibbling his brownies. see the semi driver cross into the lane of the mom and pop and the 2.5 kids. the story does end well. any way you look at it pot mixes with nothing. oh yeah i know the naysayers will say we will nibble at home. but out there,somewhere,there is the semi driver who wont nibble his brownies at home. is all that tax money worth it?
Colorado 2.0
If the value of my house goes the way of the Denver market I’m good with that! Lol
It won’t. People won’t flood Illinois for legal weed. Colorado has reasons to move there other than weed.
Some of the commentators act like cannabis isn’t already easily available. If someone wants cannabis now they can get it. Legalization if done right will mean regulation for safety and tax dollars for any negative consequences. Please try to convince me that prohibition of cannabis has been successful. People also forget the enormous cost to enforce and incarcerate. If cannabis is legal law enforcement can focus on the drugs that are actually killing people. First step is to take cannabis off the schedule 1 drug list so it can be adequately studied. Also fix the banking so legal medical cannabis shops can take electronic payments and have access to banks.
So you think users are only going to buy from government approved dispensaries? It’s everywhere now but people will suddenly change? Are the police going to be tracking where it came from now?
Not initially. How many people buy alcohol on the black market now? As long as it’s not taxed to the point where the black market can provide a comparable product at a lower price people will buy legal. We can brew our own beer now. Very few do. There is a black market for cigarettes in Chicago. People drive to Missouri buy them bring them back to Chicago. It’s because of the high tax in Illinois and higher tax in Chicago.
Home brew alcohol isn’t comparable.
Why all the arguing? You guys won. Let’s see how it works out. I can give you my relative’s number who works as a cop/detective in the Denver area. More people are driving high and causing serious accidents and you can’t even take your kids to downtown Denver on the weekends because it’s been taken over by the potheads like the hard druggies have taken over the big cities in Oregon and Washington. Don’t know for sure but can’t figure out why he would like about it.
Homebrew alcohol is very comparable. Before prohibition both cannabis and alcohol were legal when prohibition was repealed only alcohol was made legal again. After the repeal there was a large black market for alcohol that slowly drifted away and now is limited to mainly home craft brews. Please explain why you think it’s not comparable. I can’t think of a better comparison.
Growing a plant yourself doesn’t take as much skill.
You must have more experience growing cannabis than me. My experience has been it is much easier to brew quality home beer than grow and cultivate quality cannabis. The only reason you see no comparison is it is easier (in your opinion) to grow cannabis than brew beer?
Alcohol is more than beer. No, I’ve never grown it – I just have a green thumb. I do consider any mind altering substance a complete waste of the short time we have available.
Not all cannabis is “mind altering”. High CBD works on the body and inflammation. Hemp is the cousin and is now federally legal as is hemp derived CBD. Yes there are they types of alcohol. Some brew moonshine and make wine. The effect from alcohol is pretty much the same. Different strains and hybrids of cannabis effect you differently. Stativa dominant gives you energy indica dominant helps with sleep.
Duh, CBD wasn’t just legalized. it already was legal.
Hemp and therefore CBD was just legalized at the end of 2018 as part of the farm bill federally. Duh? Maybe stick to news and commenting on topics you are educated on? I’m done with this topic. Maybe we are arguing over the meaning of “just”now. Given prohibition was almost a century ago and hemp was legalized within the past year I would say it’s a recent occurrence.
We were talking about the state! Nice deflection though.
I was talking about this state. Last time I checked we are still in the USA. New York proactively made CBD illegal when the feds legalized it. Illinois didn’t I don’t think I’m the one deflecting here. I’m providing facts and experience. You have a “green thumb” and think you are now educated on all things botanical. Saying “duh” to a commentator was your big finish. You sound like a lib today. Someone hack your site?
Hope you don’t smoke at work!
Why personal again. Seriously!?!. I’m providing facts that are not being rebutted. This is seriously how libs argue issues they have no good answers too. Why is this personal freedom so important for you to fight? Let’s make a deal. I won’t smoke at work (never said I currently smoked anything) and you don’t comment when you haven’t done research on the topic? CBD works fantastic for my arthritis. Better than any pharmaceutical.