Pubdate: Sun, 25 May 2014 Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL) Copyright: 2014 Sun-Times Media, LLC Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/5QwXAJWY Website: http://www.suntimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81 LET CHICAGO DECIDE WHERE MARIJUANA FACILITIES GO Take our word on this: Chicago politicians know best whether their constituents will accept a medical marijuana dispensary next door. You wouldn't know that to hear the wailing in the Legislature over a bill that would let Chicago decide for itself where newly legal medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation centers may open. A state law that went into effect Jan. 1 permitting those facilities says cultivation centers must be at least 2,500 feet away from homes and schools and dispensaries must be at least 1,000 feet away. Problem is, those standards, though they might work elsewhere in the state, pretty much put all the land in Chicago off limits. So state Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, has sponsored legislation to let Chicago work out more practical rules for itself. The legislation passed the Senate Thursday and now returns to the House, which should pass it as well. For all the hysteria voiced in Springfield about corrupt Chicago politicians letting medical marijuana dispensaries be built next to schools, we don't see aldermen blithely allowing pot facilities to open up in places that would outrage their constituents. In any case, as Raoul points out, new facilities would have to be approved by state regulators. The state standards clearly weren't written with Chicago in mind, which happens a lot in Springfield. Leave this one to Chicago. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt