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.
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MAP posted-by: Matt