Pubdate: Fri, 03 Aug 2012
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2012 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/IuiAC7IZ
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: John Byrne

POT FINES WON'T BE ONSTAGE AT LOLLA

Law Takes Effect During Fest, but Arrests Still Apply

Chicago's new pot ticket law goes into effect during the middle of 
Lollapalooza, an annual lakefront music bash that organizers once 
hyped as a "fully baked" festival complete with promotional rolling papers.

But hipsters who blaze up while blissfully listening to Jack White or 
Chief Keef won't have to be paranoid about getting slapped with the 
$250 fine at the center of the city's push to decriminalize marijuana.

The pot ticket ordinance will not apply at the fenced in grounds in 
Grant Park because it's Chicago Park District property. That 
exception to the new rules means that police instead will continue to 
arrest those caught in the park with less than 15 grams of cannabis, 
the equivalent of about 25 cigarette-sized joints.

Lest weed-partaking attendees feel they're in the cross hairs of a 
more punitive drug policy than folks elsewhere in the city, consider 
this: Last year, police made exactly zero marijuana-related arrests 
among the 270,000 people who passed through the Lollapalooza gates.

That's in keeping with the general unspoken vibe at many outdoor 
concerts, where the smell of marijuana smoke wafts through the summer 
air and officers largely take a look-the-other-way stance to all but 
the most blatant toking. It's a tradition that predates even Black 
Sabbath, the geriatric, famously druggy coheadliners at Lollapalooza 
on Friday night.

Police are mum about whether they'll enforce the law more strictly 
come Saturday. Department spokeswoman Melissa Stratton said there is 
no special order not to bust those at Lollapalooza.

"If an officer sees use of marijuana taking place they will make an 
arrest, just as they will with any other illegal (or) illicit 
activity," Stratton said in an email.

Officials with C3 Presents, the festival's promoters, declined 
comment. They drew attention in 2006 when Lollapalooza-branded 
rolling papers were given out at a news conference in advance of the festival.

Daniel Linn, executive director of pro-legalization group NORML's 
Illinois chapter, said the city should publicize the change in the 
law, especially with a huge influx of tourists headed into the city 
for Lollapalooza, which runs Friday through Sunday.

"This is a welcome policy change to people who really follow the 
issue, but much of the general public won't know they could be in 
line for a really expensive ticket," Linn said.

A Chicago Police Department order issued last week on how to enforce 
the new ordinance lays out several "aggravating factors" that require 
arrest for even small amounts of pot. In addition to the rule about 
Park District property, people caught in the act of smoking marijuana 
- - as opposed to just possessing it - also still will be subject to 
arrest. So will those police deem "under the influence of cannabis 
and in control of a motor vehicle."

People caught with marijuana on school property will be taken into 
custody, along with people police believe intend to sell the 
marijuana they have in their possession.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police Superintendent Garry McCarthy have 
fought the characterization of the switch to ticketing as 
decriminalization, pitching it as a way to keep police officers free 
to tackle serious crime.

And in a city facing a budget deficit that the mayor's office pegs at 
$369 million, the ticketing strategy also promises to bring in more 
money. Citations start at $250 for a first offense and go up to $500 
for subsequent busts.

For some, this weekend is a chance for Chicago to start turning the 
page on how it handles drug laws.

The ticketing provision taking effect gives Chicago police an 
opportunity to apply the law the same way to everyone, said Morgan 
Fox, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, an 
organization that lobbies lawmakers to make marijuana laws less restrictive.

"Police shouldn't be dealing with marijuana, period," Fox said.

Ald. Walter Burnett Jr., 27th, said he hopes the statute is applied 
the same way outside Grant Park, where the crowd will be packed with 
well-off out-of-towners, and in the neighborhood parks of his ward.

During debate over the new ordinance, Burnett talked about the 
"contact high" he could get from all the unfettered pot smoking going 
on at the Pitchfork Music Festival, the hipper, niche little brother 
to Lollapalooza that takes over Union Park in his ward each July.

Meanwhile, Burnett said, residents in parts of his ward with more 
African-Americans routinely were getting arrested for carrying small 
amounts of marijuana.

"I'm not against people having a good time," Burnett said days before 
the new marijuana ticketing policy took effect. "I'm just saying, if 
you're going to decriminalize it, decriminalize it for everyone. If 
you're going to enforce it, enforce it across the city. In the 
African-American community, people haven't been getting a pass. 
They've been getting arrested. Places with other ethnic groups, like 
Lollapalooza and Pitchfork, they get a pass. Make it fair, that's all 
I'm asking." 
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom