Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
Advocates for marijuana legalization passed a bullhorn between them Saturday afternoon, leading chants such as "we need weed" from more than 100 people gathered Downtown.
The air on Main Street outside the Peoria County Courthouse echoed with rapidly honked car horns as motorists drove into slanting spring sunlight, which occasionally highlighted wisps of white smoke rising from the crowd. It was odorless.
A marked police sport utility vehicle parked across the street, still and silent.
Sam Michaelson dug into the pocket of his pleated slacks for note cards with scribbled marijuana-related stats.
House Bill 3299 is pending in the Illinois State Senate, Michaelson said. It would extend the state's sunset on the current medical marijuana law not to a specific date, but to a day four years from the opening of the first dispensary. Medical marijuana technically has been legal in Illinois since the first day of 2014, but a lengthy permitting process stretched by the election of a new administration has delayed legal availability of the plant.
Michaelson, a volunteer with Illinois NORML and a 2013 Bradley University graduate from Pekin, organized the rally outside the courthouse and march to City Hall at 4:20 p.m. to educate as much as advocate.
"We're doing this event to show support for cannabis legislative reform - this is a vocal populace who wants to see these laws changed," Michaelson said. "Public opinion drives public policy, and the public opinion is already here."
The rally Saturday coincided with the Global Cannabis March and similar events around the country. The event has been absent from Peoria since 2010, Michaelson said.
Word of the event spread on social media and old-fashioned fliers to reach people like Trent Vogt, a 20-year-old from Lacon who showed up just to see what would happen.
Like several others, he extolled the nontoxic virtues of cannabis, particularly in contrast to a legal intoxicant such as alcohol. In essence, he asked, why is a drug with deadly overdose potential like alcohol legal, while marijuana in all its nonlethal forms remains illicit?
One argument frequently presented in favor of marijuana legalization may mark the only time some people so vocally call for regulation and new taxes. In that regard, marijuana should be more like alcohol, the argument continues - tested and taxed to bring new revenue to a state that is $100 billion in debt and cutting deep.
"Marijuana should be just like alcohol - you have to be 21 and you can get whatever you want," Vogt said.
But the reform effort doesn't stop at marijuana cultivated for its high, Michaelson said. New businesses could sprout from industrial hemp, as well, creating new jobs with strains of cannabis that have low psychoactive content and strong fiber.
Working his way back into the crowd, Michaelson, his dark button down shirt tucked, a black tie with neon green marijuana leaves his only flash of color, retrieved the bullhorn and put the microphone to his lips
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Illinois marijuana advocates call for legalization - News - Journal Star - Peoria, IL
Author: Matt Buedel
Contact: Web Staff
Photo Credit: UFCW
Website: Home - Journal Star - Peoria, IL
The air on Main Street outside the Peoria County Courthouse echoed with rapidly honked car horns as motorists drove into slanting spring sunlight, which occasionally highlighted wisps of white smoke rising from the crowd. It was odorless.
A marked police sport utility vehicle parked across the street, still and silent.
Sam Michaelson dug into the pocket of his pleated slacks for note cards with scribbled marijuana-related stats.
House Bill 3299 is pending in the Illinois State Senate, Michaelson said. It would extend the state's sunset on the current medical marijuana law not to a specific date, but to a day four years from the opening of the first dispensary. Medical marijuana technically has been legal in Illinois since the first day of 2014, but a lengthy permitting process stretched by the election of a new administration has delayed legal availability of the plant.
Michaelson, a volunteer with Illinois NORML and a 2013 Bradley University graduate from Pekin, organized the rally outside the courthouse and march to City Hall at 4:20 p.m. to educate as much as advocate.
"We're doing this event to show support for cannabis legislative reform - this is a vocal populace who wants to see these laws changed," Michaelson said. "Public opinion drives public policy, and the public opinion is already here."
The rally Saturday coincided with the Global Cannabis March and similar events around the country. The event has been absent from Peoria since 2010, Michaelson said.
Word of the event spread on social media and old-fashioned fliers to reach people like Trent Vogt, a 20-year-old from Lacon who showed up just to see what would happen.
Like several others, he extolled the nontoxic virtues of cannabis, particularly in contrast to a legal intoxicant such as alcohol. In essence, he asked, why is a drug with deadly overdose potential like alcohol legal, while marijuana in all its nonlethal forms remains illicit?
One argument frequently presented in favor of marijuana legalization may mark the only time some people so vocally call for regulation and new taxes. In that regard, marijuana should be more like alcohol, the argument continues - tested and taxed to bring new revenue to a state that is $100 billion in debt and cutting deep.
"Marijuana should be just like alcohol - you have to be 21 and you can get whatever you want," Vogt said.
But the reform effort doesn't stop at marijuana cultivated for its high, Michaelson said. New businesses could sprout from industrial hemp, as well, creating new jobs with strains of cannabis that have low psychoactive content and strong fiber.
Working his way back into the crowd, Michaelson, his dark button down shirt tucked, a black tie with neon green marijuana leaves his only flash of color, retrieved the bullhorn and put the microphone to his lips
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Illinois marijuana advocates call for legalization - News - Journal Star - Peoria, IL
Author: Matt Buedel
Contact: Web Staff
Photo Credit: UFCW
Website: Home - Journal Star - Peoria, IL
