Delivery of not more than 2.5 grams is a class B misdemeanor. More than 2.5 but less than 10 grams is a class A misdemeanor.
Delivery of more than 10 but not more than 30 grams is a class 4 felony. More than 30 but not more than 500 grams is a class 3 felony. More than 500 but not more than 2,000 grams is a class 2 felony. More than 2,000 but not more than 5,000 grams is a class 1 felony. More than 5,000 is a class X felony. (6-30 years mandatory).
A class B misdemeanor carries imprisonment up to 6 months and/or a fine up to $1,500. A class A misdemeanor, up to one year and/or a fine up to $2,500. But jail time is not mandatory; both offenses are probationable. And if jailed, a 30 day sentence, with routine day-for-day credit, means just 15 days.
In Illinois, it is also “unlawful for any person knowingly to possess cannabis.” Possessing not more that 2.5 grams is a class C misdemeanor (maximum imprisonment -- 30 days). Possessing more than 2.5 but not more than 10 grams is a Class B misdemeanor. Possessing more than 10 but not more than 30 grams is a Class A, but a subsequent offense is a Class 4 felony.
Recently, the Illinois Senate voted to decriminalize “minor marijuana possession,” “replacing the concept of incarceration with a monetary slap on the wrist,” according to High Times. “Under the new legislation, anyone caught possessing 10 grams of marijuana or less would be issued a ticket with a fine of somewhere between $100-$200.”
Common arguments in favor of decriminalization run as follows:
-- Illinois spends way too much money imposing costly criminal penalties on people who are found in possession of a personal amount of marijuana;
-- Serious penalties should be reserved for people who commit serious crimes; not used to punish marijuana consumers;
-- Nobody should face a life-long criminal record simply for possessing a substance that is “less harmful than alcohol.”
I suggest those arguments fail to look at the entire picture. It is crucial to inquire as to the source of the pot. If it’s home-grown, that’s one thing. If it’s drug cartel pot, that’s an entirely different thing. For purposes hereof, assume that it’s Mexican drug cartel pot.
Mexican drug cartels would cease to exist if nobody smoked pot. There would no point in paying mules to deliver cannabis from Mexico to the Quad-Cities, if nobody bought/used it once it arrived here. Without users, including “recreational users,” small street-corner dealers would have no customers -- no business. And if the small dealers have no business, the larger dealers up the chain, including the Mexican cartel bosses, would have no business -- no motive to sell pot.
It is small street-corner sales that keep the cartels in business, and with them, the drug violence.
Fox News Latino recently headlined is “Cartel drug war erupts in Acapulco; Gunmen attack police headquarters, hotel.”
On April 24, the Wall Street Journal headlined, “Texas Murder Trial to Shed Light on Mexican Drug Cartels -- Authorities charge men with killing lawyer in 2013; allege wide-ranging criminal operation in U.S.”
On April 17, Reuters wrote, “Mexico Drug-Related Murder Rate -- From 2006 to 2010, for every 100,000 people living in Mexico, an average of nearly 31 were murdered in drug-related killing.” (reuters.com/subjects/mexico-drug-war.
So is purchasing 10 grams of cannabis from your friendly street-corner dealer really just a harmless recreational thing? No worse than liquor?
Hardly! Not if it’s purchased from a dealer who purchased it -- directly or indirectly -- from a Mexican drug cartel.
So is it fair to say the our “poor little recreational user,” who purchases Mexican drug cartel pot, is morally complicity in the murderous violence of the cartel? I think so. Without users, the cartels would lack their reason for being.
Posted April 1, 2016, QCOnline.com
Copyright 2016
John Donald O'Shea
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