- Jun 12, 2001
- 8,758
- 43
- 91
From our friends at Chicago Sun Times
<snippet>
Mayor Daley on Tuesday embraced a police sergeant's scheme to raise money for the city budget by ticketing people caught with small amounts of marijuana, but opponents are already taking shots at the controversial plan.
Daley emphasized that most charges involving small amounts of pot are thrown out in the state court system in Chicago.
"If 99 percent of the cases are all thrown out and you have a police officer going, why? Why do we arrest the individual, seize the marijuana, [go] to court and they're all thrown out? It costs you a lot of money for police officers to go to court.
"It's decriminalized now," the mayor added. "Sometimes a fine is worse than being thrown out of court."
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<snippet>
Mayor Daley on Tuesday embraced a police sergeant's scheme to raise money for the city budget by ticketing people caught with small amounts of marijuana, but opponents are already taking shots at the controversial plan.
Daley emphasized that most charges involving small amounts of pot are thrown out in the state court system in Chicago.
"If 99 percent of the cases are all thrown out and you have a police officer going, why? Why do we arrest the individual, seize the marijuana, [go] to court and they're all thrown out? It costs you a lot of money for police officers to go to court.
"It's decriminalized now," the mayor added. "Sometimes a fine is worse than being thrown out of court."
close to a stoner emoticon ->