Recreational Marijuana Could Soon Be Legal in Illinois
Full Disclosure: By sharing this article with you, I am by no means encouraging or condoning the use of marijuana for recreational purposes; this is strictly meant to educate and inform.
If you've been paying attention to what's been going on in Springfield over the last three years, then you know how much help the state of Illinois needs in order to get it's sugar together; and I don't mean by taxing the heck out of it.
While that is one of the state's plans to raise money to fix the budget crisis, thousands of Illinoisans have been asking for a better way. Anything is better than raising the sales tax and adding sales tax to things that we use every single day.
No one's really sure why this took so long, because the state of Colorado has already proven that legalizing this will only help the economy, but Illinois lawmakers have finally introduced a bill to legalize the recreational use of marijuana "for adults."
According to ABC 7 Chicago, the bill would:
"legalize the possession of up to 28 grams of marijuana and allow facilities to sell marijuana products for adults over 21 and tax those sales "in a manner similar to alcohol."
Should the bill pass, purchasing marijuana would be a lot like purchasing alcohol; you'd need to be 21 with a valid form of ID and driving under the influence would still be considered a crime.
Economically, legalizing the use of marijuana wouldn't solve all of the state's budget issues but it would help; lawmakers say it would "help to close the governor's $5 billion budget gap." At this point, every little bit helps.
So, what do you think about this?
Regardless of how you feel about the use of marijuana, and I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but wouldn't it be the fiscally responsible thing to do considering how broke Illinois is?
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