Indopedia All Things Marijuana
Next year, Chicago voters will get a chance to declare their support for recreational cannabis legalization via an advisory referendum included on the March primary ballot. The “reeferendum,” as Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey jokingly called it, asks voters in the state’s most populous area whether or not they support Illinois legalizing “the cultivation, manufacture, distribution, testing, and sale of marijuana and marijuana products for recreational use by adults 21 and older subject to state regulation, taxation and local ordinance.”
The county commissioners unanimously approved the passage of the referendum this week, with both Fritchey and Board President Toni Preckwinkle calling out the negative impact of the War on Drugs on minorities and low-income residents. “What the referendum seeks to do is let our constituents weigh in. If they’re in favor of it, that’s fantastic,” Fritchey said to the Chicago Tribune. “If they’re against it, I respect their opinion on that as well. But I think we have the ability to let the public and the legislature specifically know the stance of 40 percent of Illinois’ population on this issue.”
The referendum is nonbinding, so…
