Illinois users might want to read this.

[Splinterguitar69]

So I was caught a few days ago with a few grams on me. With a possession of pariphenalia charge already on my record, I was expecting jail time. But to my surprise, the officer takes my weed and comes back with a $100 ticket for a petty offense, no court appearance required, and if it's paid in 10 days no one has to know about it. Have my dreams come true? Did decriminalization just happen and I missed that memo??

 

[psychomimetic]

Many states allow officers to choose between ticketing you and arresting you. For instance, in Texas (of all places), less than a certain amount (I think the amount is 1 or 2 oz, depending on where you are) and the officer has the choice of letting you go with a ticket or arresting you.

So it really depends on the cop. When I got arrested I had probably 30-33 grams on me and my lawyer said that the officer could have ticketed or arrested me. That dick just chose to arrest me. I live in Austin, with the most liberal marijuana laws in Texas

Even so, I'm getting the charge reduced from class b misdemeanor to class c, the charges will be dropped and in a couple years I can get them expunged. I have to take a 15 hour drug class though, but at least I can keep smoking cause I'm not going to be on probation if all goes well.

I don't know about Illinois, but I imagine it's the same thing. They don't want to arrest someone who only has a few grams, it's a waste of time, so they have the choice of ticketing you. You just got lucky and got a less evil cop.

Edit- here's the Il. marijuana laws-
http://norml.org/index.cfm?wtm_view=&Group_ID=4535

Definitely not decriminalization. Here's the list of states that have decriminalized though-
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6331

 

[Cohesion]

Great stuff.

 

[Tuneman]

There are a bunch of towns in the suburbs of Chicago that allow cops to issue a ticket. My town is a 75 dollar ticket for less than an ounce. I think Chicago is a ticket too less than 1 ounce. The cops can still arrest you but if you are cool with them odds are they don't want to waste their time.

 

[SAMCRO]

seems completely std. to me

 

[Sega420]

hey man its a BIG step in the right direction

 

[DavisK4high247]

Used to be when I stayed in illionois a while, back in 98 or 99, out of Chicago for certain poss. of like 3 grams or less was a misd. and more than 3 grams or whatever the exact amount was , a felony for like a 1/4 oz..!!!! thats insane and a weed pipe then was a misd.. at least so I was told..In Chicago area though no one seemed to give a shit about a bag of weed, as cops were more after coke,crack and heroin and murders,etc..like they should be instead of messing with someone with a few grams or a ton of weed!! Someone with a bunch of weed, unless the are a gangster type who deals crack and heroin as well is not a violent criminal type anyway..how many people smoke out on some killer nugs and shit and then go rob a liqour store or carjack someone or go on a killing spree?? None that I know off unless they were crazy schizo already, and shit like that..When I smoke I normally am glued to a chair or somewhere for a ggod while, depending on the type of weed..lol

 

[SpinOutOfControl]

I was busted while visisting Chicago with my friend last summer. It was in Northbrook to be exact. We were really cooperative and joked around with the cops. The female cop actually apologized for being a 'bitch' when she was really just doing her job. Then they asked us if knew where to get weed in Northbrook and where we got our weed, and we just start justed laughing and they laughed too seeing we were on a road trip form out of town. They took our bowl, 8th-ish of medical, and like 2 grams of bubble hash. We got a ticket and had to appear for a court date. So we made another road trip to Chicago out of it and in the end it was all basically forgotten about. We each had to do 20 hours of community service, no fines, no record.