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Chicago Tribune: On eve of legal recreational pot sales in Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker pardons more than 11,000 people with weed convictions
On the day before recreational cannabis becomes legal in Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced he was pardoning more than 11,000 people who had been convicted of low-level marijuana crimes.
“When Illinois’ first adult use cannabis shops open their doors tomorrow, we must all remember that the purpose of this legislation is not to immediately make cannabis widely available or to maximize product on the shelves, that’s not the main purpose, that will come with time,” Pritzker said to a crowd at Trinity United Church of Christ on the Far South Side. “But instead the defining purpose of legalization is to maximize equity for generations to come.”
Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago’s murder-clearance rate rose sharply in 2019, police say
Chicago has turned around its perennially dismal rate at solving murders, according to statistics released Tuesday.
The city’s murder clearance rate in 2019 was about 53%, according to Chicago Police Department figures. In 2016, the clearance rate was just 29% — an improvement of more than 50% in three years, the department’s figures show.
Rockford Register Star: Marijuana: Winnebago County law enforcement offers dos and don’ts
For better or worse, Illinois will become the 11th state in the nation Wednesday to allow the use of recreational marijuana.
But don’t think you will be in the free and clear to possess as much pot as you want or will be able to light up where ever you want.
Associated Press: Illinois governor grants 20 New Years Eve clemency petitions
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker granted 20 petitions for clemency hours ahead of the New Year, marking the Democrat’s first major batch of petitions since taking office nearly a year ago.
The cases, dating back to 1975, included battery, drug possession, attempted burglary and theft, according to a list released Tuesday by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.
Belleville News-Democrat: How many metro-east residents had minor marijuana convictions pardoned by governor?
More than 1,000 minor marijuana convictions, including some that were decades old, will be removed from the records of some local offenders after the governor granted pardons Tuesday, the day before legal weed sales begin.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker granted a total of 11,017 pardons for people from 92 of the state’s 102 counties on New Year’s Eve, and 1,004 of them were from the metro-east.
Belleville News-Democrat: These are the metro-east towns that will allow legal marijuana sales — and which won’t
With the legalization of recreational cannabis use looming, you may be wondering how your local municipality is preparing or if a dispensary will be moving into town.
Here’s a quick look at what’s happening so far across the metro-east.