CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Mayor Lori Lightfoot's plan for marijuana consumption in certain businesses is running into opposition from the same aldermen who tried to delay the start of recreational marijuana.
Under state law, consumption is only allowed in tobacco retail locations, like cigar bars and hookah lounges or state-licensed dispensaries. The Mayor's plan is to limit licenses to businesses that get 80 percent of their revenue from the sale of tobacco-related products.
Black and Latino aldermen who were briefed Monday, came out of a meeting unimpressed, the Sun-Times reports. There are not such businesses in their wards, so they say illegal pot dens will open and people will be arrested. Plus, some said cigar smokers and pot smokers are not going to mix.
"Our concern, as aldermen who represent the South and West Sides, is that it's not gonna work and there's gonna be illegal dens of people smoking the stuff," Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) told the Chicago Sun-Times after a closed-door briefing on the mayor's ordinance. "There's no stand-alone or free-standing smoke shops within the communities we're talking about. And if you were able to find a cigar bar or lounge, the two customers just don't mix."
Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th), former chairman of the City Council's Black Caucus, agreed saying "most cigar smokers don't want to be in the same space as weed smokers" and vice-versa.
Although the City Council's License Committee is scheduled to vote on the Mayor's consumption ordinance Wednesday, Sawyer wants the committee to hold off. Some aldermen would like to see the law change to allow stand-alone cannabis-only cafes.
"If we don't...have consumption spaces for cannabis users only, people are gonna use Airbnb's. They'll have private clubs or vans that drive around or park and you smoke," Sawyer said. "My biggest fear is rearresting those who just got expunged, re-criminalizing activity that we are trying to get away from. And it's gonna be primarily black people that get arrested and charged."
According to the Sun-Times, Paul Stewart, the mayor's chief adviser on cannabis issues, said the city's hands are tied.
"The state only allows cannabis consumption in either retail tobacco locations or state-licensed cannabis dispensaries. We don't have the ability to create another category outside of the two that the state has allowed for," Stewart said. "So what we decided to do is move forward with specialty tobacco shops, which are like cigar bars and hookah lounges."
As for fears of drug arrests, Stewart said, "I don't share that concern. This is more of an enhancement to a business as opposed to a specific business model."
