The Urban Dictionary has two definitions for Illannoy:
1) The innate ability of Illinois residents with a “better than thou” attitude to upset other Midwesterners; especially those from Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota.
2) A state of mind of Wisconsin residents exacerbated when Illinois residents consider Wisconsin “Illinois’ State Park”.
Illinois passed legislation so that on January 1, 2020, the Land of Lincoln became the 11th state to allow for the legal sale of recreational marijuana. The legislature also approved the increase of gambling outlets. The impetus is to generate revenue as Illinois ranks 50th in the nation in terms of financial health. My personal belief is these are not the panaceas to prevent people from leaving the state, stabilize the state’s finances, or to attract business to relocate here given the high taxes. The politicians are just tinkering around the edges and failing to address the real problem. I digress. The state allowed for 35 dispensaries to open across the state, and nine are located in Chicago. Chicago Aldermen who are African-American cried “foul” due to the lack of minority-owned dispensaries. The state responded by creating a second wave of licenses with set-asides for minority-owned establishments.
Anyway, Illinois set a record for opening day sales: $3.2 million. Currently, 8 of 9 Chicago dispensaries are closed due to lack of product. Other stores have curtailed sales and/or limited hours due to demand.
The suburb adjacent to me, Evanston, voted to take 100% of the first $10 million of tax revenue from recreational marijuana sales tax to fund a reparations project. The alderman representing Evanston’s 5th ward, Robin Rue Williams, expects the suburb’s dispensary to generate that sum in less than 10 years. African-American Evanstonians will receive direct cash payments. I have not found the suburb’s formula to continue to payments after the first $10 million has been dispensed.
Alderman Williams was quoted in the Washington Post that the city council decided on the reparations because, “Our disadvantage and discrimination has continued beyond outlawing Jim Crow and beyond enslavement.” On another site I found more from the Alderman. “Data shows that in our city, 71% of marijuana arrests are in the black community. And the problem there is we are a now declining 16% of the community. At the height of the black community, we had around 24 or 25%. That was in the ’90s. And there’s been a steady decline since. It’s been because of lack of affordability in housing, predatory lending, over-assessed Cook County property taxes in the community.” Due to historic discrimination, i.e., redlining, the 5th ward is heavily African-American and the poorest area of the city.
I applaud Evanston for creating its unique program.
Legalized drugs and gambling. Somewhere Al Capone is turning in his grave.
