• Nougat@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    It’s important because the legislation included prioritizing minority ownership of dispensaries, and set up a system to “clear the cannabis-related records of nonviolent offenders through an efficient combination of automatic expungement, gubernatorial pardon and individual court action” and “20% of the revenue generated by legalization will go toward funding for mental health and substance abuse services in Illinois. An additional 10% will go to pay down the state’s backlog of unpaid bills; which directly benefits hospitals, health care and social service providers in every community across the state,” among other things.

    That’s a whole lot better than a referendum that says “It’s legal now.”

    Edit: And I’m pretty sure that the reason it has to go to a ballot referendum is because the legislature won’t do anything about it. Illinois didn’t need a referendum.

    • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Do you think that the other half the country with legal cannabis just had a referendum pass and went “welp that’s it”?

      The legislature still needed to pass laws regulating the dispensary market. The legalization itself just had more public support to put it on a public ballot.

      A public referendum is always more democratic and representative of the people than a legislature passing a law l.

      • Nougat@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Because surely a state legislature that gets their asses handed to them by a referendum is going to craft legislation in good faith, that will be fair and positive and ethical, and not put any roadblocks up.

        Fuck, Ohio just constitutionalized abortion rights, and the American Fascist legislature is still saying they’re just going to ignore that.

        Nah, Illinois did it right.

        • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I mean, every other state that has legalized it has done it through referendum by the people. Surely you could look at all the history and examples of this in the US.