The website We Be High, a self-proclaimed "Traveler's Guide to Getting High," breaks down different areas of the country on their "smoking level tolerance." Racine scores a 2 on a scale of 1-5, with 1 very illegal and 5 being virtually legal. From the site:
If you are seen or caught with a glass pipe you will be treated like a crack user, that is to say, very harshly. Don't draw attention and you will likely be left alone. However, the cops from the outlying burbs like Caledonia, Mount Pleasant, Wind Point, Elmwood Park, and Sturtevant are hard asses regarding weed. These are low crime areas and the citizens expect the police to "keep them safe from the scourge of dope". If you look like you are not from there or are attracting attention you will be hassled. At the slightest probable cause you will be searched. In Wisconsin the cops are allowed to search you for reasons of "officer safety".Southeastern Wisconsin also scores a 2, but gets a slightly less ominous write-up:
Police will not stop you for no reason. If you stay fairly composed around cops and old people you can walk around high all day even in large groups.The site says marijuana in SE Wisconsin is "... mostly available from street dealers. Stoners abound, many don't look like it but ask the obvious ones to be safe. If you are rejected it's most likely about paranoia over undercover cops." It says there's no one or two places to buy pot in Racine, but suggests going to "high-end" bars and city festivals to find dealers.
The going rate for pot in the area? The site says a quarter ounce will cost between $25 and $100, depending on the quality.
Madison and Milwaukee scored the "most favorable" in Wisconsin for smoking marijuana. Both got a 4 on the 'smoking tolerance' scale. Here's a blunt assessment of the pot situation in Milwaukee:
City cops are more focused on murder, armed robbery and DUIs they could care less about personal amounts. They just take it away and don't issue a ticket. Just be respectful to cops don't cause problems and be discreet. In the city if you don't cause problems you will be fine even if you look like a rasta or huge stoner.
In the West 6th st area looks legal to me, in fact kinda an open air drug den at the Conner of 6th and Memorial, or Harrison, Frank, and Jones.
ReplyDeleteInteresting I think that the local Alderman lives less then a block away too. My big puzzle is how can that Store get away with so much in that lot?
Be a story for the Post I think
When will people realize that the war on drugs does not work in its current incarnation. It spends a lot of taxpayer money and does not come anywhere near eliminating the availability of drugs on our streets.
ReplyDeleteGood news for Racine. The last thing we need to be known for is a great spot for pot users. Racine has enough problems without being pot friendly.
ReplyDeleteGood job to all the police departments mentioned.
Go after the real criminals in town - not the pot smokers.
ReplyDeleteI want to know what our new Mayor is smoking because its some good stuff. He sees things that don't even exist (LIKE JOBS).
ReplyDeleteWisconsin might wish to look seriously at legalizing marijuana, at least for medical purposes. There’s enough evidence to suggest it works well for some people with chronic pain from cancer and other maladies, often when other applications don’t work so well. I live in chronic pain myself, though my youthful dalliance with marijuana convinces me that it tends only to make me sick to my stomach, so I don’t know that I’d try it for pain now. Still, I’ve been through a half-dozen other medications, trying to achieve relief, so a fuller pharmacopeia of choices, generally, would be a good idea. Pain relief is incredibly idiosyncratic. You never know what will work for any particular individual ‘til they’ve tried it. If marijuana gives even some people living in chronic pain a better day, they ought to have it.
ReplyDeleteA recent news article in the JT reported that California is finally going to put a "recreational marijuana" item on the next ballot and let the people of California decide whether or not to legalize it. One government official cited that if the U.S. would legalize pot that the bottom would fall out of the drug cartels because marijuana is almost 80% of their business.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason behind legalizing it in California is because of all the revenue it will generate. It will save millions with law enforcement not having to deal with it, it can become a legal crop and employ people, and it can be taxed and regulated to generate income for the state government. My guess is that if they legalize it in California it could possibly pull them out of the financial mess they are in.
Last year the JT had an article about Alaska flipping the bird to the federal government and decriminalizing pot. The resources they save in not having to deal with anyone possessing and ounce or less is being used to better purposes elsewhere.
Pot heads came here and suggest going to "high end bars and city festivals" for drugs. That is concerning to me. I thought the problems with drugs were in the obvious places. Now we are finding out from the pro's that the best place in the least suspected.
ReplyDeleteRandy normally you are a pain, but I do agree with you on this one.
ReplyDeleteUmmm...are there any city festivals left?
ReplyDeleteHappy 420 everyone!
ReplyDeletePeople would be surprised of all of the "closet smokers". There are a lot of people that would rather hit the joint than drink a six'r at happy hour and then head home.
ReplyDeleteI've done a lot of things. Not all good. I'm straightened out.
ReplyDeleteI have to tell you that Marijuana is safer than drinking. Period.
The scare tactics have worked on the population for decades and it's time to decriminalize.
I'll point to Amsterdam as an example. They've found that there a lot less hard drug users there. Plus, with the tax they make, they use it to treat hard drug addicts.
If you're against marijuana, then you should also be against liquor. If you don't care that people drink 12 beers and then drive, weed should be the least of your worries.
Am I the only one who notices that the anti cigarette folks are pro pot?
ReplyDeleteif you smoke weed before reading racine post the articles arent as crappy and pete and dustin arent so liberal. :D
ReplyDeleteSo I was listening to my XM/Sirius radio today and the Metal station was playing tons of great stoner metal.....The Melvins, Kyuss, Clutch, The Sword, etc. Then it occurred to me! Oh yeah it's 4:20!
ReplyDeleteHappy belated 4:20 everone.
Party on, indeed!
Anonymous above thinking that drugs are only bought in the hood? Hel-lo? Pot is often the provenance of the middle and upper classes.
ReplyDeleteHaven't you heard the often, often repeated joke(?) that the best drugs in town can be bought at St. Catherine's high school?
Anon 4/21 you couldn't be further from the truth. I graduated from St. Cat's and your fooling yourself if you think those kids did pot. They did the more expensive kinds. It wasn't uncommon to see some of the people from the class (we'll say 80's) coked up. The same people who looked down on the "stoners" were then snorting things up their noses. IT was really hypocritical. BTW the stoners at St. Cats were actually some of the more not so well off kids at St. Cats. I saw it, just saying. Oh and btw Clazmer was pulling that crap back then to, but you had to be a little rich kid for him to even acknowledge you. Thank god I wasnt.
ReplyDeleteI have never touched the stuff, but I cannot help but notice how this discussion is so similar to what must have occurred at the end of the 1920's and early 1930's with alcohol. I know there are alot of people that are respected in our community that do use it. I also question the government resources put into fighting it. I just see many cases in which there is no other illegal activity involved other than possession of 420. It is seriously time for a debate on the topic of making it legal. I would also support putting it on the ballet. If we as a society can take way peoples rights by limiting the defination of marriage, then I see no reason why we as a society cannot allow some to use this substance. I see absolutely no reason why 420 should not be classified the same as alcohol. Government needs a source of tax revenue to replace all that is lost due to less smokers with all the anti-smoking laws (including signficantly higher taxes thereon). I just don't see how anyone can make an honest arguement why this stuff should not be made legal and treated exactly like alcohol. Any arguement that can be made in my mind for the stuff being illegal would equally apply to making alcohol illegal. Does anyone want to do that. Now I am sure I will hear about it from all the right wing wackos. In your attack, remember wackos, I have never used the stuff nor do I plan on it.
ReplyDeleteAnon 8:02, I don't think it will be the right-wing that is going to oppose you on this. I am a decidedly right-wing conservative and have been perplexed for decades as to why marijuana has not been legalized, regulated and taxed. I agree that it should be administratively handled like alcohol is, but the effects of pot are almost the opposite of alcohol: reaction times are not impeded nearly as much as by booze, people rarely, if ever, become mean or aggressive on pot as they so often do with booze and pot will not destroy your liver or have any of the physically ill effects as booze. I think that if this was put on the ballot as a referendum, and passed, you would see a significant infusion of revenue through taxes that would significantly help our state, but only if the cost is kept low enough for people to be able to afford it.
ReplyDelete