The Cole Memo

In this episode, I speak with Chicago Police Officer Ramirez about cannabis legalization. This episode features a sneak peek at my mini-doc. See the full show notes(below) to learn more about the DUI issue that I raised.

• Watch the episode on Patreon here
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Links mentioned during show

• ColeMemo.com/IsItLegal
• Click here to watch the episode that explains how the current cannabis DUI interpretation is impossible to comply with

The auto-generated transcript is available below.

hello and welcome to the Cole memo in this episode I will be interviewing a Chicago police officer officer Ramirez I’m constantly asking on this show is cannabis legal in the state of Illinois everybody says it is but all too often people are still facing legal criminal consequences if you’d like to hear some of these stories you can go to the memo.com is it legal here is also a Peak from my upcoming mini documentary this plan would make marijuana legal but would not remove all of the consequences explain that for us one example is that you still could lose your job if you fail a drug test testing positive for marijuana police could also arrest you if you had too much marijuana on you you could even get a ticket for smoking at home if there are people outside who can see you you are listening to the Cole memo I am your host Cole Preston every episode is released in audio video and transcript format to find the transcript audio or video version of any episode please refer to the description of the episode that you’re listening to now within that description you can find a link that will take you to our website which will display the transcript for this episode and the platforms where you can find this episode in audio or video formats if you’re unable to locate the episode description on whichever platform you’re listening from simply take note of the episode number and visit the memo.com from there you can find the corresponding episode using our search functionality you’ll then be able to access the audio video or transcript version of that episode you might also find any links that we reference during this episode so that you might be able to do to do your own research if you’re not listening to this episode of the co memo on patreon then you’re listening to this episode about a year later than our patrons I actually recorded this interview uh last spring I believe at benzinga on the street with officer Ramirez I also just want to say that it only costs $3 a month to become a patron and you get access to episodes as they release so like I said if you were a patron you would have already seen this episode I also want to give a plug since we’re talking about whether or not cannabis is truly legal I just recently released an episode on my patreon which breaks down the fact that if you’re a cannabis user if you’ve used cannabis within the last month you might want to think about operating a motor vehicle and that is because if you’ve used cannabis within the last 30 days the way that the state of Illinois is currently interpreting the law you will fail and you will be charged with intoxication even if the state can’t proove impairment you might be wondering how can you be charged with intoxication if the state can’t prove impairment well you can learn more about that on our episode which covers THC drug testing it’s currently only available on our patreon page once again that’s at the memo.com patreon it’s a great way to support our show one of the best ways to support our show is absolutely free subscribe to or follow our show leave us a positive review from wherever you’re listening to us from favorite this episode give it a thumbs up leave a comment or share it with your best friend your engagement and support is appreciated today is May 17th 2024 enjoy my interview with officer ramirz actually before I send you into my interview with officer Ramirez I wanted to share um a little bit of uh information on the subject matter I’m going to be discussing with officer Ramirez so if you ask the state of Illinois if you can consume cannabis in public like I have like I’m about to ask officer Ramirez the answer is often no because the law does not permit anyone to smoke Vape or eat or otherwise use cannabis in any public place public place means any place where you could reasonably be expected to be seen by others in any place owned or leased by the state or local government including Parks or government buildings now here’s where it gets a little bit more gray and folks take advantage of take advantage of it when it’s not black and white and there’s a little bit of gray ride that wave here’s what I’ve heard from a licensed attorney in the state of Illinois there is a Prohibition on public consumption however we do not know how this will be enforced prior to this bill passing a lot of jurisdictions had created ordinance violations for cannabis use in public so we assume if jurisdiction will enforce public consum consumption at all it will be similar to getting a traffic tiic there is not a specific penalty within the legalization statute that sets a penalty for public consumption to be clear the statute does prohibit consumption however it does not go into detail what the repercussion of public consumption should be in short it is illegal to consume it in public but there doesn’t seem to be a clear penalty for that type of activity yet and that all depends of course uh on what jurisdiction you are in all I’m saying folks is that maybe you get cozy with the people that are in charged of your local municipality you know people that are in charge of those ordinances and uh make sure that you don’t have one and make sure that you never do that’s how you can consume cannabis in public and now enjoy our interview my interview with officer Ramirez from the Chicago Police [Music] Department so I’m standing here with officer Ramirez um cannabis is legal here in in Chicago and Illinois um can you tell me a bit about that like what it looks like from an officer’s perspective any differences from before it was legal I’m neutral about it honestly so I’m really not at Liberty to say what I feel personally about the law or whether I like it oh sorry I Me official no it’s okay I mean I meant uh I meant like how’s it changed your job um or it has it kind of has I mean it’s it depends how it’s being transported because according to the Chicago municip it has to be transported in a certain way like an an odorless container it has to be sealed right you can’t smoke it on the public W or in your vehicle because that would be considered u a a different type of DUI because you’re driving on the vehicle A drugs you can smoke it or consume Edibles in your own home gotcha so but other than that I mean or whatever place of residence but uh nothing’s changed that much in my opinion but I mean we buying dop in the car I mean still I mean it has to be they could be cited for you know not transporting it correctly so every County and City municipality is going to be different so they’re going to have to know their laws they’re going to have to know what they can and can’t do cuz let’s say in New York for example you could smoke a g you can smoke marijuana in public on the public way and there’s nothing an officer to to do about it because it’s legal but in that area either in New York City or in the state of New York itself so it’s up to the person that’s going to use you know marijuana to know the laws ahead of time just make sure they’re legit and then from there but other than that you know is that a difference between uh New York and Chicago you can’t just walk out and smoke uh no you can’t do that you can’t smoke it on the public way you can’t smoke it in a in a park do you get arrested if that happens or how do you guys generally deal with that it would probably be maybe a ticket or something like that like it’s a call it an administrative uh it’s it’s like an administrative we call them an gotta do you do much of those no I have I usually just ask them to put it out and they try okay cuz whatever I mean they may have not have known sure so I just give them the benefit of doub that so but again like like say if you’re smoking a cigarette in the park I can technically write a ticket for that but oh really I yeah because uh it’s that’s not allowed smoking not allowed drinking alcohol consuming alcohol is not allowed you can’t have glass in a park uh cuz the glass for children but uh again give them the benefit now hey just want to let you know BL isn’t allow liquor isn’t allowed to mind dumping it just taking it out and then if they’re complying fine they can stay but because they just may not have right and different states have different laws different Counties have different laws right so it’s all going to be different regardless what you’re doing so word to the wise final word wherever you’re traveling know your know the laws just know your laws know what you can and can’t do always double check and then um you can always ask an offic or too so whether they’re privy or not about it so yeah and then and laws change all the time so try to keep up on it you know just like the conceal carry when that was new sure you know you have to know the laws of where you can can and can’t carry your your firearm or how you could carry your firearm or the circumstances of what when you can have your concealed carry license or whatever or when you don’t need it because you’re just transporting it. that’s not immediately accessible so so things like that yeah cool well hey I want to I thank you for your time yeah no problem thank you take care take care bye yep