Just hours after a St. Louis Alderwoman introduced a bill that would “effectively legalize” all things marijuana in the city, some of her colleagues expressed serious doubt about its chances of passing.
Alderwoman Megan Ellyia Green of the 15th Ward said her bill would prohibit city police officers from enforcing any state or federal marijuana laws and allow residents to grow up to ten pot plants.
She said marijuana would be treated like cigarettes: no smoking in non-smoking areas and restricted to those 21 years of age and older.
Alderman Joe Vaccaro of the 23rd Ward chairs the committee that is expected to take up the bill. Vaccaro said he and several of his colleagues have serious doubts about the way the bill is written — specifically a section that bans an employer’s ability to drug test employees. Vaccaro said he has already received calls from representatives of trade unions expressing opposition to the legislation. Vaccaro said the bill, as written, has little chance of passing.
Green in text messages to 5 On Your Side and on social media expressed confidence changes can be made in committee and the bill can still pass. Previously she said she had at least six co-sponsors for the bill.
Currently in the city of St. Louis possession of less than 35 grams of marijuana has been reduced to a fine with no jail time.
St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson has expressed skepticism of the bill, citing previous failed attempts by the city to pass legislation contrary to state law.
Karin Chester with New Approach Missouri — a campaign to legalize medical marijuana in Missouri — said if the city does legalize marijuana it could mean a move for her from Jefferson County to St. Louis.
“I’m the soccer mom stoner that everybody jokes about,” Chester said while standing in front of photos of medical marijuana patients, many of whom she said
have left Missouri for states and cities where the drug is legal. Chester is working to get the issue of legalizing medicinal use on the ballot for Missouri voters in 2018.
She said she uses marijuana to combat her rheumatoid arthritis.
“I don’t look like a stoner. I don’t think I present like a stoner. And I don’t function like one. I function like somebody who has arthritis and takes medication for it every day and gets on with her life,” Chester said. She currently skirting the law and hoping St. Louis will change its law.
“It would, potentially, be in my interest to relocate to the city,” she said. And Chester expects others would say the same.
