CHICAGO MAY BAN LITTLE PLASTIC BAGS...

...Huh?

Okay, I know some really smart Rednecks, and a few really dumb ones. I think those dumb ones might have some kinfolks on The Chicago City Council...and maybe in the Police Department, too.

It seems that Chicago is gearing up to ban the sale of small plastic baggies, due to the fact that it promotes the sale of illegal drugs in their fair city. Give me a stinkin' break!!!

The whole article is here: COUNCIL | They're 'Marketing 101' for drug dealers, cop says

Some quotes:

Tiny plastic bags used to sell small quantities of heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and other drugs would be banned in Chicago, under a crackdown advanced Tuesday by a City Council committee.

Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) persuaded the Health Committee to ban possession of "self-sealing plastic bags under two inches in either height or width," after picking up 15 of the bags on a recent Sunday afternoon stroll through a West Side park.

Lt. Kevin Navarro, commanding officer of the Chicago Police Department's Narcotics and Gang Unit, said the ordinance will be an "important tool" to go after grocery stores, health food stores and other businesses. The bags are used by the thousand to sell small quantities of drugs at $10 or $20 a bag.

Navarro referred to the plastic bags as "Marketing 101 for the drug dealers."

Let me just inform Lt. Navarro of a thing or two. Drug dealers know how to market their product, and it don't have nothing to do with the packaging. I mean, it ain't like a box of Wheaties with Michael Jordan on the front, or a box of Cracker Jacks with a prize inside, or a "Happy Meal" with a toy. It's drugs dangit!

Way back...before there were plastic bags, drug dealers dealt drugs. And they will continue to do it even if little plastic baggies are banned! Has it occurred to anybody that the drug dealers might just start using regular "sandwich bags" as a new and inventive form of packaging?

Then this:

Health Committee Chairman Ed Smith (28th) said the ban is part of a desperate effort to stop what he called "the most destructive force" in Chicago neighborhoods.

"We need to use every measure that we possibly can to stop it because it is destroying our kids," he said.

Ed...brother, you said a mouthful! This is about as desperate a measure as I have heard of to stop drug dealing. It's also about the stupidest measure I've heard of!

Maybe the City Council ought to just go ahead on and pass a ban on illegal drug sales in the City of Chicago completely. That'll do it! I mean, if they just go on ahead and make it illegal...problem solved! It makes just about as much sense as fining business owners $1500 for selling little plastic bags.

As I pondered on this it occurred to me that maybe the City Councilman that devised this "brilliant plan" was thinking deeply about the financial ramifications to the drug dealer. I mean, if a drug dealer can't use "little" baggies, then he'll have to buy "regular size" baggies. The increased cost might just drive the "little Mom and Pop" drug dealers out of business (you know, kind of like Wal-Mart does). Hey, it's a theory that makes just about as much sense as anything in this whole deal.

If they were really thinking, the cops would run a sting operation. They would put little trackable chips inside the boxes of little baggies sold in high crime areas, and then follow the folks that buy them to find their drug operation...It makes about as much sense as anything else in this stupid, idiotic plan.

Doesn't the Chicago City Council, and its' Health Committee have anything better to do with their time? Foolish, foolish, foolish.