Oak Park is fine-tuning an ordinance that would ticket minors for possession of tobacco or marijuana. It also seeks to get the young smokers intervention assistance while communicating with their parents.
A similar ordinance covering alcohol possession by minors is also being prepared.
Spurred by the efforts of the parent group IMPACT, Oak Park village staff drafted ordinances which were reviewed Jan. 18 by the village board.
Police Chief Rick Tanksley said currently Oak Park has no local law against possession of either marijuana or tobacco by minors.
There is a local ordinance prohibiting the sale of tobacco to minors, but none prohibiting minors from having or smoking cheapest Astra cigarettes.
Tanksley noted that police currently can’t even approach a 15-year-old seen smoking a cigarette in public, unless they intend to arrest them. That leaves police with just two options: 1) they can charge the minor under state statute which requires a custody arrest, a court appearance, and a possible criminal record; or 2) police could ignore the violation.
“This (new ordinance) gives police the ability to write a ticket,” said interim village attorney Simone Boutet.
But Trustee Colette Lueck said she was concerned that more teens would be caught up in a system that leaves them with criminal records.
“I’m very concerned about what the reality of implementation is,” she said of the ordinance.
George Thompson, a member of IMPACT who has studied the state laws, said under state jurisdiction any arrests are recorded and carry the risk of a criminal record. But with local adjudication, authorities have more flexibility to opt for “therapeutic consequences over more punitive (consequences).”
“We’re actually trying to address exactly your concerns,” Thompson told Lueck.
Lueck also questioned if minorities are more likely to be negatively impacted by such laws.
Thompson said white kids are every bit as involved in tobacco and pot smoking as black kids.
“This is intended to be an early intervention program,” said Kristine Raino-Ogden, a member of IMPACT. “It’s not for either big smokers of tobacco or (marijuana).”
Oak Park Township Supervisor David Boulanger said the proposed ordinances would allow police and others “to work with the youth, and not just arrest the youth.”
Boulanger said the township’s intervention programs like “Face It” are successful because they don’t require a teen to merely accept a punishment, but require parental involvement and interaction with their child.
Tanksley said the proposed ordinances would provide police flexibility to take a lenient or hard approach as the situation warrants. A suspected dealer would be arrested, even if he had less than 30 grams of marijuana.
“If you have 29 grams of pot in one gram packages (for sale), that’s a felony,” Tanksley said.
Boulanger said after the meeting that the sticking point appeared to be who would determine how that flexibility would be utilized.
“They wanted more specific process and procedure in the ordinance, as opposed to it being left to the discretion of the police officer.”
“It’s a very good start,” Raino-Ogden. “They’re asking all the right questions.”
When the Joe Camel advertisements were all but outlawed in 1997, teen smoking was near its highest level ever. Today, the benefits of eliminating these types of advertisements coupled with better anti-smoking campaigns are still paying off, according to a national report.
