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DeKalb County State's Attorney discusses legal marijuana issues

SYCAMORE – The DeKalb County Law & Justice Committee discussed the complications of legal marijuana Monday at its monthly meeting.

DeKalb County State’s Attorney Rick Amato was there to tell the committee about marijuana possession, transportation, use and what law enforcement authorities might do about it. He showed slides of various amounts of legal marijuana.

“A picture’s worth 1,000 words,” Amato said. “After Jan. 1, it’ll be legal to possess for anyone above 21, up to 30 grams of marijuana.”

Twenty eight grams is one ounce.

Within the 30 grams of cannabis that a person 21 or older can possess and use at home is up to 5 grams of cannabis concentrate, which refers to oils, vape fluid and other more refined forms of the plant outside of the traditional leaf.

The possession of edibles proved to be a talking point for the committee.

People old enough can possess up to 500 milligrams of THC in each edible, according to Amato’s slideshow. They will be allowed to transport edibles only from a dispensary to their homes.

Amato broke down the new law in measuring cannabis versus the old law. He said the new law counts each cookie, brownie, bag of gummy candy or Chex-Mix. The old law weighed the whole item.

“The old law would be the full weight where you’re getting the flour, the sugar, the butter and the THC,” Amato said. “That is out now. The substance, it doesn’t matter how much it weighs, it’s the mechanism, what it’s made of.”

He said someone could possess the weed leaf, the concentrate and the edible and how there’s no upper limit of the number of edibles a person could have, just that each cookie or brownie has to have no more than 500 milligrams of marijuana.

Dianne Leifheit, chairwoman of the committee, wanted to know how law enforcement authorities would know if a brownie or a cookie within the legal THC limit of 500 milligrams.

“You’d have control over manufactured edibles, but if I go home tonight and make brownies, how would you know what’s in them?,” Leifheit said.

“You wouldn’t,” Amato answered. “I don’t know what’s the per milligram make-up of the oil. It’s different depending on who made the oil.”

Others on the committee were wondering about how long THC stays in a person’s the system.

“There’s no sure answer,” Amato said.

Source: The Daily Chronicle

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