Daily Archives: March 5, 2008

$1,500 Fine for Tiny Plastic Bags

The City of Chicago is considering a law banning tiny plastic bags because drug dealers use them for transporting and selling small amounts of drugs such as heroin, cocaine, crack, and methamphetamine.

Of course! That’s the answer! Ban the little tiny bags and the dealers won’t have anything to transport their drugs in! Why didn’t anyone think of this before?

It’s the Question of the Day at The Capitol Fax Blog (on my Daily reads list – great for Illinois state politics!).

The Chicago Sun Times has this:

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.” Many of them have symbols, allowing drug users to ask for “Superman” or “Blue Dolphin” instead of the drug itself, he said.

I don’t know about you, but I am very scared by Lt. Navarro. He wants to go after grocery stores, health food stores, and other businesses?

And grocery stores, health food stores, and other businesses are involved in the selling of illegal drugs in what capacity?

I use these little tiny bags all the time. I use them to hold and ship jewelry, to hold beads and gemstones, to sort buttons and hold and store many craft items.

I also use them for my children’s medication when we go on day trips or on longer trips. Doses can be easily separated by time to be taken and child and take up so much less room than medicine bottles. The little bags can easily be carried in a pocket or wallet, try that with prescription bottles. I use them for several doses of over the counter analgesics too. It’s a lot easier to carry a tiny bag with 2 or 3 doses of Excedrin Migraine than it is to carry the 100-pill bottle around.

This is so incredibly stupid that I can hardly believe it’s true, except that it’s Chicago and that explains a lot.

Seasons Change

Winter, the dormant season, dies and rebirth comes with spring. We watch for the temperatures to rise, the snow cover to melt, and the green of new growth to show peeping from the earth or budding on the trees and bushes.

We may also start to think about life changes. We grow up, get married, have children. We start to think about our own mortality. As we accumulate more and contribute more to our families, we have a need for life insurance, to compensate – if only somewhat and only financially – for our loss.

Some of us have life insurance through our employers,  our employer insures our lives for a multiple of our salary. We may have the option of purchasing more insurance through our employer as well. But generally that doesn’t cover a non-working spouse, and that insurance doesn’t follow you if no longer work for that employer.

So while employer paid life insurance is a great benefit, it isn’t offered to everyone and, of course, those that aren’t employed don’t have employers to pay it. That’s where cheap term life insurance can come in. It’s an inexpensive way to cover a non-working spouse, or a working spouse whose employer doesn’t offer paid life insurance. It’s also a way to supplement an employer paid insurance policy. Peace of mind is priceless.

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