The Chicago Housing Authority has banned weed in public housing. That’s discriminatory.
I lived in public housing for ten years. When I think back on those days, I realize how lucky I was to have avoided being kicked out.
For three or four years, I hosted an annual event called a Dysfunctional Family Christmas. It all began when my friend Joe came over one year to visit my late wife, Anna, and me on a Christmas night.
Joe was a Chicago native who had moved to San Francisco to practice pediatrics. He was in town for the holidays. He loved smoking pot so he brought over some fat joints and his latest boyfriend. We all got stoned and drank and watched a rented movie and had a lot of laughs. We probably ordered pizza.
We all agreed we had a grand old time. Joe said it was a therapeutic respite from his family holiday festivities, with all their tensions. He dubbed our event the Dysfunctional Family Christmas. And so it became a holiday tradition for him to come over on Christmas night with fat joints and his latest boyfriend.
I didn’t think about it much back then, but my Dysfunctional Family Christmas gatherings could have easily led to our eviction. I was possessing and consuming an illegal controlled substance in public housing, which was and still is a violation of federal law.
All this comes to mind right now for two reasons. First, the holidays approacheth. Also, as of January 1, the recreational use of marijuana will be legal here in Illinois. I don’t host a Dysfunctional Family Christmas anymore. Joe died years ago of AIDS. I’m not much of a pot smoker, but I’m seriously considering reviving the tradition with other participants in 2020 just so I can spread this bit of Christmas cheer worry-free, as it should be. I will be able to do that as long as I do it with adults in the privacy of my condo.
I didn’t think about it much back then, but my Dysfunctional Family Christmas gatherings could have easily led to our eviction.
But this wouldn’t be the case if I still lived in public housing. The Chicago Housing Authority has sent a notice regarding marijuana legalization to all the 63,000 households for which it provides housing or rent subsidy vouchers. The notice warns that even though state law has changed, they still can’t legally partake of cannabis in their homes.
It says, “The CHA can TERMINATE all assistance . . . if you, a member of your household, or a guest or person under your control is found engaging in drug-related criminal activity, including the use and/or possession of marijuana for medical or recreational purposes.”
The CHA says it must abide by federal law.
Of course, this ridiculous blanket prohibition impacts public housing residents far beyond Chicago. U.S. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, Democrat of the District of Columbia (which has also legalized the recreational use of marijuana, along with about a dozen states), last year introduced federal legislation permitting the use of medical or recreational marijuana in federally assisted housing, including public housing, in states where it is legal.
That seems to make immense sense, which probably means it will never become law.
People who live in public housing throughout the nation who are fortunate enough to live in states that allow adults to legally use marijuana should be able to look forward to enjoying a Dysfunctional Family Christmas as freely as me. So what if it’s just for fun. Isn’t that the point?