Oh No! Small Ziplock Bags Outlawed in Chicago!

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

As you know, every craft store, hobby store and geocaching supply store in the Western world, along with many sporting goods stores, sells small ziplock baggies of varying sizes, and, as you know, geocachers put these bags to a wide variety of uses, including bagging cache items such as pens, pencils, small logbooks, geocoins, foreign coins, small travel bugs, sig items, small swag items and antique collectible broken McToys (which are worth a small fortune when auctioned on Ebay.) (And, I should add parenthetically, that as a research scientist, I also use large quantities of small ziplock baggies in my work, largely for packing and storing mineral and sand samples and radioactive ore samples in the field and in my laboratory.)

 

Well, in its never-ending war on drugs, the city of Chicago is considering banning the sale and ownership of small ziplock bags within city limits...

 

So, my question for each of you, as dedicated die-hard no-nonsense geocachers, is:

What will YOU do when they come for your small ziplock bags? Will you give them up willingly? Will you arm yourself to the teeth and shout things along the lines of:

"You will only get my small ziplock baggies over my dead body!"

or

"You'll take my small ziplock baggies when you pry them from my cold dead fingers!"

 

How will you manage this situation when the ziplock baggie Nazis (see footnote 1) come knocking at your door?

 

footnote 1: luckily, in the very first post of this thread, we have already managed to invoke Godwin's Law! Thank the stars!

 

Edited March 6, 2008 by Vinny & Sue Team

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

They're clowns with no brains. As if outlawing thge bags will stop drugs!! Sounds like time to impeach the retarded city council.

[CoyoteRed]

Sounds like clueless politicians to me.

 

I remember as a kid that pot came in sandwich bags, you know, the kind before ziplock where you folded over the top. Just the other day I saw a nickel bag that was nothing but a piece of plastic wrap gathered and twisted at the top.

 

I guess in Chicago the druggies with have to do without the convenience of easily reclosable baggies.

 

EDIT TO ADD: I'm not sure about the laws in Illinois, but here I don't think that ordinance would fly. Here items typically used to use drugs are not illegal. Drug paraphernalia does not exist until the item is actually used with a controlled substance. Of course, the possession of drug paraphernalia is illegal. That's the reason you can see "head shops" here or go into just about any convenience store and buy rolling papers.

Edited March 6, 2008 by CoyoteRed

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

HaHa, what they don't know is that all the baggies the guy found came from the pocket of a geocacher as they were walking along putting their spare change into them for trade in film cans. Boneheads, and one day we'll be electing one of them as president (running as hard on crime)

[+Metaphor]

Another Liberal-Socialist-Democrat conspiracy to deny me my God-given right to carry. Way back in the early 90's, if Clinton had only ... oh, sorry, wrong thread.

[+Snoogans]

Anyone checked snopes yet???

[+ChileHead]

I think that is a great idea!

 

From what I understand, cell phones are often used for communication and coordination of drop offs. Cell phones should be banned too. And don't get me started about using vehicles to drive to pick up drugs!

[Clan Riffster]

"When micro-baggies are outlawed, only outlaws will have micro-baggies."

Works for me.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

I think that is a great idea!

 

From what I understand, cell phones are often used for communication and coordination of drop offs. Cell phones should be banned too. And don't get me started about using vehicles to drive to pick up drugs!

I would like to take it further than you have. Studies show that all criminals drink beverages and eat food and breathe air. I demand that our elected officials outlaw beverages and food and outlaw air, and in that way, we will drive the criminal baddies out of existence!

 

[/i].....oh, and don't even get me started on the fact that studies show that every criminal drank dihydrogen monoxide from an early age and still drinks dihydrogen monoxide to this day!

[+Okiebryan]

Dihydrogen Monoxide....

 

[+Markwell]

Anyone checked snopes yet???

I thought of that too, and checked my calendar for April 1...

 

cbs2chicago.com is the source - which is one of Chicago's news stations, and is tied to WBBM, the pre-eminant news station in the Chicago area, so (unfortunately) I don't doubt the veracity of the report.

 

These are also the same politicians that last week when the budget crunch happened they got "creative". The law said that the budget needed to be completed by midnight on a certain day or facilities would shut down. At 11:55 p.m. they reached up and stopped the clock in the room until the budget meeting was finished.

 

It will not pass.

[+stites1]

I'm sure zip lock baggies are the #1 problem facing Chicago. Ain't representative government wonderful?

[+Knight2000]

Lets outlaw guns too. Bad guys use them.

 

Would it still be legal to buy them online? (Bags, not guns.)

[+Knight2000]

This reminds me...

 

I used to travel to Chicago for business. I would bring my rifles and shoot them at the Indiana State Parks which had rifle ranges. (Gave me something to do in the evenings.) I tried to buy ammo in Chicago and i couldnt do it. They wouldn't let me for some reason.

 

So i called LEO and said "What's up?" Then they started hassling me. "Why do you have guns if you arent from Chicago? Why do you need ammo? What is your purpose here?"

 

Learn from this: Take your ammo with you when traveling to Chicago.

 

(I also learned that if you travel to Detroit you better buy spray paint before getting there because you cant buy it in Detroit. It is as bag as those little baggies. )

 

What? Bad guys cant order baggies on the internet?

[+redtech]

Lets outlaw guns too. Bad guys use them.

 

Would it still be legal to buy them online? (Bags, not guns.)

 

Yeah, but make sure you have them shipped to a PO Box under an alias!

[Stephen2]

Yeah, but make sure you have them shipped to a PO Box under an alias!

Maybe they will train a special task force with dogs to sniff out that bad, bad plastic.

[+nekom]

That's almost laughable if it weren't so asinine. I can see somebody calling up their drug dealer "Hey man, I need some more crack!" "Oh sorry dude, I have nothing to package it in anymore. Looks like I'm out of business"

[+mvigor]

Well then...where will they draw the line between SNACK and SMALL? If I have a heat sealer and I divide a snack bag in half did I just create contraband? Or do I have to divide it in thirds? LOL!

 

That's almost laughable if it weren't so asinine. I can see somebody calling up their drug dealer "Hey man, I need some more crack!" "Oh sorry dude, I have nothing to package it in anymore. Looks like I'm out of business"

That's hilarious!!!

Edited March 6, 2008 by mvigor

[+rhelt100]

Seems to me that banning small ziplocks will worsen the drug problem. They'll have to start using gallon size baggies...and those'll hold a lot more.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

Remember, it's for the chinldren!

 

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/826059,...agban05.article

 

But geocaching doesn't care about the chinldren.

Edited March 6, 2008 by TheAlabamaRambler

[+Renegade Knight]

Oh my.

First baggies. Then beer, then Guns, and finally opposite sex marriages. Where will the bannings end!

[+fauxSteve]

I do wonder if the dealers will still be able to get illegal baggies to put their illegal drugs in?

 

In the meantime it's a good thing that they still sell smack online. What's next, knitting needles? Plastic googly eyes?

 

This war on baggettes is a waste of money! Soon our prisons wil be filled with fidgety addicts withdrawing from scrapbooking and decoupage, and all they'll have left is their legal glue to sniff. Decriminalize crafting now!

[+NeoAddict]

BUT WHERE WILL I PUT MY SANDWICHES???

[+J-Way]

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.

He didn't mention that he was the one who purchased the full baggies from the dealers in the first place... [kidding...]

 

But seriously, this will just be another law that's never enforced, but gives the police an excuse to hassle someone they think is suspicious. Like pulling a driver over for not signalling a lane change or passing on the right.

[+Dryphter]

Lets outlaw guns too. rolleyes.gif Bad guys use them. rolleyes.gif

 

Actually they done all but that in Chicago already. They have some of the worst gun control laws around (aside from the People's Republic of Kalifornia). And yet the criminals don't care and still have guns? Politicians there (and elsewhere) can't seem to grasp the fact that people who commit crimes really don't care what the law says.

[+carleenp]

Guns are already illegal in the City of Chicago. So is foie gras.

 

But they still allow beer, baseball, and shopping, so I will continue to go into the city.

[+JohnnyVegas]

As you know, every craft store, hobby store and geocaching supply store in the Western world, along with many sporting goods stores, sells small ziplock baggies of varying sizes, and, as you know, geocachers put these bags to a wide variety of uses, including bagging cache items such as pens, pencils, small logbooks, geocoins, foreign coins, small travel bugs, sig items, small swag items and antique collectible broken McToys (which are worth a small fortune when auctioned on Ebay.) (And, I should add parenthetically, that as a research scientist, I also use large quantities of small ziplock baggies in my work, largely for packing and storing mineral and sand samples and radioactive ore samples in the field and in my laboratory.)

 

Well, in its never-ending war on drugs, the city of Chicago is considering banning the sale and ownership of small ziplock bags within city limits...

 

So, my question for each of you, as dedicated die-hard no-nonsense geocachers, is:

What will YOU do when they come for your small ziplock bags? Will you give them up willingly? Will you arm yourself to the teeth and shout things along the lines of:

"You will only get my small ziplock baggies over my dead body!"

or

"You'll take my small ziplock baggies when you pry them from my cold dead fingers!"

 

How will you manage this situation when the ziplock baggie Nazis (see footnote 1) come knocking at your door?

 

footnote 1: luckily, in the very first post of this thread, we have already managed to invoke Godwin's Law! Thank the stars!

 

Being that it is Chicago, take a page from Al Capone, bring them in from out of the city, sell them to other cachers, you could start a black market in zip lock bags. You could meet cachers in the parking lots of events and sell them on the sly,

Edited March 6, 2008 by JohnnyVegas

[jholly]

I think everyone is missing the point. Outlawing small baggies is a green thing. The dealer will have to charge an extra $1 or so if you don't bring your own bag. Just think of all the small baggies that won't be going to the land fill now.

[+Juicepig]

how about outlawing drugs? that might prevent people having drugs!

 

oh wait.. that didnt work did it.

 

Well maybe the drug addicts will think twice about breaking 2 laws at once...

[+JohnnyVegas]

They outlawed these in Ca. for cake decorating, on my next trip to Nevada Hmmm. $$$$

[+sbell111]

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.

If they are not going to enforce the laws against illegal drug sales or littering in West Side park, why would they enforce the law banning baggies?

[+JohnnyVegas]

[+Thrak]

The stupidity of elected officials never ceases to amaze me.

[+Roarmeister]

As you know, every craft store, hobby store and geocaching supply store in the Western world, along with many sporting goods stores, sells small ziplock baggies of varying sizes, and, as you know, geocachers put these bags to a wide variety of uses, including bagging cache items such as pens, pencils, small logbooks, geocoins, foreign coins, small travel bugs, sig items, small swag items and antique collectible broken McToys (which are worth a small fortune when auctioned on Ebay.) (And, I should add parenthetically, that as a research scientist, I also use large quantities of small ziplock baggies in my work, largely for packing and storing mineral and sand samples and radioactive ore samples in the field and in my laboratory.)

 

Well, in its never-ending war on drugs, the city of Chicago is considering banning the sale and ownership of small ziplock bags within city limits...

 

So, my question for each of you, as dedicated die-hard no-nonsense geocachers, is:

What will YOU do when they come for your small ziplock bags? Will you give them up willingly? Will you arm yourself to the teeth and shout things along the lines of:

"You will only get my small ziplock baggies over my dead body!"

or

"You'll take my small ziplock baggies when you pry them from my cold dead fingers!"

 

How will you manage this situation when the ziplock baggie Nazis (see footnote 1) come knocking at your door?

 

footnote 1: luckily, in the very first post of this thread, we have already managed to invoke Godwin's Law! Thank the stars!

 

[+Roarmeister]

As you know, every craft store, hobby store and geocaching supply store in the Western world, along with many sporting goods stores, sells small ziplock baggies of varying sizes, and, as you know, geocachers put these bags to a wide variety of uses, including bagging cache items such as pens, pencils, small logbooks, geocoins, foreign coins, small travel bugs, sig items, small swag items and antique collectible broken McToys (which are worth a small fortune when auctioned on Ebay.) (And, I should add parenthetically, that as a research scientist, I also use large quantities of small ziplock baggies in my work, largely for packing and storing mineral and sand samples and radioactive ore samples in the field and in my laboratory.)

 

Well, in its never-ending war on drugs, the city of Chicago is considering banning the sale and ownership of small ziplock bags within city limits...

 

So does this mean they will also be banning Saran wrap - hey that could be used to hold a dime-bag of coke just as easily? Hmm, the insanity of it all.

 

BTW, I have a couple hundred of these tiny bags. I use them to store/protect my personal wooden coins in them.

[+JohnnyVegas]

they should also ban duct tape, that will stop kidnapping

[+martinell]

Next Chicago will outlaw eating in a place that is on fire.

 

Oh, wait, they did. Loony Laws]

[+NorthWes]

Hmmm... Obviously Chicago aldermen don't fish for salmon in Alaska. We sportfishermen up here commonly use small self-sealing baggies to carry our pre-tied single-hook salmon fly rigs in our fishing vests. It's the simple & speedy way to get a fly right back in the water chasing salmon when one gets busted off on the rocks or in a fish. Pull out the baggie, unship the leader & push the loop through the loop end of your fly line, pass the fly through the loop in leader, and you're back to fishing. Other than bagging geocoins for release into the wild, that's how I use small plastic baggies in bulk. Yup - I buy 'em 500 at a time... twice a year. I'm a relatively big user, I guess.

 

What a joke. Our nation's incarceration rate exceeds 1% of the adult population, a figure a minimum of four times higher than any other developed nation in the world. With elected officials willing to criminalize possession of a plastic bag (good grief - my PBJ's in an illegal container!) there's an obvious disconnect with the root problem. More laws, but no money for enforcement. Citizens should demand all new laws carry a mandatory budget provision providing adequate funding for enforcement. If I ran my business like legislators like to 'run' government, I'd be unemployed (and bankrupt). Perhaps the legislators should be unemployed as well when they make such poor choices as mandating an action without funding enforcement. hmmm...

[+sbell111]

Sadly, I fear that they would simply fund the enforcement of that law.

[+ReadyOrNot]

Another Liberal-Socialist-Democrat conspiracy to deny me my God-given right to carry. Way back in the early 90's, if Clinton had only ... oh, sorry, wrong thread.

 

This is only the beginning. Check out the fairness doctrine. Coming soon to a government near you...

[+OHail]

Lets outlaw guns too. Bad guys use them.

 

While we are at it, let's ban glass bottles such as beer bottles since they can also be used for molotov cocktails!

[+Thrak]

I've often wondered wha LEO would think of the bag of baggies in my truck's console. They are all small bags I use to replace the log bags in micros. It seems that they are generally trashed. I also use them for smashed pennies or other things I leave in caches.

[+sbell111]

Another Liberal-Socialist-Democrat conspiracy to deny me my God-given right to carry. Way back in the early 90's, if Clinton had only ... oh, sorry, wrong thread.

 

This is only the beginning. Check out the fairness doctrine. Coming soon to a government near you...

You might note that the fairness doctrine is not a new concept.

[+ReadyOrNot]

Another Liberal-Socialist-Democrat conspiracy to deny me my God-given right to carry. Way back in the early 90's, if Clinton had only ... oh, sorry, wrong thread.

 

This is only the beginning. Check out the fairness doctrine. Coming soon to a government near you...

You might note that the fairness doctrine is not a new concept.

It's a very old one.. Mrs. C and Mr. O have both mentioned re-enacting the fairness doctrine and there's quite a bit of support in congress for making it law (I think that's even mentioned by wikipedia).. My point was it may sound stupid banning a small ziplock bag, but there are far worse things coming down the pike....

Edited March 6, 2008 by ReadyOrNot

[+ThePetersTrio]

What's next? Banning chocolate chip cookies and Pink Floyd CDs?

 

Idiots - when are people going to realize that the so-called "war on drugs" is never going to work.

 

[+ReadyOrNot]

What's next? Banning chocolate chip cookies and Pink Floyd CDs?

 

Idiots - when are people going to realize that the so-called "war on drugs" is never going to work.

 

 

If the "War on Drugs" involves banning ziplock bags, then I think it's fair to say the war has been lost

[+Cpt.Blackbeard]

Next Chicago will outlaw eating in a place that is on fire.

 

Oh, wait, they did. Loony Laws]

 

I dunno, I kind of like this one:

A state law in Illinois mandates that all bachelors should be called master, not mister, when addressed by their female counterparts.

[+ReadyOrNot]

Next Chicago will outlaw eating in a place that is on fire.

 

Oh, wait, they did. Loony Laws]

 

I dunno, I kind of like this one:

A state law in Illinois mandates that all bachelors should be called master, not mister, when addressed by their female counterparts.

 

I've always preferred to be called Mister.... Something about being called Master has never sat well with me... Just my 2 cents

 

Shawn Baiter (AKA ReadyOrNot)

[+Confucius' Cat]

The stupidity of elected officials never ceases to amaze me.

One word:

 

"CHICAGO"

[+UncleJimbo]

No jurisdiction in its right mind would ban small ziplock bags, and even if they did, the law would never stand once challenged in court.

 

So, no point spending time wondering about this "what if" scenario.