Note to readers from Mark Glennon re: Ukraine
May 6, 2026
3 Comments
Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
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If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Wow, another utopian idea has gone up smoke.
The Street dealers are competing with the government authorized and tightly controlled legal weed stores. The Street dealers are winning and have very small overhead; guns, ammo, alderman payoffs, etc.
Lots of dopes for sale to the highest bidder in politics.
Simple solution if you’re a democrat – raise the tax and then wonder why the revenues don’t increase.
The illegal market is still thriving, tax-free.
Check out the legal Oklahoma market. RSO is $10/gram. $60 flower ounces all day long brother. That is the LEGAL market.
As more and more cannabis licenses are issued, early adopting municipalities such as Evanston are bound to see decreasing revenue. Guessing distance has never been an issue for avid consumers of marijuana, but once a store opens nearby to those folks, expect that store to cannibalize that cannabis consumer.
At some point, consumption is going to peak and these cannabis retailers in general are going to be competing against each other for the same customer base. Or increased competition will lower prices, leading to a decrease in taxes collected (or less per sale).
Same thing happened with casinos. More casinos, but not more gamblers. Politicians have no concept of economics of supply and demand. They think they can grow their revenues exponentially if they just keep opening more cannabis shops and casinos.
Correct, but the more outlets politicians approve, the more campaign contributions they receive, along with the usual illegal monetary compensation.
So far nothing is going on at the proposed Rockford casino site but I did see a guy walking by. The temporary site is doing OK with only one person killed in the parking lot so far.
Rivers basically usurped every other casino revenue stream. There hasn’t been a new casino since.
Is it possible they actually learned something about wishes vs reality??
When Rivers was being pitched to Des Plaines the promise was that the Rivers’ license was the last to be issued in Illinois.
Though burdened with the traffic and law enforcement issues endemic with a casino, Des Plaines doesn’t get to keep all the proceeds, instead those revenues are shared with multiple municipalities.
With new licenses in the offing, I wonder if the DP deal will change.
Curious minds want to know.
Evanston taxpayers will get stuck with the bill for this