The Windy City's always been something of a conundrum to us. Highly metropolitan, Chicago bars stay open until 4 a.m. each night, enabling some pretty debaucherous behavior. But the third-largest city in the U.S. is still in the midwest, so, say you smoke just a little grass? "Scumbag! Degenerate! Arrest this man!"

The tide appears to be turning, apparently. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition just emailed us to say that: "The Chicago City Council just voted 43-2 to decriminalize possession of marijuana."

"The new proposal allows Chicago police to ticket rather than arrest those who are caught with 15 grams or less of marijuana. Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy has stated that the measure will free more than 20,000 hours of police time each year that is currently spent on making and processing arrests for small amounts of marijuana," LEAP states. "The proposal already had support from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, local police, and a majority of the 50 city council members."

Props to Chicago for getting with the times, although tickets will still be $250 for under ten grams of weed. Ouch town. The expected revenue from police preying on stoners should total about $7 million each year, NPR notes.