Spirits were high today in Evanston

People from around the corner and also from Chicago, Skokie, Northbrook, Wisconsin, and further afield queued for hours under a bright blue sky to get their chance to enter MedMen, 1804 Maple Street, to peruse the varieties of bud, concentrate, edibles, pre-rolled joints--Sativa or Indica--as recreational weed became legal in Illinois.

By 2 p.m., more than 800 people had lined up and it seemed they kept on coming. Friends were running off to fetch hand-warmers for friends, others were sharing boxes of donuts, and everyone was chatting to everyone else.

This past November, Evanston's City Council passed a resolution directing all sales tax revenue from recreational marijuana sales toward a local reparations initiative. Here are just a few of the sights and sounds from the line this afternoon.