Question for those of you living in a country where marijuana is legal. What are the positive sides, what are the negatives?
If you could go back in time, would you vote for legalising again? Does it affect the country’s illegal drug business , more/less?
Legalize it
Tax it
Regulate it
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Pro: Everywhere it’s legal has seen a drastic reduction in the amount of violent drug-related crime, lower incarceration rates for non-violent offenders, and less abuse of prescription painkillers. Plus an incredible rise in quality when pot is regulated.
Con: Your straight edge friends who’ve never touched a joint in their lives start smoking regularly, since it’s legal. Your 30+ year old friends will start talking like junior highschoolers who just smoked oregano for the first time and think they’re high.
I tried it first when I was 30+, and tried it a few times at parties. Got a good laugh once and then a weird trip once… All other times were just meh, and since I never smoked anything, my throat hurt. The result was, that I stopped and then convinced my friends to stop it as well
I think it’s much easier to handle when you are an adult.
So, additional plus - when it’s legal, it’s easier to restrict access for a certain age group (let’s make it at least 21+. I heard it’s particularly dangerous for teens)
Your straight edge friends who’ve never touched a joint in their lives start smoking regularly, since it’s legal.
That’s not what straight edge means
Logically, if tobacco and alcohol are legal, there’s no health-related reason for marijuana to be illegal. Both alcohol and weed impair your judgement, and both smoking tobacco and smoking weed are harmful to your lungs. Everything else about alcohol or tobacco vs weed is worse. And giving criminals easy ways to make money is a bad idea.
So, as another response said, legalize it, regulate it, tax it.
Legalize all drugs. Move 100% of the enforcement funds into drug treatment programs. And then tax them and put that towards treatment programs.
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It’s been legal in Canada since 2015ish. Haven’t noticed a difference, but now I can get better regulated gummies which is nice for my asthma.
There are some minor downsides, you can’t walk 5 minutes in downtown Toronto without smelling weed. I can tolerate it just fine, but some people hate it. Otherwise it has been great.
Scientifically speaking, the pros outweigh the cons everytime.
Public Safety should not be done with the assumption that the public is made up of stupid children that would kill themselves at every possible opportunity (though some people are like that) rather it should come with the assumption that adults are smart enough and have the right to make decisions about them selves.
The government should work towards education so that the public can be better informed and only restrict extreme situations where a reasonable mistake can lead to unreasonable consequences or harm to others. And “Gateway drugs” is as stupid as saying that teaching people how to use a knife would lead them to seek out sharper and bigger knives until they stab themselves and die.
I love that rhetoric but it reminds me of reddit discussion about mother suing the zoo after she dopped her children into…I think it was hyena pen?
People got pissed that it was ZOO that was at fault, not her. There was a barrier if I recall correctly, waist-level one, and the pen was lower than the walk to separate animals from humans, but parents liked to held their small children over the barrier for…reasons. Well, she lost hers.
And people absolutely blamed ZOO for not idiot proofing more. As if it was us that should be kept in pens xD
Oh yeah, my second foremost wtf with modern society: let’s build everything around what idiots are gonna do, with even fucking courts seing no problem with forcing companies to pay money to dumbasses (who do things like using electric stoves as cutting boards). Guess I will long be dead by the time this shit gets reversed
Having lived in both, absolutely legalize.
I don’t personally care for it and I get annoyed by the public smells, the tacky and run-down stores that make neighborhoods feel trashy. But that’s all personal preference.
The one legitimate issue is that it is very difficult to regulate and enforce impairment. Someone driving or operating machinery high is just as dangerous as someone driving drunk. With alcohol, there are a number of different tests and impairment is well correlated with BAC. For marijuana, there is no quick and accurate way to assess how high someone is at a given time.
Impairment is impairment and being tired or distracted by phones/technology is often even worse than being intoxicated or high but we tend to love using BAC because it is easy to measure. Locations that legalized weed didn’t have an increase in impaired driving last time I checked, because most people don’t go out driving when they are high while people often drive intoxicated after drinking at bars.
BAC is also well correlated with impairment. Obviously it varies from one individual to another, but it is related strongly related enough to have fair and consistent enforcement.
AFAIK, blood tests that measure the presence of marijuana are relatively cheap, but measuring the concentration is slightly more difficult and is not well correlated with impairment. That means enforcement is problematic and subjective.
run-down stores that make neighborhoods feel trashy. But that’s all personal preference.
The dispensaries around me are really nice looking and always spotless
Look, I feel the same about liquor stores and mattress stores, to name a few. There are some nice examples, but most I don’t like to see.
Again, that’s my opinion and does not deserve any legislation. I’m glad other people feel differently. Businesses serve the needs of a community, not the feelings of internet randos. OP asked for our honest opinion and that’s just mine.
I’m sure it varies by location, but I mean like literally every single one I have ever seen in my state has been really nice. None of them look like liquor stores. It’s much closer to walking into a high-end jewelry shop, no joke. And I do not live in a great area by any stretch.
The ratio is the opposite of what you’re saying. A spotless liquor store is the exception, not the rule. Same goes for a grimey dispensary (assuming any exist at all in my state).
I live in suburbia and the cannabis stores cater, in part, to suburban moms. They are clean, well lit, and the staff are very approachable. It’s fascinating to see.
Pros:
- it makes weed cheaper, safer
- you know exactly what you’re getting since there’s no incentive to illegally lace weed with other dangerous stuff
- less need to prosecute drug possession “crimes” that hurt nobody
- It makes it less appealing to young kids because the dangerous aspect is removed
Cons:
- Weed smells bad to many people, there are complaints from a lot who visit about how open weed smoking make some places smell awful
- Legal Grow op greenhouses cause a lot of light pollution which is an annoyance for the local population
- Some weed smokers joke around saying weed was more fun when it was illegal.
- Harder to enforce impairment since weed takes much longer to stop registering on tests than you are affected by it
I’m not a regular smoker, I think we are better off having it legal though.
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Thailand legalized it not too long ago and I’d say it’s 90% positive.
- loads of direct and indirect business opportunities
- reduction in alcohol related issues. Stones are generally much more chill than drunks and impairement for vehicle operation etc is much lesser.
There were a few populist issues like catching kids with weed etc but imo that’s actually a positive as people starting to actually talk about kid safety when previously they had all these drugs and worse.
Personally I’d say the only danger is high concentrates which are illegal here and not very desired by the market either way. Mostly tourists and locals just want to smoke normal mid tier weed and enjoy the nature and thai food which is a win-win for everyone. I’ve seen some gravity bongs and a bit of oils (never seen anyone dab) but I’d say 90% of users just smoke mid tier 5$/g weed of 28% thc or so mostly mixed with tobacco too.
My favorite change is just the culture shift. Stoned tourists are just so much nicer and the party scene has changed a lot around this.
Legal weed as been huge for business here. Thai people are incredible entrepreneurs and were really quick to develop the industry to the point where the government tried to reverse legalization a year later but it was too late already.
If you think weed should not be legalized, then you should be consistent and apply the same to alcohol and tobacco. Both of these substances do far more harm than weed with far fewer medical properties.
Deal 🤝
Pro: way more variety of edibles I can’t make myself (like fruit gummies), and I know the strength before I consume.
Not really a con, but a letdown: legal retailers can’t really compete with drug dealers prices, so it didn’t hurt the illegal drug industry or generate as much taxes as hoped.
Unmeasured edibles in the olden days, oh boy… I don’t miss it.
My shop sells $30 ounces. Never met a dealer slinging that cheap.
If you can, then they can, because they don’t have to pay for the bureaucracy, no need for testing and accurate labeling, etc.
Pros:
- funny green plant
- I like it
- I’m high and forgot the 3rd
Cons:
- N/A
Legalize it
Decriminalisation is the way IMO.
I don’t want lots of people taking up smoking even. But being punished for smoking weed? Ridiculous.
Pros: I don’t have to sneak around like a criminal just to get a plant.
