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@oyzmo@lemmy.world

Legalize it

Tax it

Regulate it

Yes legalize. It shouldn't have been banned to begin with. It makes more sense to ban alcohol than cannabis if we're just talking from a public safety perspective. It was actually banned because the lumber industry wanted to chop down trees for paper rather than letting hemp take the lead.

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.

It's sad to see a lot of the misinformation here that says there are no downsides to weed. In fact, weed has a ton of downsides that need to be considered in how marijuana is handled in a society.

If you are a visual/ audio learner, here's a well researched video on the downsides of weed, from a source that acknowledges their staffs personal biases lean towards legalization.

Kurzgesagt, "We Have to Talk About Weed

Basically, we need to recognize that due to having criminalized weed for so long, we are only now getting the research into the negative effects of weed, but as it's coming out we are seeing how weed is not all sunshine and rainbows.

THC potency has increased dramatically since the 60s, and that has led to increased risks of paranoia, psychosis, and panic attacks. It also increases the risk of Cannabinoid Hypermesis Syndrome, where ingesting weed will make you vomit, nauseous, and have horrible abdominal pain.

My roommate just got this and she is not having fun. Her doctor told her this may be a 6 month T-break, but it's also possible this is permanent, and best to avoid weed altogether.

I also am sad to see "weed is not addictive" being thrown around. Cannabis Use Disorder (weed addiction) is very real and a quick look up says 10% of users become addicted. Personally I consider myself stuck on a habit since I can control my use to keeping it after 8pm, but I still have trouble not getting high daily. I have a friend who is now 100 days sober, but when he had a relapse last year, it ruined his life.

That's not to say it's bad, I have another friend who needs weed to help him get through the day with his PTSD. We just need to recognize one person's medicine is another person's poison.

Most all of the major issues with weed tend to show up with people who began smoking in adolescence. I think a reason I'm somewhat I'm control and my other friend is not is that I started smoking at 22 in college, and he started at 16. I imagine if I waited until I was 25 I'd have no problem making it a weekend thing.

That said

My experience and the pain many have dealing with the health issues associated to weed are no where near comparable to the damage that criminalized weed has had on marginalized communities as weed has historically been used to target and oppress minorities by our US government. I also agree to the points that having a black market is FAR worse than having legal weed that needs regulation.

Personally I'm pro-legalization, but I think we need to be careful at how we are messaging weed to the youths and handling the negative consequences, as the myths of weed just being an innocent plant are super harmful.

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 very few cons, all the negative effects of cannabis can be better handled when it’s legal.

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.

As an ex addict to (too many) substances (not marijuana) I can easily see a few cons regarding drug usage but the real pro, if I had to pick one, would be to remove all that money from drug dealers.

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.

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.

Pros:

• funny green plant
• I like it
• I'm high and forgot the 3rd

Cons:

• N/A

Legalize it

Pro:

• people aren't criminalised for kinda nothing.
• you detach it from other drugs (the regular dealer will also have other stuff for sale - not an issue if you buy officially or grow yourself).

Con:

• despite what people claim, there are people that get highly addicted to cannabis. Probably similar to alcohol, you'd say? Well, in my unpopular opinion, alcohol also shouldn't be available the way it currently is (make it insanely expensive please).
• most people consume it with tobacco, so there's that to deal with.

Prohibition of vice does not work and only empowers organized crime.

End of argument.

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.

Con: I am stoned all the time

Pro: I am stoned all the time

Here in the Netherlands we have the "Gedoogbeleid", which translates to Tolerance policy. It's somewhere in between Decriminalized and legal. U are allowed to purchase and have up to 5 grams with you. And using it is okay in your own home and in places that don't disturb the public. But it's still partly illegal, as in no indoor growing and carrying more than 5g... It's a weird setup.

It's also a weird construction because technically the coffeeshops themselves are not allowed to buy the bulk amounts of weed to sell in their shops. So everything has to come in sneakily through the backdoor....

Lately legalization has been getting a good push, and now shops are buying their flowers from legit, government approved "Wiet boeren" weed farmers.

True Legalization Pros:

• Good alcohol alternative. It's one of the better substances to abuse.
• Better byproducts of flower. So more room for edibles, hash, concetrates and all the good stuff.
• Quality control, now you have some traceability where your flower is coming from. They put de Wiet Boeren on the bags with a qr code to see your flowers origin.

Cons:

• The wallet doesn't like the flowers.
• Weed is very habbit forming. Addiction might be too strong a word for weed. But oh boy is it habbit forming. Ppl who deny this, are in denial.

As for how it affects the overall drug trade. Our number 1 export in the Netherlands is XTC. But that's a whole different beast. As for weed drug trade, it does decrease it. In smaller townds without shops u will always have you local dealers. But weed really isn't drug to be afraid of as in violence and crime surrounding it.

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.

Legalize all drugs. Drug addiction is a health issue, not a legal one.

Legalize all drugs to defund the cartels.

Have proper regulations in place to actually prevent minors from accessing them and guarantee there are no harmful additives. Make rehab free so that people don’t get stuck in there.

If morphine was legally obtainable, no one would be using fentanyl. Stop the arms race now.

I voted to legalize it because it's stupid to arrest people for it. That said, I hate the constant smell in public, and people seem to get addicted to it quite easily. It's a pox on society, imo. At the end of the day, we have much larger problems on our hands.

Legalization has only positives

People who need something, to get through the day, will always seek for some kind of crutch.

When the legal range of available products (sorry, just learned, that the word "Sortiment" doesn't have a nice English equivalent) aren't helping ones issue, they'll look for other sources.
But unregulated sources can bring multiple problems with it.

First off, and the thing, I care about most:
we'd/we do hurt people looking for some kind of help.
Either by directly reducing their sources of crutches to untrustable and dangerous ones, with a product that's very probably not clean and could damage the user in unintended ways, they aren't aware about. We need to provide a safety net for people with problems, and not stigmatize those who try to help themselves.
And I've never met an addict, that was just an addict for the sake of it, or the feeling of the first time was so great - ok, maybe once I did.
But in every other case, the only ones getting hooked are the ones, that finally felt good with themselves for once in their life, when they somehow introduced some drug into their system.
And that's why many of them say, it was that feeling of the first time, they always try to reproduce.
For a normal happy person, heroin wouldn't make much of a difference.
But if you're feeling unloved and alone, hurt and abused, when you're feeling lost and don't know what to do, than end yourself.
Well then, then heroin (or whatever helps your cause) will give you a new perspective of life.
This escape from overwhelming, oppressive, suffocation problems is it, why people get hooked on drugs.

There is just nothing wrong with recreational use, as long as it's just about boosting a good time or even better, use mind altering drugs in a ritual setting, to change your perspective on things and learn (again) that love and your lives ones are the center of your life - or discover, that there was always one thing, that you wanted to do. Doesn't matter, if it gives you more options and happiness in life, it wasn't bad.
Bad it is for the people who cling to it, because only on it, they feel like functioning normal.

Those people have actual drug problems, and even with crystal meth the statistics say, that only a few percent (we're talking 1-2%) get addicted.
(At least that's, what I saw and remember - proof me wrong) And we have to keep in mind what social stigma fucking crystal meth has!
The group of people doing it (and show up on those statistics) are mostly people, that are already looking for such experiences and have stepped over the border of social tolerance, but look for their own thing (either enjoyment or escape/help)
And there is pretty much no one, who ever just started with meth (or other hard drugs, like heroin) . In the most cases there was at least alcohol and probably cigarettes/nicotine involved - there are absolutely always exceptions, but that doesn't change much, what needs to change in our social system.
As tragic, as those exceptions are, those usually happen in groups, where people with problematic drug use already gather.
So, solving the problem of the mass, should also help to reduce those sad exceptions.

Ok, I've started a bigger second point, but the only thing left I have are those few words, trying to start describing an idea:
"Then we need to look into the individual"

Well,... I hope the first point is sufficient, and if I ever remember what I wanted to say else, I'll come back here ;⁠-⁠)
So kids, you see, don't abuse drugs, else you won't remember shit... - although my mother has the same problem, and never in her live did anything illicit.
So I can't say with confidence, that we can talk about causation.

But, what hurt my mind most, were social traumata (e.g. a Burnout), and drugs (and many exercises like meditation) exceptionally helped my mental state and ability to handle life and work despite my handicap.
As I said, as long as I actively work on a problem and use drugs in a ritual state, they are helping me.
As soon as I need them just to get through the day, then I'm having a problem, I'm trying to avoid.

I know, this is mostly about me, but talking with other users, I've mostly seen the same mindset.

I’m happy with legalization and would do it again.

• the health impact is similar enough to alcohol and cigarettes so we should treat them similarly
• even before I agreed with legalization, the legal consequences seemed cruel and unusual, way out of proportion
• law enforcement needs to focus on things with more impact on our safety
• for-profit prisons? wtf
• I don’t know about medical benefits but how was pit so illegal that we could never even investigate such claims?
• smoking is a serious health hazard but now it’s easier to get marijuana products that do t involve smoking

The one thing I’d do differently is stricter regulations against secondhand smoke. Now that cigarettes have seriously declined, it’s easier to appreciate just how much they stink. But we’ve backslid: smoking pot stinks worse, and has a lot of the same second hand smoke hazard.

Decriminalisation is the way IMO.

I don't want lots of people taking up smoking even. But being punished for smoking weed? Ridiculous.

Legalize all drugs. Addiction is a severe mental health disorder, not a crime. Literally end of discussion.

I think that the pros are obvious. It should simply be legal, and other comments have given good reasons.

However, there are some cons that I haven't seen mentioned yet.

It impairs you, so any activity where that is a problem, like driving, may need extra attention or public education.

For smokers, inhaling smoke is dangerous.

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.

Legalise it, regulate the growing and selling of it and kill the green market.

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.

Pros if properly managed, takes away profits for criminals and helps prevent grow ops causing a lot of problems in communities.

Con Managed poorly fucks over consumers and propogates the criminals by creating a bigger market for them

Pro new tax revenue to pay for services

weed smokers are not cool anymore, like wow bro you're going to go home and follow the law. Lame