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?
OP, please change the title to make it less vague what the question is about without having to open it.
Done, thanks 🙂
Legalize all drugs. Addiction is a severe mental health disorder, not a crime. Literally end of discussion.
I wouldn’t say it’s a mental disorder (not all at least), but 100% not a crime. We didn’t ask to come into this world, let us do to our bodies and minds what we want.
substance use disorders are absolutely a mental disorder and it’s damaging to treat them as anything else. too long they’ve been considered moral failings and people are fucking dying because of it. when a substance gets in the way of life, that’s a disorder.
as for doing what you want… im not arguing for sobriety or abstinence, that’s another approach to addiction that KILLS PEOPLE. you can still do what you want.
Addiction or not, who are you to say what people can or can’t do? Drugs, caffeine, sugar, why are you concerned with that rather than just providing options?
Can you show me what makes you think it’s a mental health issue?
Alcoholism is the only one I’m aware of, which can be hereditary and genetic.
I’m sorry, hold up, what do you think I’m doing here? When someone comes to me for a drug and alcohol eval, I dont tell them what to do. I ask what they want, if they think their use is a problem, if they want treatment, etc. All I do is provide options. That’s what individualized person-centered care is.
What makes you think i do anything different?
I can provide you resources on substance use disorders if you really want but I do this for a living so I’m not eager to. I would say look into ASAM. Addiction Medicine is a developing field but we’re finding more empowering ways to help people through validation and support.
the problem in the language here is really what does mental disorder really mean? it isn’t about genetics. a disorder just means life is out of order. etiology is irrelevant. is the framing of it as a mental disorder somehow uncomfortable to you? it might seem critical if you still think of MH issues as “mental illnesses”, but that’s not what’s going on. identifying problematic behavioral patterns as a psychological problem enables us to treat it appropriately instead of with stigma.
and to be clear, no one is expected to do what they don’t want to do.
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.
Disagree on first and last point. MJ is NOT comparable to cigarettes. At all. This is coming from someone who has partaked in both. Both produce smoke but are not equal.
Cigarettes are WAY worse for your chest, and far more addictive, and easier to access/cheaper.
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.
I honestly agree 100%. While I don’t do weed, I have a lot off friends that do and the amount of rhetoric I’ve heard about it’s lack of downsides and addictiveness is baffling. I can’t exactly say anything either, because they’re clearly looking for a “yes” answer and anything else won’t be accepted (I don’t want to say some of them are addicted, but smoking it near-daily for years isn’t a good sign)
I’m a medical student, so I’ve looked at quite a few studies, and they seem to align with what you’re saying: that you’re at a much higher risk of developing psychiatric disorders, as well as abdominal or lung diseases depending on your form of intake if marijuana is taken chronically
That’s a bit of a false dilemma though. The two options aren’t “it’s a magical elixir with absolutely no downsides” and “people deserve to be locked in a cage and have their life ruined for possessing it”. Plenty of legal things can cause harm. 35% of people are lactose intolerant, do we ban dairy?
Did you read the whole comment? OP finishes his comment addressing exactly what you question, they say the good outweighs the bad, and it should be legal.
I think that this is a very balanced and thoughtful take that I agree with. As someone who has been smoking daily for the better part of 4 years now, weed has helped a lot but it has also hurt me a lot. At my peak i could easily kill a quad a day, although now I’m down to a gram a day if that. I would’ve been in a much better position financially if I never started smoking, and I’m sure my health would’ve been a lot better. That being said, smoking has helped me through some very difficult times and has given me community. I started smoking in highschool but stopped until I graduated and started again right before college. I’ve stopped having my own supply at points (not stopped smoking altogether but gone mostly sober), but especially in this day and age it’s very helpful to have it. It doesn’t help that where I am, a lottttttt of people are cali sober (me included).
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Weed is no “addictive”, but it can be habit forming. Addiction is very specific and we don’t typically use it correctly in day day speech. You won’t have physical withdrawal symptoms like opioid, alcohol, or caffeine.
I would love see a study on lo g term effects. We won’t due to ethics. So far every study is either users have no long term side effects but it can make existing problems worse, or weed makes you try hard drugs and we should all know that is not real.
Heya, I’d love to follow up with you on some of this stuff. This actually isn’t accurate for the current understanding of addiction. Substance use disorders are more than just dependence, tolerance, and withdrawal. There are a number of other factors that constitute “addiction” (aka, SUDs). Check out the DSM criteria for cannabis use disorder for starters.
It turns out that, while not medical emergency level akin to ethanol or benzo w/d, cannabis does have some seriously addictive properties.
Really the trouble is that we misunderstand addiction itself. It’s not about chemicals. It’s about context, and overall life functioning.
Weed is addictive and has physical withdrawal symptoms.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7146100/
We need to treat weed like we do alcohol. It’s not the devil but it isn’t a saint either.
As someone who recently had to quit cold turkey from being a heavy daily user due to job change and a drug test (I had 6 weeks to be clean), I can confirm that physical withdrawal symptoms exist and are not pleasant. Includes night sweats turning into nightmares, upset stomach with loose stools, and loss of appetite. Lots of warm baths to combat the fatigue of withdrawal. Heightened paranoia due to the situation.
Would not recommend. If you’re a heavy user and need to stop/T-break, taper down first, or work with a mental health provider.
I’m gonna be honest, I’ve been a heavy smoker for close to 10 years, many times have I stopped for either a t-break, a drug test, or for just being broke. I have never once experienced anything like you said. Not saying you’re lying, but I’m gonna point out that your anecdote doesn’t apply to everyone.
Legalize all drugs. Move 100% of the enforcement funds into drug treatment programs. And then tax them and put that towards treatment programs.
I tend to agree with this. The main thing this does is takes away the profit from criminal gangs. Of course, when people make drugs illegal they don’t realize they are making criminal gangs rich. But, that is the result. Instead, people are thinking of the tweakers and homeless all over the streets, or their loved one who OD’d. And, truthfully, there likely are certain drugs that can never be used responsibly (opioids, meth). For those, society needs to find a way to manage it. Maybe give away the drugs for free in certain supervised spaces. And, forcibly treat people who are high in public. 8 years in prison for anyone that gives drugs to a minor. But, legalize the drugs so murderers aren’t the ones manufacturing and selling them.
You’re talking about decriminalization, which is not the same as legalization.
Heroin should absolutely not be legalized, but it shouldn’t be criminalized either.
No, I’m talking about legalization. I said legalized, I meant legalized. Drug treatment programs should be ubiquitous, available, and free.
Where I live they are. As we have universal healthcare.
We still got hit very hard by both a cocaine and heroine crisis.
Not all people who need help will seek it, even if it’s free help. A hard lesson to learn, but one you learn while living in a country why vast social programs and universal healthcare but there are still people with severe issues who just refuse to get helped.
And those people unfortunately aren’t going to be helped by prohibition either. In fact, prohibition will only make things much worse for them and everyone else. The knock on affects of prohibition are far worse than most people understand.
I do want to also ask, are you aware if there are any waiting periods whatsoever to get into treatment programs anywhere in your country? I find that in most countries at least somewhere there are prohibitive waiting lists.
Prohibition would reduce the number of potential people in that situation. For the people that inevitably would fall into drug abuse and addiction is where social programs come into place.
All the dangers you listed for prohibition are handled by social programs, decriminalisation of users and harm reduction. Here there are many places you can go to test your drugs for free to know if they are adulterated with dangerous substances or not. No question asked.
I don’t know the waiting periods for these treatments. But they are irrelevant to prohibition/legalization, they are not going to get extra help or quicker help because hard drugs are legal.
All these being said I don’t see any single thing that’s worse here because hard drugs are illegal.
Also we have the example of tobacco. While legal here there was a time when ilegal tobacco dealing was very big, because it was cheaper. With hard drugs would happen exactly the same. Ilegal would be cheaper than legal so most points about reducing gangs and drug-dealing related crimes would be defeated.
Users are not criminalised, so they can get help. Help is free for them, and there are plenty of social programs to get them out of that world. There are free points for drug testing, so they don’t use adulterated substances. Drug related violence is not a big issue here. There’s the typical marginalised violence in some neighbourhood, but I don’t see how making drugs legal would solve anything there. The only people being prosecuted here are drug dealers, which to be fair are making money by destroying people’s life so they kinda deserve being declared criminals imho.
There would always be drug addicts, but I don’t see how situation would be made better here by legalising those drugs. By keeping them illegal at least you reduce the potential drug users who would fall into that horror.
All this for hard drugs of course. Soft drugs should be legal, for moral reasons. Here they are partially legal. There use to be some places where you could legally get weed but they are in a gray area. Anyway marijuana is so common and personal use in your own home is perfectly legal. Thought I think in this case it should get the same status as alcohol.
I’ve seen what fentanyl and tranq does to people first hand. Walking zombies with decaying flesh wounds that will kill them. Not all drugs should be legal for recreational use.
How’s that working out? Prohibition has never done anything for addiction.
Prohibition in Singapore works swimmingly. But that’s a single city state. It’s much harder to stop drugs from coming into a country like America.
I don’t think anyone should go to prison for consuming drugs. I also don’t think fentanyl and drugs like it should be made any easier to obtain.
San Francisco has spent so much money trying to solve the fentanyl crisis and yet it still persists. I think the problem lies deeper in our culture. Substance abuse is just a symptom of our cultural illness.
Doesn’t singapore have death penalty for drug offense?
Yeah killing addicts doesn’t sound very humane to me
San Francisco has spent so much money trying to solve the fentanyl crisis and yet it still persists.
No, it doesn’t. Still drug addicts, still drug dealers and violent gangs that import and sell drugs.
Fentanyl and xylazine are only common because of prohibition; legalize all drugs, and opiate users will flock to heroin instead.
Also, the necrosis isn’t caused by the drugs themselves, it’s cutting agents, needle reuse, and poor sanitation. Legalization solves the first one, almost solves the second, and makes teaching about the third a lot easier.
Exactly, those drugs are sought after because smuggling small amounts of them is much easier than smuggling larger amounts of heroin.
Black markets, drug markets, gang violence, the warehousing of impoverished people who get drawn in to all that. Nothing but bad comes from prohibition.
Tranq, also known as Xylazine, specifically causes flesh wounds.
“A high prevalence of abscesses and painful skin ulcers [13] developed over various body parts irrespective of the IV injection site was reported. The mechanism is thought to be mediated by its direct vasoconstricting effect on local blood vessels and resultant decreased skin perfusion [6]. In addition to vasoconstriction, it causes hypotension, bradycardia, and respiratory depression, leading to lower tissue oxygenation in the skin [14]. Thus, chronic use of xylazine can progress the vasoconstriction and skin oxygenation deficit, leading to severe soft tissue infections, including abscesses, cellulitis, and skin ulceration. Decreased perfusion also leads to impaired healing of wounds and a higher chance of infection of these ulcers [15].”
Again, drug users do not seek these drugs. Drug dealers seek them because stronger drugs are easier to smuggle in smaller amounts for the same street value as a much larger quantity of heroin.
Again, drug users do not seek these drugs. Drug dealers seek them because stronger drugs are easier to smuggle in smaller amounts for the same street value as a much larger quantity of heroin.
I mean technically all kinds of opiates, some considerably stronger than heroin, are already legal. Access to them is strictly controlled but if you have the right piece of paper you can go to the local pharmacy and pick up all manner of extremely hardcore drugs.
Just nitpicking the semantics of legal/controlled/etc though. Ultimately we’re all in agreement that drugs should be a healthcare issue and not a criminal one.
The stricter it’s “controlled”, the more out of control the black market is.
Prohibition of vice does not work and only empowers organized crime.
End of argument.
I don’t care about health benefits/dangers of any vice as much as I hate how ingrained vices are in our daily lives. I’m sick of beer ads, I hate online sports betting sponsoring every event (and rapidly turning a lot of friends into gamblers), my recently weed-legal state is already flooded with local ads and shitty shops.
I dream of a utopia where no vices are sold in a store or advertised. If you want to indulge you go to the equivalent of a Native American casino on steroids. It’s a massive temple to hedonism, zoning for it is very restricted. You can do any drug you want there, everything carefully dosed and tested. There’s complimentary trip-sitters and emergency services on call.
Things that aren’t an immediate threat to yourself/others (mushrooms, lsd, mj, low abv drinks, etc…) can be sold for private personal consumption off-prem with a reasonable limit per person. You can’t partake in public and can be asked for proof of purchase during transit.
There’s no perverse vice tax that leeches money from addicts who can’t afford it, the government’s best financial interest is to keep people clean and spending money elsewhere. If you need something to routinely “take the edge off” you get easy access to medical services (mental/physical/otherwise) and a prescription from a real doctor.
Any time I hear arguments for full legalization of anything in the USA I just have nightmares of inane Budweiser-style weed/cocaine/heroin commercials.
I feel like you have issues with the way capitalism takes advantage of people’s vices and you blamed half of it on the vices. If it wasn’t exploited, and drugs weren’t criminalized, with normal and healthy social standards taught instead of total abstinence creating an attractive taboo, none of that would be an issue.
Except, there’d still be issues, because addiction creates issues. A society where drugs are allowed is not one free from issues. They’ll still ruin lives. They’ll still destroy families, and hurt children. Education helps, but it does not eliminate the problem
Neither does making a drug house that people need transportation to get to. That’s the same as criminalizing it for many people.
I’m of the opinion that unless it’s regulated in some way, people will be systemically/individually exploited. An addict can’t be trusted to keep doses safe, be sure they’re using in a safe place, or properly prioritize their personal wellness.
Just recognize it’s something that’s going to happen and take reasonable efforts to set limits without glamourizing it. Controlling ease of access is a simple way to do that (look at the bump in gambling problems since the 2018 SCOTUS ruling). You don’t have to kick in the doors of everyone with a personal grow or basement home brewing setup.
If these substances could be handled universally with education and social mores, total abstinence would have already worked. No amount of taboo can make crippling addiction sexy.
A drug casino doesn’t solve those problems though. Better social services for addicts can. Addiction is impossible to eradicate, all you can do is provide good social services for addicts and recovery programs (which aren’t judgemental and Christian). Requiring transportation to go get and use drugs is the same thing as criminalizing it for many people.
Any safety and recovery programs are a lot easier to manage when you know exactly where your source is and who’s using. Safe injection sites already exist and have been shown to eliminate overdoses and increase access to social services without any honeypot effect or increased drug use. Adding safe and tested drug sales to the site is a pretty logical step.
Requiring transportation is a detail for implementation, you already need it to do anything in the USA. Unless you think every person has a right to get drugs delivered to their doorstep?
There’s a big difference between the weed shop I can walk to down the corner and the nearest safe use site/casino. I think people should be free to engage in whatever recreational activity they choose to, and the existence of addiction doesn’t give the government the right to infringe on those freedoms. Safe use sites and social programs can exist without a semi-dystopian puritan system. I don’t understand why addiction is so huge a problem that it requires such insane overreach. Without capitalist exploitation, addiction wouldn’t be monetized. A different form of government and legalization do a far better job at managing addiction than creating a black market with draconian laws.
I don’t think it’s that crazy or draconian at all. You’re still free to engage in the safest way possible. You have confidence that it’s a safe location and your drug of choice isn’t cut with fentanyl. Why would there be a black market? Addicts generally don’t like buying from untrustworthy sources and passing out in alleyways.
There’s a strange pushback to accepting that humans are physical creatures that evolved for certain stimulus. Society functions by self restraint and a social contract that says, for example, my neighbor won’t go into a stimulant induced psychosis and assault me. Its not a poor reflection on his moral character, that’s just how a human reacts to the substance.
It’s kind of a childish libertarian view to demand full personal freedom at societies’ expense. Your freedom to use a drug anywhere at any time means that the rest of us have to distribute narcan at the library, regulate 45,000 liquor stores, hire more police to counter intoxicated driving, and expand EMS to handle completely preventable emergencies. All that to save you a weekly bus trip to the casino?
Changing the economic system has no impact on any of that, those are the set costs of addiction. Addiction doesn’t cease being a problem because you give up on preventing it. You’re undermining the money going to social services by avoiding simple deterrence-by-inconveince
Thank you for all the answers! :) It seems like most replies are positive to legalisation. The (amount of) stores is mention by a few to be one of the negatives. Perhaps government-owned stores (Like those some Nordic countries have for alcohol) could be a better solution? They have trainer employees and very strict rules both for opening times and age controls.
Government stores is how it works in Quebec Canada and I found that to be the best experience for sure
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 second your message in many ways. First off, I am not a user… well, count alcohol in, on special occasions like a birthday, but even a thought of drinking two glasses of wine more frequently than once in a month or two reminds me I am not going to feel well. Anyway, main reason is I know full well that if I am not able to deal with my life as is, no substance is going to help, and as for discovering how fun life can be - there are other methods, far less destructive
Now about how substances are used by other people: drink/smoke to make it through painful day(s) - I get how it works, but in the end again, not a solution. Same goes for situations where drugs are prescribed as painkillers - I can trust that physical pain can be that acute and exhausting
And actual regular drug usage - now this is a sure sign something in life of that person has gone completely off-track, and giving them more suffering (social stigma and criminal charges) won’t help. We need to look at individual, we need a different kind of society where no one gets so desperate as to use chemicals in order to have some break from the suffering that their life has become, and we sure as hell don’t need this batshit insane “you are going to jail for even buying some small amount of weed” idiocy
with crystal meth the statistics say, that only a few percent (we’re talking 1-2%) get addicted.
Couldn’t find the numbers on meth specifically but I’m highly skeptical.
I’d argue that any form of self medication is inherently unhealthy, and free access to legal substances doesn’t fix that. Some people are able to navigate it responsibly but it’s not possible for most people.
The human brain is a complex soup of chemicals and electrical impulses, altering it with a substance won’t result in an objective self assessment of the effects.
Taking your example, plenty of normal and reasonably happy people get addicted to opiods. The first experiences are on such a different scale to regular chemical pleasure your brain generates that it alters your perception of normal feelings.
If you ask someone to compare that high to normal life before or after, they’ll tell you they never experienced “true” happiness before.
There are real, observable, permanent changes to brain structure from drug use. I don’t think that type of change should be taken lightly with personal experimentation. It should have the same scrutiny and medical guardrails that we give other permanent body choices.
For anyone interested, some reading on heroin’s impact on the brain
Trying a substance before 13 is so much out of the way drugs are used in a regulated way, that I’m not sure if this data is relevant here.
Only the dark market doesn’t care about your age…
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.
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.
They’re also in denial about it making you dumber if you smoke frequently. When I still smoked, it became obvious to me that my thoughts were slower and I’d have trouble finding the right words when I started smoking nearly every night. Took a T break and cut back to weekends only and the problem went away.
Took a T break and cut back to weekends only and the problem went away.
So it didn’t make you dumber. You just didn’t understand that the effects of frequent weed usage takes longer to wear off than alcohol.
It does make you dumber, and so does alcohol. As we all know, the only drug that makes you smarter is huffing glue pantsless on a unicycle.
Saw a dude like that in Portland once. He had it all figured out.
I’m not sure “dumber” is the right word.
giant megacorps can definitely beat out some random shady dealer (indirectly from mental outlaw)
I don’t know much about the effects of legalization on society as a whole, but I personally feel I have benefitted from weed being legal. I find weed to be useful in helping me sleep and manage stress. That said, people should also be educated about the potential dangers of weed. Using it too often can lead to neglecting one’s responsibilities, and people underestimate the danger of driving while stoned. I also find, since I’ve gotten proper therapy, I don’t need weed as much as I used to.
On principle, I think drugs should not be treated as a criminal issue. At most, drug addicts should be made to get treatment. Governments should focus on education and treatment instead of harsh punishment. People who are on drugs should feel safe admitting to what drugs they’re on in the event of an emergency.
Is this still a discussion on 2025? I always thought this was a no brainer, just blocked by demonization and the lack of examples of places that legalized and nothing bad happened. We should be discussing how to deal with other drugs. Marijuana is pretty much solved
The widespread legalization, overwhelmingly positive reception, and complete lack of any of the dangerous consequences we were warned about makes you wonder what else “They” were wrong about.
I don’t partake, but it’s been legal in my area for a couple years now and I haven’t seen any negative effects on society. More gaudy smoke shops is about it. They remind me of the payday loan places. I’m sure some people have a dependency on it, it can form a habit like anything else.
Legalize it, but it’s still addictive. I don’t think my nation has a weed problem, but how would I know? I don’t know where to get weed or crack or heroin
It’s important to make a distinction between drugs that cause substance addiction (alcohol, opioids, tobacco) and things that trigger some people’s behavioral/impulse addictions, Cannabis, food, sugar, porn.
I find it quite odd anyone would have them in the same category, even if you are not or have ever been a durg user.
