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Canada legalises recreational cannabis use

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Canada legalises recreational cannabis use

#111

Post by exogeny »

I despise getting involved in threads like this, because they always descend into whataboutism ("Oh, but alcohol is worse!, etc.), but here we go with my anecdotal evidence.

Me, personally, not a huge fan. I dabbled and experimented like a good chunk of Americans, decided it wasn't for me. Not necessarily because I didn't enjoy it - although I was involved in quite a bit of team sports at the time and was worried about the health impacts - but because I saw the impact it was having on friends of mine.

YMMV (of course), but I simply saw too many ambitious, energetic people suddenly become very boring, and very comfortable with doing nothing. I have absolutely no doubt that it's a drug with tons of applications medicinally to treat everything from glaucoma to social anxiety to PTSD, but for purely recreational purposes, it appeared to be quite damaging and "Oh, alcohol is too!" just isn't a strong enough argument for me to be celebrating recreational legalization.

Re: Canada legalises recreational cannabis use

#112

Post by throwaway2048 »

exogeny wrote: post #111

I despise getting involved in threads like this, because they always descend into whataboutism ("Oh, but alcohol is worse!, etc.), but here we go with my anecdotal evidence. Me, personally, not a huge fan. I dabbled and experimented like a good chunk of Americans, decided it wasn't for me. Not necessarily because I didn't enjoy it - although I was involved in quite a bit of team sports at the time and was worried abo…

Good thing that the fact it was illegal stopped all those people from trying huh?

Re: Canada legalises recreational cannabis use

#113

Post by webkike »

exogeny wrote: post #111

I despise getting involved in threads like this, because they always descend into whataboutism ("Oh, but alcohol is worse!, etc.), but here we go with my anecdotal evidence. Me, personally, not a huge fan. I dabbled and experimented like a good chunk of Americans, decided it wasn't for me. Not necessarily because I didn't enjoy it - although I was involved in quite a bit of team sports at the time and was worried abo…

I guess putting thousands of minorities in jail is worth it because your friends didn't start venture capital funds

Re: Canada legalises recreational cannabis use

#114

Post by ttul »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #73

Meanwhile in Britain, the former leader of the Conservative Party, William Hague, spoke out and claimed that the war on cannabis had been "irreversibly lost". He was quickly shut down by Theresa May, who categorically ruled out legalisation or even decriminalisation [1]. I don't understand how politicians can stand up and claim that legalisation would have substantial negatives, when every experiment with legalisatio…

I just want to point out that GHB isn’t so dangerous as you point out, relative to the other major drugs (not least of them alcohol). See https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Rational... for a nice graphical summary.

You can go to a liquor store today and purchase a lethal amount of alcohol for about $20. And it’s lawful to advertise the stuff. GHB is less harmful, but it’s illegal.

Re: Canada legalises recreational cannabis use

#115

Post by wiradikusuma »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #73

Meanwhile in Britain, the former leader of the Conservative Party, William Hague, spoke out and claimed that the war on cannabis had been "irreversibly lost". He was quickly shut down by Theresa May, who categorically ruled out legalisation or even decriminalisation [1]. I don't understand how politicians can stand up and claim that legalisation would have substantial negatives, when every experiment with legalisatio…

But would it be the gateway to heavier, and illegal/dangerous, drugs?

Re: Canada legalises recreational cannabis use

#116

Post by Pmop »

readhn wrote: post #22

What do we do about heroin/opiods that are the real problem today? Cheap, highly addictive. Multiple overdoses today in my local news feed reported.... :( You cant overdose and die from MJ use (or its highly unlikely). This whole war on drugs thing feels like a game of smoke and mirrors...

I particularly support legalization to full extent of any recreative psychoactive drugs, even ones deemed evil. Drug users are often more vulnerable to external factors not related to the drug itself, such as bad drug quality (drugs mixed with elements that are way more harmful to health), violence and diseases, which happens just because the illegal status. Take crack for example, cheap and highly addictive. Users are more likely to die from external causes such as homicide or HIV infection than die from overdose [1].

Legalization would greatly reduce deaths caused by external factors and would free the government to actually take care of the addicts as they actually need.

On the other hand, antibiotics, which should be controlled tightly, gets overlooked.

1 http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516...

Edit: formatting.

Edit II: typos.

Edit III: pointing out antibiotics getting overlooked.

Re: Canada legalises recreational cannabis use

#117

Post by Swizec »

ttul wrote: post #114
toomanybeersies wrote: post #73

Meanwhile in Britain, the former leader of the Conservative Party, William Hague, spoke out and claimed that the war on cannabis had been "irreversibly lost". He was quickly shut down by Theresa May, who categorically ruled out legalisation or even decriminalisation [1]. I don't understand how politicians can stand up and claim that legalisation would have substantial negatives, when every experiment with legalisatio…

I just want to point out that GHB isn’t so dangerous as you point out, relative to the other major drugs (not least of them alcohol). See https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Rational... for a nice graphical summary. You can go to a liquor store today and purchase a lethal amount of alcohol for about $20. And it’s lawful to advertise the stuff. GHB is less harmful, but it’s illegal.

Depends on where. In a lot of Europe (and afaik also Canada) alcohol purchasing times are heavily regulated to combat binge, especially youth, drinking. For example no alcohol sales past 9pm, no sales before 10am etc.

And you can’t advertise drinking. You can promote brands, but not drinking directly. Which is weird and I don’t know how the line is defined, but it exists in at least some countries I’ve been to.

Re: Canada legalises recreational cannabis use

#118

Post by ttul »

exogeny wrote: post #111

I despise getting involved in threads like this, because they always descend into whataboutism ("Oh, but alcohol is worse!, etc.), but here we go with my anecdotal evidence. Me, personally, not a huge fan. I dabbled and experimented like a good chunk of Americans, decided it wasn't for me. Not necessarily because I didn't enjoy it - although I was involved in quite a bit of team sports at the time and was worried abo…

It’s not about whether using cannabis is a good idea. It’s about whether having it be a severe criminal offense is a good way to discourage use. That approach quite obviously hasn’t worked, and has resulted in various serious externalities such as criminal enterprises.

Re: Canada legalises recreational cannabis use

#119

Post by aoeusnth1 »

exogeny wrote: post #111

I despise getting involved in threads like this, because they always descend into whataboutism ("Oh, but alcohol is worse!, etc.), but here we go with my anecdotal evidence. Me, personally, not a huge fan. I dabbled and experimented like a good chunk of Americans, decided it wasn't for me. Not necessarily because I didn't enjoy it - although I was involved in quite a bit of team sports at the time and was worried abo…

I share your opinion about THC, but not about legalization.

People who say pot is harmless (or even beneficial!) on average to most people are kidding themselves. But a substance doesn’t need to be harmless to be good to legalize it - as long as legalization is a net boon for society’s health, wealth and safety, it’s a good idea. Pot legalization checks all of those boxes.

Re: Canada legalises recreational cannabis use

#120

Post by [deleted] »

ams6110 wrote: post #107
toomanybeersies wrote: post #73

Meanwhile in Britain, the former leader of the Conservative Party, William Hague, spoke out and claimed that the war on cannabis had been "irreversibly lost". He was quickly shut down by Theresa May, who categorically ruled out legalisation or even decriminalisation [1]. I don't understand how politicians can stand up and claim that legalisation would have substantial negatives, when every experiment with legalisatio…

Drug use is a moral failing, it sounds like you just don't like the morality. Morals are not necessarily what is convenient or fun or pleasurable. In some interpretations, moderate use is not a moral failing, but heavy or compulsive use is. All that applies to alcohol as well, so I agree if we're going say that alcohol is legal, then other drugs used in similar ways should be legal as well.

[deleted]
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