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Luxembourg to be first European country to legalise cannabis

theguardian.com

81–90 of 147 posts

Re: Luxembourg to be first European country to legalise cannabis

#81
post #28
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/World_ma...

Wow, that is terrible.

> Wow, that is terrible.

Are you referring to the sickly green colour and unreadable size of the graphic, or are making a value judgement about the fact that there seems to be a correlation between national GDP and the use of a moderately harmless psychoactive drug for recreational purposes?

You could be less ambiguous.

Re: Luxembourg to be first European country to legalise cannabis

#82
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A genuine question, Aren't all EU citizens supposed to be treated equally across the EU? How would such a ban work?

We'll see soon enough.. we just need someone to get arrested first. It's a good thing they picked Luxembourg for this experiment, it will cut back on the travel time for everyone involved getting to the ECJ

Who exactly is "they"? Tinfoil much?

Re: Luxembourg to be first European country to legalise cannabis

#85
post #57

Bravo, and here's hoping that other countries follow. I was recently shocked to discover that my backwards eastern european country is one of the few in the EU that has even decriminalized drugs; I genuinely thought that this was standard in the EU but apparently not, see this map https://i.imgur.com/A0JICkk.jpg

It's funny how these things turn our expectations upside-down. I'm from the UK originally and they semi-recently (~10 years ago) upgraded the severity with which they treat cannabis so that it's now "Class B". This means that mere possession can result in "Up to 5 years in prison, an unlimited fine or both" (more @ https://www.gov.uk/penalties-drug-possession-dealing ). So yeah, your country might not be so backwards…

And at around the same time made magic mushrooms completely illegal, whereas prior there had been a workaround leading to a healthy market.

The tragedy of this late Labour-era push against loosening /smarting-up of drug legislation is that it fairly directly led to the boom in synthetic cannabinoids, starting with the fairly benign Spice (as a brand) and resulting in a swathe of much-stronger, less-tested and more dangerous brands flying under the radar which (all Hoover/Google-like) were collectively known as 'Spice', but have caused problems for many in the underclass and prisons and such.

I'm not much in to party politics, but this is one thing I directly attribute to Gordon Brown and his very unhelpful moralising.

Re: Luxembourg to be first European country to legalise cannabis

#86

Bravo, and here's hoping that other countries follow. I was recently shocked to discover that my backwards eastern european country is one of the few in the EU that has even decriminalized drugs; I genuinely thought that this was standard in the EU but apparently not, see this map https://i.imgur.com/A0JICkk.jpg

Funny how Netherlands is red.

Re: Luxembourg to be first European country to legalise cannabis

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a better map, because it breaks down the US by state and is more up-to-date: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis#/media/Fi...

What sucks in the US is that cannabis is still federally illegal. So you if work in a government job/military, or smoke on federal property you can be charged with a crime

Also some large companies will fire you if you test positive for it even if you work in a state where it’s legal.

Re: Luxembourg to be first European country to legalise cannabis

#88
post #22
post #4

> Schneider said the legislation was likely to include a ban on non-residents buying cannabis in order to dissuade drug-tourism. Given the fact they're sharing a border with France: probably a good idea.

Why is that a good idea? Is drug tourism necessarily a bad thing?

On an ecological level tourism is a bad thing yes. Now maybe it'd be good for the economy or whatever but I don't think making $ should be the priority. Plus Luxembourg isn't really in need of money.

Re: Luxembourg to be first European country to legalise cannabis

#89
post #35

What about Portugal, or is that decriminalisation?

Decriminalization. If you have too much on you, you still end up with a record. Source: ex of my partner got busted with too much cannabis in Portugal (whilst living there, and being a regular smoker). In The Netherlands, its 5 gram per person max, and IIRC also 4 or 5 XTC pills (I can't quite remember). Though that information is from '00s. It might've changed, I don't know.

Dutch person here.

For weed, the law states a maximum of 5 grams (or 5 plants, if you grow them).

For any 'hard' drugs, such as XTC the legal limit is 0. But if you get caught carrying an amount that is small enough to be considered for personal use, the police usually won't act on it.

If you carry larger quantities than what is considered personal use, it is usually confiscated and you risk a fine (but only if the police has indication that you are selling the drugs).

The weird thing is that the 5 gram rule also counts for the weed dispensary (which are known as 'coffee shops' in NL). So even though it is legal for them to sell the cannabis from their shop, they can't legally buy it from the grower. They aren't even supposed to have more than 5 grams in stock. The growers that supply the shops must also do this illegally, and they are constantly playing cat-and-mouse with the police.

Clearly, the law is ambiguous and both police, growers and dispensary owners are encouraging the government to fully legalize cannabis.

Re: Luxembourg to be first European country to legalise cannabis

#90
post #4

> Schneider said the legislation was likely to include a ban on non-residents buying cannabis in order to dissuade drug-tourism. Given the fact they're sharing a border with France: probably a good idea.

A genuine question, Aren't all EU citizens supposed to be treated equally across the EU? How would such a ban work?

No problem with making rules based on residency; everyone does it (vast amounts of tax law, for instance). The citizenship of the residents is irrelevant here.
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