Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

drugpolicy.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 242 posts

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#71

Post by Karsteski »

imperio59 wrote: post #6
kolbe wrote: post #3

Say what you will about your opinion of what the results of this will be, it does create an experiment for us to learn with. I think one of the great tragedies of politics is that we do not experiment enough, so when ones like this pop up naturally, it'll give us great data.

Experimenting with people's lives is not a responsible way to experiment. No one is denying these drugs are harmful, yet Oregon is basically saying "go ahead, it's fine, use these drugs". Seeing what is happening with the Marijuana lobbies coming in and putting in billions in lobbying should scare everybody. We have big tobacco to look at for where this leads. The next obvious step is to legalize all drugs, and let t…

Who are you to legislate what people can and cannot do with their bodies? Regardless of the harms, I am glad we are moving towards personal autonomy, and not the nanny state that every country's people has had to endure for over a century.

The destruction of so many lives... For absolutely zero gain. The initial facial motivations for these laws in the first place is all you need to figure out that they should never have been put in place.

And for the millions of people whose lives were destroyed by this unjust criminalization? They will get zero compensation. Isn't the world fantastic?

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#72

Post by throwaway0a5e »

recursive wrote: post #70
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most states any amount over some small amount can be prosecuted as trafficking. I dunno what the limits are for Oregon. I'm pretty sure they get the same people who think a six pack is "binge drinking" and one range day's worth of ammo is a "stockpile" to come up with those limits.

Drinking a six-pack at a time does sound kind of binge-y to me.

Start with dinner at 6 and go to bed at 9 and that's 2/hr. Not exactly keg stands and jungle juice territory. The human body processes 1-2 drinks/hr so at the end you'll have a buzz on the order of one stiff mixed drink (~3-4 shots of stuff in the 40% ballpark spread out over a tall glass of sugary fruity stuff).

Edit: And since apparently this needs saying "drink" = "the standard alcohol/drink unit that all the professionals who measure this stuff use"

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#73

Post by driverdan »

gautamcgoel wrote: post #5

I really hope this leads to more research on the effect of psychedelics on treatment-resistant depression. People with depression suffer unimaginable anguish every day - we owe it to them to give them the best treatment options possible.

This isn't legalization and has no impact on federal laws. It won't help with direct research.

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#74

Post by ogre_codes »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #67
frongpik wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What counts as drug trafficking? Carrying weed across county lines?

In most states any amount over some small amount can be prosecuted as trafficking. I dunno what the limits are for Oregon. I'm pretty sure they get the same people who think a six pack is "binge drinking" and one range day's worth of ammo is a "stockpile" to come up with those limits.

In Oregon, drinking a six pack way well be binge drinking. High alcohol content beers are pretty common.

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#75

Post by munk-a »

ogre_codes wrote: post #57
treeman79 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens with kids? I adopted a teen who was in the system for 10 years because parents were constantly stoned. Police had to bring kids home from school many times because The bio parents were so out of it.

I'm not sure putting the parents in prison would fix that or change it much in any way. If parents are stone/ drunk so regularly they shouldn't parent, it's child neglect/ abuse regardless of whether the drugs are legal.

I think the real solution here is to better empower potential parents to have more freedom to make the choice of whether to become parents or not. If someone doesn't want to become a parent then I think it's a good idea to remove any obstacles between them and avoiding being a parent.

Too often that choice is forced on folks and the major impact that has on your life can leave people resentful and angry which just isn't a good place to start being a parent from.

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#76

Post by aksss »

zappo2938 wrote: post #38

Meanwhile drug users who often don't want to stop will now move to Oregon.

Undoubtedly there will be people that do this. I used to hang out with a group that would have considered Oregon a Mecca if such a law had passed. I’m sure that subculture still exists. Maybe Oregon will be the scapegoat for the country. Maybe our labs of democracy should specialize in things - a state for gambling and gambling addiction recovery; a state for drug use and drug use recovery, etc.

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#77

Post by [deleted] »

GuB-42 wrote: post #46

Just to make things clear, decriminalization is not legalization. Drugs are still illegal, and users risk a $100 fine, especially if they are uncooperative. The difference is that it is now a civil violation instead of a crime, so no record, no jail time, kind of like a parking ticket. Drug trafficking is still a crime.

[deleted]

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#78

Post by Karsteski »

_9hey wrote: post #50
imperio59 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Experimenting with people's lives is not a responsible way to experiment. No one is denying these drugs are harmful, yet Oregon is basically saying "go ahead, it's fine, use these drugs". Seeing what is happening with the Marijuana lobbies coming in and putting in billions in lobbying should scare everybody. We have big tobacco to look at for where this leads. The next obvious step is to legalize all drugs, and let t…

This post being downvoted into oblivion is what irks me about the hacker news community. It’s not enough to disagree, you have to silence the dissenter by graying out their comments. That’s real democratic

Yea I agree with you. I heavily disagree with the commenter's opinion but I will never down vote on this site, simply because it suppresses a person's comment and that's not what I want.

Although the app that I use (Harmonic) shows all comments the same, which is nice :)

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#79

Post by ogre_codes »

recursive wrote: post #70
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most states any amount over some small amount can be prosecuted as trafficking. I dunno what the limits are for Oregon. I'm pretty sure they get the same people who think a six pack is "binge drinking" and one range day's worth of ammo is a "stockpile" to come up with those limits.

Drinking a six-pack at a time does sound kind of binge-y to me.

Depends if it's piss-water or a quality stout or IPA.

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#80

Post by aksss »

catstack wrote: post #64
zappo2938 wrote: post #38

Meanwhile drug users who often don't want to stop will now move to Oregon.

I welcome anyone who is suffering from addiction to move to Oregon. I hope that as a society we can help them overcome their addiction instead of treating them as a criminals and perpetuating the cycle. It's a suffering human and I don't care what state they live in. I hope other states will move to enact similar policies. We are in this together. I truly believe that legalizing drugs, taxing them, and offering treat…

I think there’s a group of people that will view Oregon as a promising hospital and a another group that will view it as Disneyland. These reforms will welcome both.
Post reply on HN