Can't argue with that. Guess we'll have to just shoot them instead. "Would you like a blindfold with that reefer?"
Surgeon general: No 'value' to locking people up over marijuana use
51–60 of 64 posts
Re: Surgeon general: No 'value' to locking people up over marijuana use
#52Curious what's the opinion of the HN community on decriminalization and legalization of marijuana. It seems accepted as an inevitable progress. But seeing the damage alcohol and tobacco does to society, I wonder what good it will bring, except from an economic PoV.
My maybe unpopular thought: There are legal/illegal (relatively)healthy/unhealthy drugs/foods. We already have many legal/healthy, many legal/unhealthy, very few illegal/healthy, and many illegal/unhealthy drugs/foods. It seems that hemp is considered to categorized to illegal/(relatively)healthy drug (only for adults?). So I can think that keep it on the category is somewhat good for who want to do bad thing. Of course it depends on the situation in each country.
Disclaimer: I have no experience.
Re: Surgeon general: No 'value' to locking people up over marijuana use
#53Curious what's the opinion of the HN community on decriminalization and legalization of marijuana. It seems accepted as an inevitable progress. But seeing the damage alcohol and tobacco does to society, I wonder what good it will bring, except from an economic PoV.
I don't like marijuana. Some people love it, but its not for me.
I voted to legalize it in Massachusetts when it was on the ballot.
Even though: I know someone who was hit on his bike by an obviously high driver, and its hard to prove the "driving while high". Its a problem. I've seen people tokin while driving while on my bike, which scares me (you see a lot of crazy stuff while riding).
Like all fan clubs the "Marijuana solve all problems" groups annoy me (its medicinal! now its for recreation! (its ok for this drug, but not for oxy!)).
Its crazy to throw people in Jail for it. Some friends who use(d) are fine responsible humans. Irresponsible people (jerks) are going to be irresponsible whether its pot or alcohol or something else.
The sky hasn't fallen as some predicted. Mostly its pretty much the same here day to day.
Re: Surgeon general: No 'value' to locking people up over marijuana use
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
The idealist in me thinks it should be legal, as what people should put into their bodies should be there choice. The pragmatist thinks it should stay illegal. We know it’s bad for people’s brains, especially developing minds. That’s compounded by the fact that many people think the primary danger from drugs is death, and since it won’t kill you it must be basically harmless. I’m sure a good portion of us also know p…
> We know it’s bad for people’s brains, especially developing minds To clarify, we know its bad for developing brains, but I don't think we know the effect on people who start smoking > age 25. There have been studies that show different things, but I don't think we have any consensus about the impact of cannabis usage on brains > 25 y.o. Also, if we're going to base it as individual vs. society, its important to inc…
I don’t think the distinction matters much for the first point. Not many people are going to wait until they’re 25 (or later) to start, and I haven’t heard of anyone pushing for legalization only for >25 year olds.
Re: Surgeon general: No 'value' to locking people up over marijuana use
#55Curious what's the opinion of the HN community on decriminalization and legalization of marijuana. It seems accepted as an inevitable progress. But seeing the damage alcohol and tobacco does to society, I wonder what good it will bring, except from an economic PoV.
I live in a state (California) that made it legal. Nothing changed except the state collects taxes now. Everyone who wanted to smoke marijuana before legalization was already smoking it. Legalization didn't change anyone's habits as far as I can tell. I don't even see any increase in smoking in public (not that often)
Re: Surgeon general: No 'value' to locking people up over marijuana use
#56So, everyone that wasted their life in prison because of zero tolerance weed busts, we giving them some money or what?
Re: Surgeon general: No 'value' to locking people up over marijuana use
#57Locking people up over marijuana may be stupid, but it’s not medical.
I didn’t elect him and he needs to keep his non-medical opinions separate from his job.
From global warming to the pandemic, medical experts and scientists taking political sides has lead to disinformation, hesitancy to do what should be done, stonewalling or even outright censorship of the facts.
Re: Surgeon general: No 'value' to locking people up over marijuana use
#58The value was explained back in the Nixon era, and it was a BAD value: " “You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman said. “We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up…
Last time when this quote was posted on HN, consens turned out to be that its is quite unclear if it was ever say. I remember this as i really wanted to belief that the story was was true but ended up thinking it rather no true.. Unlike in the article you linked to, last time the conclusion was that the source recalled overhearing Nixon two decades ago, and thus was deemed quite unreliable at best - Anyone know more…
It’s obviously a made-up posthumous quote. Nobody who cared about their image (as John Ehrlichman clearly did) was using “blacks” instead of Jesse Jackson’s “African Americans” while talking to journalists in 1994.
Re: Surgeon general: No 'value' to locking people up over marijuana use
#59Curious what's the opinion of the HN community on decriminalization and legalization of marijuana. It seems accepted as an inevitable progress. But seeing the damage alcohol and tobacco does to society, I wonder what good it will bring, except from an economic PoV.
Whatever damage drugs do is insignificant compared to the damage that the prohibition laws do -- from punishing individuals to subsidizing organized crime (by artificially raising prices on drugs by making them illegal).
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Re: Surgeon general: No 'value' to locking people up over marijuana use
#60Locking people up over marijuana may be stupid, but it’s not medical. I didn’t elect him and he needs to keep his non-medical opinions separate from his job. From global warming to the pandemic, medical experts and scientists taking political sides has lead to disinformation, hesitancy to do what should be done, stonewalling or even outright censorship of the facts.
Arguably, it is medical. Substance use disorders, of which cannabis can be an example, are medical disorders which are better treated medically than with punitive justice.