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Germany’s move to legalise cannabis expected to create ‘domino effect’

theguardian.com

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Re: Germany’s move to legalise cannabis expected to create ‘domino effect’

#101

Post by htkibar »

wickedsight wrote: post #40

The Netherlands will be especially impacted by this. We refused actual legalization for many reasons, many of which will be invalidated by Germany decriminalizing. Our current stance on weed is so confusing that it's hard to explain to any foreigner, but strictly speaking weed isn't legal and not even decriminalized... But yes, Amsterdam is in The Netherlands.

In all fairness, it isn't like we want people to come as tourists here to smoke weed or something so should be fine no?

For anyone else wanting to know more about the Dutch policy on this: https://www.government.nl/topics/drugs/toleration-policy-reg...

Re: Germany’s move to legalise cannabis expected to create ‘domino effect’

#102

Post by CoastalCoder »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #92
CoastalCoder wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't get that from the GP comment. IIUC, they're just saying that they prefer less potency, but have trouble finding it in the current market. That doesn't necessarily mean they want only weaker weed to be sold.

excuse me for interpreting "I just wish that we would take measures" as promoting regulation edit to reply to below: California already has accurate labeling and is being called out as a problem

I assumed that they were talking about regulations requiring accurate labelling of THC and CBD concentrations.

Re: Germany’s move to legalise cannabis expected to create ‘domino effect’

#103

Post by cheschire »

lucideer wrote: post #75
selfmodruntime wrote: post #3

I think the legalization of cannabis in Europe has a lot of potential. I just wish that we would take measures to avoid the ever increasing levels of THC dosage in weed to insane levels, like you see in the US or California specifically. I firmly believe that cannabis can do a lot of good, but the poison is in the dosage. It has been shown in the past that increasing THC while decreasing CBD leads to an increase in n…

While I'm not proposing "doing nothing" about this problem, how much of this is likely to be a "hangover" from prohibition. Based on absolutely no data whatsoever, my instinct would be that demand for high-THC/low-CBD products would decrease as access to cannabis becomes less novel.

I suspect there's some truth here. Like how not everyone goes for the 80+ proof drinks, many just go for drinks that are 5% ABV or less.

Re: Germany’s move to legalise cannabis expected to create ‘domino effect’

#104

Post by hobs »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #94
hobs wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most California dispensaries I have been to absolutely have low dosage 5mg options, they also stock 100mg options, but stores listen to the market and stock based on what they can get and what people want. It was very typical to see older folks and very light smokers to request the smaller dosages. They also seemed to trend towards vapes in the younger lighter smokers because the dosage can be fairly small.

Yeah, I've bought weed in Cali once, didn't have any problem at all finding CBD strains which are low THC (most would consider it trace amounts). Finding a strain with 0 THC (since I'm pretty sensitive and don't enjoy THC at all) is a bit harder.

Yeah, that would definitely be difficult, as far as I saw you could get CBD powder at various places if you wanted to just add a little to a drink or do a dab.

Re: Germany’s move to legalise cannabis expected to create ‘domino effect’

#105

Post by numerik_meister »

lbotos wrote: post #88
numerik_meister wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did not intend to ask a question. I know for sure that a lot of potheads really want to push their recreational drug as a miracle do all drug, while ignoring all the negative effects. The negative effects are well documented science. The positive effects are all vaporous claims from questionable studies. Really goes to show the objectivity of HN, that I get downvoted for this.

You are getting downvoted for your dogmatic and set in your ways views. HN is a place for curiosity and your responses are not increasing curiosity they are closing it off.

I have read the countless studies blog spammed on Reddit and HN for the past 15 years, and formed my opinion accordingly. How is that at all dogmatic?

Re: Germany’s move to legalise cannabis expected to create ‘domino effect’

#106

Post by spacemanmatt »

The stronger stuff is simply higher bang for the buck, and in today's economy that matters more than everything else. It's too bad consumers are so disconnected from producers due to the legal situation, or else they might see a regular response to demand for more balanced buds.

Re: Germany’s move to legalise cannabis expected to create ‘domino effect’

#107

Post by iinnPP »

coldcode wrote: post #29

While I have no interest in weed, I never understood why people are against it, since cigarettes are also a drug and are far more damaging to heath and the economy, and in the US kills a couple hundred thousand folks a year, or alcohol, which is a drug, and kills tens of thousands of people a year. Eliminating illegality would save in so many ways, and taxes could help offset other taxes. But no, weed is somehow more…

Pfizer and their ilk prevent it.

Re: Germany’s move to legalise cannabis expected to create ‘domino effect’

#108

Post by Findecanor »

rbinv wrote: post #93
Findecanor wrote: post #59

I find it crazy to decriminalise a drug in smoked form. It is often through second-hand smoke in social situations that people get addicted to a smoked drug before they start using it themselves. I'm afraid that that would lead to more addiction. Personally, I don't have anything against it being ingested in other forms: such as "magic" brownies or vaping that don't affect other people around you.

Cannabis is not "supposed to be" consumed in any specific way. Smoking it is one way to consume it, but so are vaporizing and eating it, both very popular and with almost no harm (if any).

Agreed. Poor wording on my part. I edited my post. Personally, I don't care if people eat or vaporise it.

Re: Germany’s move to legalise cannabis expected to create ‘domino effect’

#109

Post by snarfy »

selfmodruntime wrote: post #3

I think the legalization of cannabis in Europe has a lot of potential. I just wish that we would take measures to avoid the ever increasing levels of THC dosage in weed to insane levels, like you see in the US or California specifically. I firmly believe that cannabis can do a lot of good, but the poison is in the dosage. It has been shown in the past that increasing THC while decreasing CBD leads to an increase in n…

When I lived in Arizona before it was legal, the vast majority of weed came from Mexico. A quarter pound cost $200 and was a mix of male and female plants, full of seeds, grown in fields. I was a daily user for about 20 years.

I moved to coastal state where it was legal. Now it's all hydroponically grown, all female and all seedless. I was a daily user for about 12 years and had to completely stop using it. It would always help my stomach if I had stomach problems, but eventually I had stomach problems daily and the only fix was more weed. It turns out the weed was the cause of and solution to all my problems.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabinoid_hyperemesis_syndro...

Re: Germany’s move to legalise cannabis expected to create ‘domino effect’

#110

Post by lucideer »

jgtrosh wrote: post #100
lucideer wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I'm not proposing "doing nothing" about this problem, how much of this is likely to be a "hangover" from prohibition. Based on absolutely no data whatsoever, my instinct would be that demand for high-THC/low-CBD products would decrease as access to cannabis becomes less novel.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6312155/ > without any clear guidelines or regulations from government officials, the cannabis industry has taken a page from the tobacco and alcohol industries’ play book and developed strains of marijuana and concentrated marijuana products with much higher concentrations of THC, the psychoactive component that causes addiction. The more potent a drug is, the stronger th…

I opened with "I'm not proposing doing nothing" - I do think measures to remediate this problem in the short term are a good idea, in line with the fears outlined in your article.

Nothing in your article tackles my main point though?

> the cannabis industry has taken a page from the tobacco and alcohol industries’ play book

As a slightly off-topic aside: tobacco I'm less familiar with (I wasn't aware of efforts by the industry to grow strains of the plants with higher nicotine content but it seems unsurprising), but including alcohol here is bizarre. Alcohol isn't naturally occurring in harvested produce - it's an output from a process. And even then, maybe they're talking about distillation, but that process predates the industrial revolution by 100s maybe 1000s of years.

Tbh this throwaway statement kinda makes me question the article...

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