Germany’s move to legalise cannabis expected to create ‘domino effect’ • Hacker News Board

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

#241

Post by tsol » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 2:29 PM UTC

ssfhsfhdjs wrote: post #205

snarfy wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'm struggling with this now. Daily cannabis user for 15 year or so, started puking not long after I'd switched primarily to concentrates. I've landed in the ER several times, and been hospitalized a handful of times for dehydration. Usually once an episode starts, a cocktail of ativan, reglan, and pepcid is about the only thing that'll get me out of it. I've tried to quit cannabis several times now, but usually brea…

I've found concentrates way too strong for me. I've had conversations with friends where we both say we miss the cheap weak stuff. I've actually moved to microdosing concentrates. Using a tiny amount, no more than the head of a toothpick, gives me more control over how strong it is.

The other thing you can do is switch to concentrates. This also makes it easier to quit because you know how much you're taking in so you can slowly taper down.

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

#242

Post by donkeyd » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 2:30 PM UTC

htkibar wrote: post #101

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...

Well, it's not about that. It's that one of the reasons the Netherlands never legalized is that the rest of Europe didn't. So we were afraid that we'd become a place where international criminals come to produce massive amounts of weed legally to then export it illegally. When countries surrounding us start legalizing, we have no reason not to.

Since growing weed is purely done by criminals right now, we're also afraid to legalize because legal weed farms might get issues with criminal involvement or threat because the criminals lose a huge income source. If we don't legalize however when Germany does, we'll then get a bunch of trafficking from Germany to the Netherlands.

We're in a bit of a pickle and it'll be interesting to see what our Christian/Liberal/Progressive government will come up with. I expect them to just ignore it and continue by doing pretty much nothing until it's a real problem.

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

#243

Post by donkeyd » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 2:33 PM UTC

iinnPP wrote: post #98

subpixel wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a high-school friend in prison for 20+ years for marijuana-related charges. I now live in a recreationally legal state, the irony is not lost on me.

US prisons are absolutely packed with young marijuana dealers/users with effectively lifetime sentences. Many of them are truly good people.

> Many of them are truly good people.

If prison hasn't fucked them up. I really hope these people will find their way in society if there's ever a pardon, because it might be really had to adapt to normal life, even if you ended up in jail for something as stupidly innocuous as smoking weed.

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

#244

Post by ChoGGi » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 2:37 PM UTC

yuuu wrote: post #229

saiya-jin wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not try to buy some low potency stuff elsewhere? Joint are not good for dosing, since content is not spread evenly. I would recommend pipe for just weed. Or vape oil if you can get hold of it and take just a small hit. Edible effects depends on your stomach so that's not the best for dosing neither. 20-30 mins between hits is too much, if you don't feel anything after 5, max 10 minutes it won't come. You describe…

I'm not even sure where I can buy low-potency stuff. Looking online, the lowest at the dispensary where I bought the first thing is around 14%. Sixties THC concentrations were reported to be around 3%. What I'd really like to do is to try 1%, increase to 2%, etc., until I find something that works for me. Yeah, I know thirty minutes is too long between hits, but I was trying to be as conservative as possible about it…

If you do try it again, then go for a park/forest with less people.

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

#245

Post by ElevenLathe » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 2:37 PM UTC

InefficientRed wrote: post #181

skissane wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most alcoholic beverages are made through some sort of distillation process How do you define “most”? - but I’m pretty sure non-distilled/non-fortified alcoholic beverages (wine/beer/etc) make up more of the alcoholic beverage market (whether in litres or dollars) than distilled/fortified beverages. I think they also are a lot more if you were to count SKUs (number of varieties of non-fortified wines/beers/etc > sp…

Oh, okay. Just confusion of terms. My brain organizes things as "beer, wine, and alcohol (aka spirits)" as opposed to "alcohol, including beer and wine". And an "alcoholic beverage" is just either a spirit alone or a spirit mixed with something. Probably because that's how my state organizes the stores (with wine/alcohol in separate stores from beer, so if you say "we need to buy beer" that means going to a different…

The unambiguous word in these situations is "liquor", at least in US English.

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

#246

Post by ta988 » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 2:45 PM UTC

I'm in the US. It is really hard to see clever people around me using their almost pure THC at high doses. I can clearly see the negative impact coming much faster than people I know that smoked lots of lower concentration for decades. I see them having all kind of functional issues (memory, motivation, crippling anxiety when not high). And there is no way to talk to them about these negative effects. Mainly because they have been deeply brainwashed to believe that the overall effect is always positive and that all criticisms are a conspiracy by people with war on drugs level agendas.

As much as I tend to believe that low amounts can have benefits, both functional and social, what I see from this trend of heavy use of high potency material is clearly not going that way.

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

#247

Post by tsol » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 2:46 PM UTC

yuuu wrote: post #229

saiya-jin wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not try to buy some low potency stuff elsewhere? Joint are not good for dosing, since content is not spread evenly. I would recommend pipe for just weed. Or vape oil if you can get hold of it and take just a small hit. Edible effects depends on your stomach so that's not the best for dosing neither. 20-30 mins between hits is too much, if you don't feel anything after 5, max 10 minutes it won't come. You describe…

I'm not even sure where I can buy low-potency stuff. Looking online, the lowest at the dispensary where I bought the first thing is around 14%. Sixties THC concentrations were reported to be around 3%. What I'd really like to do is to try 1%, increase to 2%, etc., until I find something that works for me. Yeah, I know thirty minutes is too long between hits, but I was trying to be as conservative as possible about it…

You might be best off with edibles. There you can break down the dose and try incrementally higher doses. I find it's much easier to microdose with them

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

#248

Post by schroeding » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 2:50 PM UTC

jotm wrote: post #218

aikah wrote: post #199

It's crazy we are still having these kind of debates in Europe. 20 years ago most youth around 18/20 thought Cannabis would have already been legalised by now, I don't believe one second that any of the European elected official under 50 never smoked pot. The only possible explanation I see is heavy lobbying from big pharma groups or wine interests.

A couple of things that I'm sad about: there are medications better than cannabis for anxiety and depression. But no one talks about them. They're on the same level as alcohol and weed when it comes to addiction potential and harm. Just make them legal ffs. I'm really happy I can get them from pharmacies in my country because they're not on a restricted prescription so they just give them to you if you pinky promise…

> there are medications better than cannabis for anxiety and depression. But no one talks about them.

Could you maybe name them? Would be awesome :)

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

#249

Post by cmrdporcupine » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 2:51 PM UTC

_fat_santa wrote: post #230

aikah wrote: post #199

It's crazy we are still having these kind of debates in Europe. 20 years ago most youth around 18/20 thought Cannabis would have already been legalised by now, I don't believe one second that any of the European elected official under 50 never smoked pot. The only possible explanation I see is heavy lobbying from big pharma groups or wine interests.

> or wine interests. As an American, we are well familiar with Big Pharma but the wine lobby? Is that really a thing in Europe? How influential are they around these kinds of policy? Edit: Sorry for the barrage of questions, you've really piqued my interest.

France:

"Wine growing makes up 15% of France's agricultural revenues while accounting for only 3% of the land area used."

"France consumes over 30 million hectoliters of wine (14% of global output) every year, making it one of the world’s largest consumers alongside the United States and Italy. The average French person consumes 48 liters of wine a year. (larvf.com)"

Source: https://www.businessfrance.fr/Media/Default/PROCOM/Kits/Agro...

Germany:

"When calculated per German citizen, this corresponds to an average consumption of still and sparkling wines of 23.4 liters annually per person. Of this wine, 8.7 liters are domestic still wines, 11.4 liters are foreign still wines and 3.3 liters are sparkling wines."

Source: https://blog.drinktec.com/wine/german-wine-consumption-and-p...

It's hundreds of thousands of hectares of land and a massive employer. Unlike other agriculture products, the margins on wine are very high.

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

#250

Post by sgift » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 2:53 PM UTC

hans1729 wrote: post #44

coffeebeanHH wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but... Basically other parties aren't that different. In the end it doesn't matter which color of the rainbow, or black, is going to fuck the people.

The SPD brands itself as social, pro worker, peaceful, pragmatic and economically-focused all at the same time. They woo young voters, while their core clientel is >65. They actively make policy that works against the youth (serving their main voters, which are old), while presenting themselves as the good guys to the youth . From my point of view, this makes them pure evil, much more so than the other parties. Yes,…

Which anti-youth policies do you specifically have in mind here? The SPD has done various things which were e.g. actively harmful for workers, but I don't really remember something which could be thought of as against the youth.