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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’

#361

Post by aurizon »

idleproc wrote: post #347
cronix wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Oregon as well. There have been many news stories in Southern Oregon about the large cartel operations that are bigger than before legalization, because now they more or less blend in with the legal growers. They also involved trafficked humans to work there with passports withheld. Some of the increase has been attributed to California's drought, so they're moving north to greener pastures, so to speak. The i…

Why is this the case though? Take coffee for instance, it's widely grown in South America--is most of the production run by cartels? Or is it just that cannabis is a high-value crop, and it's easier to move the produce around the USA from within, rather than having to smuggle it over the border? And if cannabis is a high-value crop, is it because not all states have 'legalised' it? What if the whole world legalised c…

waaay back hemp was grown for fiber. Hemp for THC can be grown just as cheaply as hemp for fiber. With no meddling it would be very very cheap - $2 a pound or less. The selected sterile hybrid female plants are smaller than the old hemp used as rope = lower yield, so it will not be as cheap as hemp fiber = $250 per ton. $1 a pound is $2000 per ton, so it will be in that range if totally unregulated.

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

#362

Post by chimeracoder »

piva00 wrote: post #298
adamsmith143 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Imagine the typical German or English 20 something years old tourist in Mallorca but instead of being drunk they're stoned. So they're sitting in cafes eating fried food? What exactly do you think stoned people do lol

Fall into canals; move in flocks between narrow city centre streets making a lot of noise; bike around with disregard to common traffic rules. I'm not Dutch and I really enjoy going to Amsterdam, have friends living there, etc. From what I gather those are the main complaints, just annoyances and not really major problems. Financing criminals when these same tourists go searching for other drugs, that's a real issue.…

> Fall into canals; move in flocks between narrow city centre streets making a lot of noise; bike around with disregard to common traffic rules.

Sounds like you're describing the behavior of people who've had too much to drink. Alcohol is already legal.

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

#363

Post by ttul »

adriand wrote: post #22

> Canada has made some progress since legalisation in 2018, but through a regionally varied patchwork of free-market and state-controlled supply systems that makes it hard to draw broad lessons This strikes me as an odd claim. Each province has its own approach, and the provinces are large. Wouldn’t having varying approaches among different large regions be perfect for drawing lessons?

It had to be this way. Provinces determine how alcohol and tobacco are sold within their borders; it would have been strange for cannabis distribution to be federally regulated.

Some useful comparisons can indeed be drawn. Quebec launched with a very restrictive distribution model. BC was quite liberal. The latter province has fared much better in terms of squeezing out profits for organized crime. There are virtually no unauthorized cannabis shops in the province and very little black market activity relative to pre-legalization.

Keep distribution straightforward and analogous to how tobacco and alcohol are sold, and keep taxes on cannabis low to cut out profits for the black market.

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

#364

Post by int_19h »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #356
Kerbonut wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SCOTUS ought to invalidate the DEA and drug scheduling considering they’re overturning other perceived federal overreaches.

Did the DEA create the schedules? Or did the Congress? I thought it was a latter.

Congress created them originally, but they gave DEA very wide authority to change them.

(This is also why federal drug legalization could, in theory, be achieved through executive order, if Dems had the spine for that.)

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

#365

Post by newsclues »

piffey wrote: post #257

Personally can't wait for the equivalent of Appellation d'origine contrôlée for weed. "It's not Champagne Double Cork Kush unless it comes from the Champagne region." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appellation_d%27origine_contr%...

Fighting over who owns genetics is already happening

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

#366

Post by newsclues »

ttul wrote: post #363
adriand wrote: post #22

> Canada has made some progress since legalisation in 2018, but through a regionally varied patchwork of free-market and state-controlled supply systems that makes it hard to draw broad lessons This strikes me as an odd claim. Each province has its own approach, and the provinces are large. Wouldn’t having varying approaches among different large regions be perfect for drawing lessons?

It had to be this way. Provinces determine how alcohol and tobacco are sold within their borders; it would have been strange for cannabis distribution to be federally regulated. Some useful comparisons can indeed be drawn. Quebec launched with a very restrictive distribution model. BC was quite liberal. The latter province has fared much better in terms of squeezing out profits for organized crime. There are virtuall…

Some of the most successful BC stores are run by people still brokering in the black market.

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

#367

Post by newsclues »

Storm-Bringer wrote: post #129

Can it be enjoyed by some ways other than smoking? Not trying to troll here, its smell honestly makes me want to vomit.

It’s also a great pain cream for topical use. As well as vapour, or edibles/drinks.

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

#368

Post by int_19h »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #315
jotm wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

My impression is that many of the Eastern European states are more subject to Christian religious conservativism than in the west. And so the drugs and law and order thing is more pronounced there in pockets. Not sure if this is a post-Soviet slingshot effect or if it never went away even under Stalinism. But old "Christian" morality seems to be stronger there, and the separation between church and state not as reall…

It's more that those states are generally socially conservative. That social conservatism is not religious in nature, but cultural - it was also in full display under Soviets, for example. It just attaches itself to whatever contemporary ideology matches it best.

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

#369

Post by dr_dshiv »

danielbln wrote: post #97
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.

Nitpick: Germany is poised to legalize and not just decriminialize, which is an important distinction.

Germany is poised to tax that shit. Finally.

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

#370

Post by cronix »

idleproc wrote: post #347
cronix wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Oregon as well. There have been many news stories in Southern Oregon about the large cartel operations that are bigger than before legalization, because now they more or less blend in with the legal growers. They also involved trafficked humans to work there with passports withheld. Some of the increase has been attributed to California's drought, so they're moving north to greener pastures, so to speak. The i…

Why is this the case though? Take coffee for instance, it's widely grown in South America--is most of the production run by cartels? Or is it just that cannabis is a high-value crop, and it's easier to move the produce around the USA from within, rather than having to smuggle it over the border? And if cannabis is a high-value crop, is it because not all states have 'legalised' it? What if the whole world legalised c…

Yes, it's because there is a large black market in states that haven't legalized it and in a lot of cases, they're selling it cheaper than the stores where it's legal. The state sanctioned growers all have to have their products tested in labs for purity, pesticides as well as percentage of THC/CBD. The stores (separate entity) also have heavy regulations and security requirements as these are strictly cash businesses (since it's still federally illegal, you can't use federally regulated banks, or credit cards). It's expensive to do so. There is also quite a high state tax on cannabis sales. Illegal growers don't have any of that. It's also a lot simpler to cross state lines than international borders as most states don't have border checks. I know California does to check if you have fruit on board (large agricultural state trying to prevent various pests/diseases), but out of hundreds of trips across the border we were only actually inspected once and that was likely because we were in a camper so they couldn't just look in the window and see.

As a different example, there are "dry towns" where alcohol sales are illegal. The bordering bars where it is legal do very well.

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