US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana • Hacker News Board

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#121

Post by Retric » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 6:34 PM UTC

mminer237 wrote: post #59

Scoundreller wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hasn’t really happened in Canada. I think a small-player alcohol company did move in, but only after the bubble popped. Turns out legalization of a drug doesn’t lead to massive increases in consumption. Who knew. Definitely kneecapped the black market though: most moved to the legal side and black market prices cratered.

Marijuana use has massively increased in the US as states have legalized it. Users have doubled: https://www.statista.com/statistics/264862/cannabis-consumpt... Use among users has also increased 20%: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/962353

20% increase in consumption isn’t exactly what I would call massive.

Looking at historic trends the point where pot was first legalized for recreational use isn’t obvious. If anything the long term upward tends started long before legalization which didn’t seem to have significant impact. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s...

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#122

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 6:35 PM UTC

dzonga wrote: post #94

however, the weed these days is much stronger, and not the one our grandfathers smoked. if something could be done about the thc content -- that will be nice. weed isn't exactly harmful -- but long term it will be interesting to see the consequences. now already a lot of people are paranoid due to weed use.

[deleted]

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#123

Post by mustafa_pasi » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 6:35 PM UTC

Feels like they were keeping this card in their sleeves for when they needed a popularity boost.

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#124

Post by ThrowawayTestr » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 6:36 PM UTC

RankingMember wrote: post #20

While it being moved to Schedule ~II~ (Correction: III) rather than removed altogether is a bit disappointing, I'm not gonna miss the forest for the trees on this one: this is a big deal after all this time.

At the very least researchers won't have to jump through as many hoops to study it.

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#125

Post by flawsofar » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 6:36 PM UTC

vuln wrote: post #114

flawsofar wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I mean: doing things that people want them to do to get elected. Not the worst problem?

It’s pandering and on the edge of buying votes. Unlike Student Loan “forgiveness” which was a direct purchase of a vote. And no I doubt this will rouse the pot smokers to vote, perhaps mail in, as they don’t have to do actually anything.

If everyone buys votes using one issue or another, using cannabis to buy votes should be the least concern of anyone.

While you can make some amount of case that the timing makes it a manipulation, is this really the manipulation that bothers you?

I would rather there be no manipulations. But in a country that divides itself on infantile identity politics, fight fire with fire.

It is not a fair game. You can’t demand perfect intentions around this issue when politics is full of much worse actors.

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#126

Post by Hasu » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 6:36 PM UTC

Alupis wrote: post #66

NegativeLatency wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those policies were not well funded or implemented, we should keep trying alternative solutions to the status quo. In contrast to the "war on drugs" which has been extremely well funded, and implemented to the cost of our own liberties, tried for years and has not been successful either.

> tried for years and has not been successful either. What's the measurement for success? It seems, from a casual observer's perspective, we have fewer people trying hard drugs when the consequences are strict and known. We have more people trying hard drugs when the consequences are removed. Neither system will achieve 0% drug usage - so which policy results in fewer people trying hard drugs?

> What's the measurement for success?

It's not "the number of people who try hard drugs", which isn't a particularly interesting or meaningful number (lots of people, including myself, try hard drugs but never end up hooked on them and are productive members of society).

Try "the amount of harm caused to society". The drug war destroys more lives than hard drugs. It's a policy failure.

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#127

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 6:36 PM UTC

The_Blade wrote: post #116

Scoundreller wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hasn’t really happened in Canada. I think a small-player alcohol company did move in, but only after the bubble popped. Turns out legalization of a drug doesn’t lead to massive increases in consumption. Who knew. Definitely kneecapped the black market though: most moved to the legal side and black market prices cratered.

Denver definitely had perverse consequence. people eking out a living selling weed on the street quickly turned to... harder substances. people will get their dollar and people will get their high

[deleted]

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#128

Post by paxys » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 6:37 PM UTC

colpabar wrote: post #120

paxys wrote: post #102

On one hand I'm very happy with all the recent policy changes coming down from different federal agencies, but on the other there's a very high likelihood that they will all be reversed a few months from now if/when a new administration takes over. That is always the downside of executive rule. With Congress unwilling/incapable of acting though I guess this is the best we'll get.

What bothers me is that all these things are only happening because it's an election year and the incumbent doesn't have great polling numbers.

Well, politicians doing what people want in order to get reelected is kinda the point of democracy.

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#129

Post by jiayo » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 6:38 PM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #35

pm90 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American corporations are great at retooling their business/supply chains for different products (see how quickly everyone moved into hard seltzers). I do expect big tobacco to move in aggressively if weed is made legal.

Hasn’t really happened in Canada. I think a small-player alcohol company did move in, but only after the bubble popped. Turns out legalization of a drug doesn’t lead to massive increases in consumption. Who knew. Definitely kneecapped the black market though: most moved to the legal side and black market prices cratered.

Big tobacco might have stayed out of the fray but since legalization the vape giant JUUL owns and operates dispensaries.

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#130

Post by tialaramex » Tue, Apr 30, 2024, 6:38 PM UTC

alistairSH wrote: post #67

kgdiem wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes really good point. Won’t it still be up to the states to decide what the regulatory environment will look like — eg they can choose to preserve these jobs through existing regulatory frameworks in the same way that certain goods cannot be shipped to certain states

Note, they're only planning to move it from Schedule 1 (alongside heroin) to Schedule III (alongside anabolic steroids and ketamine). So, it won't be fully legal in the same sense as alcohol. Regardless, unless Congress does something to make it legal nationally, we'll still have the state frameworks. Just hopefully avoiding the most draconian criminal charges.

One very important thing this does is get rid of a really glaring error. As a Schedule I drug, Marijuana supposedly is completely useless, its only role is as a potential danger and that's why nobody must have any - except, we've known for many years a bunch of people find it useful as a therapeutic drug, so that's clearly wrong and the Schedule I status is an error. Perhaps there shouldn't be any Schedule I drugs at all, the idea seems misconceived, but certainly if there are Schedule I drugs, Marijuana doesn't belong among them.

Meanwhile in Schedule III it's a judgement call. Schedule III drugs like K or steroids are drugs we know are useful, your doctor can prescribe them, your hospital pharmacy has them, but we also know they get abused. That sounds much more like marijuana, and, to be honest, alcohol. Can we justify Schedule III for Marijuana and yet not for Alcohol? It's at least a serious question whereas the Schedule I status was just nonsense.