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US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

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Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The smell from marijuana smoke lingers and travels in a way tobacco smoke does not. Most people other than users find it significantly more offensive than tobacco.

Disagree. If you’re at a concert and someone smokes weed everyone is like “right on”. You smoke a cigarette and people want to fight you.

What does this have to do with how the respective smells linger?

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#572

Great news. A very sound move. Indeed, marijuana is much less dangerous of a drug yet considerably harmful in cases of chronic use in unreasonably high doses therefore should be controlled some way. What seems problematic nowadays is teenagers smoking too much. Also the idea of stoned people driving cars sounds scary. To me it seems it should be as available and legal as alcohol and cigarettes are, no less, no more.…

"Also the idea of stoned people driving cars sounds scary. " Depends how stoned, but people routinely drive while using medication that affects them far more than being a bit stoned.

In response to uninformed sibling comments reflexively fearing cannabis use in drivers, see here:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2722956/

> Cannabis users perceive their driving under the influence as impaired and more cautious, and given a dose of 7 mg THC (about a third of a joint), drivers rated themselves as impaired even though their driving performance was not; in contrast, at a BAC 0.04% (slightly less than two “standard drinks” of a can of beer or small 5 oz. glass of wine; half the legal limit in most US states), driving performance was impaired even though drivers rated themselves as unimpaired.

> This awareness of impairment has behavioral consequences. Several reviews of driving and simulator studies have concluded that marijuana use by drivers is likely to result in decreased speed and fewer attempts to overtake, as well as increased “following distance”. The opposite is true of alcohol.

I'd be more weary of people under the influence of anger, benzos, or other psychiatric drugs.

In my experience, cannabis is a performance enhancer in these cases, increasing awareness rather than decreasing it. After all, it does improve ADHD symptoms.

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#573

Great, now do psilocybin, LSD and MDMA.

Yeah, no. We're already in a drug crisis as it is. We need to teach people that doing drugs (of any kind) isn't the answer to problems. Soft times seems to have created this problem where people would rather escape their lives than live them out.

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#574
post #566

There’s been no strong studies on the harmful effects of weed due to its illegal status. Now that is legal in many places, in 30 years we will know a lot more as this natural experiment unfolds. I would not be surprised if we see different but equally harmful effects. Let the experiment begin.

The issue is the prolonged constant daily use of it. Unlike alcohol, it's much easier to get by in the day with weed, and a lot of people do use it as that. It offers them an escape from reality without the full social repercussion of something like alcohol.

That’s a good point. I’ve known people who smoke a joint every couple of hours and outwardly seem more functional than someone who has had three or four drinks.

The long term effects remain to be determined.

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#575

Great news. A very sound move. Indeed, marijuana is much less dangerous of a drug yet considerably harmful in cases of chronic use in unreasonably high doses therefore should be controlled some way. What seems problematic nowadays is teenagers smoking too much. Also the idea of stoned people driving cars sounds scary. To me it seems it should be as available and legal as alcohol and cigarettes are, no less, no more.…

While no impairment is obviously ideal, I'd much rather share the road with someone who's had a few puffs than someone on a cocktail of legal psychoactive prescription medications like antidepressants, SSRIs, amphetamines, hypnotic sedatives, etc.

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#576
post #563

Honestly, we should look to fix the issues that lead to people depending on weed, alcohol, and other drugs instead. These drugs are escapes for people - and a lot of them, especially younger kids get completely hooked on the escaped from reality from these drugs (including alcohol). We should instead be limit the use of these drugs and have teams dedicated to studying why people are turning to these instead. It's OK…

>Honestly, we should look to fix the issues that lead to people depending on weed, alcohol, and other drugs instead.

It doesn't have to be exclusive or. People are looking to fix these issues. In the mean time, we don't have to ruin people's lives by convicting them as felons.

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#577

Great news. A very sound move. Indeed, marijuana is much less dangerous of a drug yet considerably harmful in cases of chronic use in unreasonably high doses therefore should be controlled some way. What seems problematic nowadays is teenagers smoking too much. Also the idea of stoned people driving cars sounds scary. To me it seems it should be as available and legal as alcohol and cigarettes are, no less, no more.…

Coming from a longtime marijuana friendly state, I've noticed that it has also lowered the stigma of other "hard" drugs. Since weed is no longer the socially-acceptable illegal drug, others like cocaine has taken is place.

I've long wondered if this will be a trend across the country.

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#578
post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First line in your link: >"The owner says around $15,000 of products and items were stolen from the store." It doesn't mention anything about cash. "Smash and grab" in weed shops doesn't usually have much to do with having piles of cash sitting around (though I'm sure that might happen too) - it's the product that thieves want to steal because it's got no serial numbers, it's pretty light-weight and easy to run out w…

Cash has to leave the building at some point.

There's typically far more monetary value in product in any weed shop than there is cash, likely by an order of magnitude. Many of the purchases are done electronically, so there's not as much cash as you might think in most dispensaries.

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#579

[flagged]

> A safe, productive and prosperous society cannot be built by drug addicts. Historian Niall Ferguson has argued that the British Empire was built on a collective caffeine and sugar high, from imported tea and cane sugar from its colonies and trading partners.

Neither sugar nor caffeine has the same effects as drugs like alcohol and marijuana. It's pretty asinine to classify them as even being in the same category.

Re: US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

#580
post #56

One major effect of this is that weed stores will be able to use banks and payment processors legally once the regulators catch up.

Will they? Since it will be Schedule III, “weed stores” that aren't pharmacies distributing properly labelled drugs to people with prescriptions will still be violating the Controlled Substances Act and will probably have the same banking problems.

I don't see how this anything but a mandate for the DEA to crack down on recreational.
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