I don't think it's much less hazardous than cigarette smoke, it's just that people don't tend to smoke 20 joints a day. Also, a bit of secondhand smoke outside isn't dangerous, it just smells bad.
> Also, a bit of secondhand smoke outside isn't dangerous, it just smells bad. That's provably false. And besides, not only does it smell bad, but it sticks to your clothes and then you smell bad.
I’ve never in my life observed clothes smelling like smoke from being near smokers outside.
I think it's pretty simple -- politicians think it's going to happen, but don't want to be personally linked to it because it can hurt their popularity with certain segments of voters they rely on. Nobody wants to claim credit for it. So they put it up for referendum instead, so it happens but it doesn't harm anyone's careers. It's not at all any kind of vindication of direct democracy. Rather, because it's broadly p…
I also think it's an older generational mindset, that being pro-pot will sink your career. They don't want to offend too many people so it's easier to stick their head in the sand and then "come around" when it's suddenly popular. There's also people like my mother who believe marijuana is akin to meth. If you smoke it once you'll end up homeless, under a bridge down by the river
New York has been trying to legalize for a few years now but it gets hung up on how to divide up the revenue.
New York has all the political will needed but the problem is the bureaucracy. This should not be the least bit surprising.
I think it's pretty simple -- politicians think it's going to happen, but don't want to be personally linked to it because it can hurt their popularity with certain segments of voters they rely on. Nobody wants to claim credit for it. So they put it up for referendum instead, so it happens but it doesn't harm anyone's careers. It's not at all any kind of vindication of direct democracy. Rather, because it's broadly p…
I also think it's an older generational mindset, that being pro-pot will sink your career. They don't want to offend too many people so it's easier to stick their head in the sand and then "come around" when it's suddenly popular. There's also people like my mother who believe marijuana is akin to meth. If you smoke it once you'll end up homeless, under a bridge down by the river
By that definition, meth isn't like meth either :D
I also think it's an older generational mindset, that being pro-pot will sink your career. They don't want to offend too many people so it's easier to stick their head in the sand and then "come around" when it's suddenly popular. There's also people like my mother who believe marijuana is akin to meth. If you smoke it once you'll end up homeless, under a bridge down by the river
New York has been trying to legalize for a few years now but it gets hung up on how to divide up the revenue. New York has all the political will needed but the problem is the bureaucracy. This should not be the least bit surprising.
The "bureaucracy" would be the unelected government employees, but the NY issue last I checked what about what regulations and fees to levy, monopolization, and reparations concerns. All of that is rather over-complex, but doesn't deal with the "bureaucracy" per se?
Nobody seems to talk about marijuana being a “gateway drug” anymore, even though it’s still true. I’ve witnessed friends in college become addicted to weed (yes, psychological addiction is still addiction) and their futures have suffered as a consequence. I believe we need to discourage drug use as a society, not give up and let it become accepted. If that means instilling fear that one could be arrested with possess…
With decriminalization the smell is everywhere around parks too which bothers me the most when I’m trying to enjoy fresh air. I wish they’d go ahead and switch to vapes or something that smells less. Even tobacco was better or carries less.
I'm on the opposite side of this. Tobacco is the absolute worst lingering smell. It's not even a close comparison and never was. I think combustion should be less widespread for sure. I don't think we'll see mass switches to vaping without legality though. Even now you can get flower vaporizers but it seems not all that many people know about them.
How do regular people like us fight oligopological market consolidation of commodity goods vendors?
Make sure to lobby to grow your own.
a legalization bill without “grow grow your own” provisions is better than nothing, but is not consumer or citizen freedom respecting. It also harms the us all by enacting into law just another toll bridge for corporations to exploit. I don’t grow my own, but if I were in a different life circumstance I definitely would.
Interesting to see people on social media with one breath talk about how mask wearing should be up to the individual, with another that legalizing weed is a terrible move that will lead to the breakdown on society. Personally I really do not like the smell so I would like a "freedom from skunk smell" bill passed too.
With decriminalization the smell is everywhere around parks too which bothers me the most when I’m trying to enjoy fresh air. I wish they’d go ahead and switch to vapes or something that smells less. Even tobacco was better or carries less.
My state has been legal for a few years now. The smell and prevalence in public places had a bit of an uptick when it was first legalized. But a few years on, it's not really different than before. The people that smoke it still smoke it, and the people that don't still don't. At least anecdotally.
Some people voted yes despite never consuming because it was persecuting a certain race of individuals. That’s not how laws should be formed in this country.
... People shouldn’t vote for things that they don’t personally use?
I mean, I don’t use golf courses or fax machines, but I probably wouldn’t vote to ban them if the question was asked.
It turns out alcoholic beverage companies and big pharma have deep pockets. Whoops, forgot the link as an example. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/07/13/one-s...
And I think it's important to fight to make sure we don't get similarly entrenched weed cartels. We now have a new fight - against market consolidation of the weed producers.
Would there even be a chance of a healthy weed market? From my perspective the market will quickly be saturated by big tobacco, since they already have all the plantation & manufacturing infrastructure needed to mass produce smoking products.
Note this is also why I have the feeling a lot of the pro-marijuana research the has come out recently is going to turn out just as illegitimate as all the pro-tobacco stuff from years past - if not even financed by the same exact industries