Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

NY Comptroller: Legalise marijuana, tax it and end wrongheaded war on pot

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 145 posts

Re: NY Comptroller: Legalise marijuana, tax it and end wrongheaded war on pot

#101

Post by [deleted] »

oleganza wrote: post #88
ck2 wrote: post #83

Most neighborhoods I've lived in my life, people drink too much. Every six months or so, there is a DUI arrest where a cop has actually followed the idiot all the way home at (and I've seen people get into/out of the car so drunk they go to the bathroom on the side of their car). I don't care if people smoke pot in their apartments. But once it's legal, it's not going to stop there and I am not sure what can be done…

Insurance. If you buy a house in a district, you may or may not buy an insurance against neighbour's misbehaviour. But the first condition of the insurance is that you respect your neighbours yourself according some existing arrangements (specified in your insurance). Now if anyone is too loud when not appropriate, or drunk as hell, or peeing on your lawn, the insurance company will: 1. Pay you a compensation. 2. Mak…

[deleted]

Re: NY Comptroller: Legalise marijuana, tax it and end wrongheaded war on pot

#102

Post by yeukhon »

gngeal wrote: post #17
Dewie wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because 21 is the minimum age for buying alcohol, too (I think).

While 18 is the minimum age for killing people and getting killed in war. Sounds about right!

You are being cynical.

Re: NY Comptroller: Legalise marijuana, tax it and end wrongheaded war on pot

#103

Post by EliRivers »

ck2 wrote: post #83

Most neighborhoods I've lived in my life, people drink too much. Every six months or so, there is a DUI arrest where a cop has actually followed the idiot all the way home at (and I've seen people get into/out of the car so drunk they go to the bathroom on the side of their car). I don't care if people smoke pot in their apartments. But once it's legal, it's not going to stop there and I am not sure what can be done…

Every six months or so, there is a DUI arrest where a cop has actually followed the idiot all the way

Really? Shouldn't the police be stopping people driving whilst drunk, rather than just following them around?

Re: NY Comptroller: Legalise marijuana, tax it and end wrongheaded war on pot

#104

Post by antihero »

It is utterly disgusting that the government feels that they can tell us what to do when there is pretty much zero effect on other people.

I can sort of understand government intervention for harder more addictive drugs, though it is horrendously misguided and broken (focus should be on rehabilitation), however for stuff like weed, MDMA, speed, even Ketamine or shrooms, the government has no fucking business locking people up for using, selling, or creating these drugs until they actually commit some sort of crime that affects people.

Re: NY Comptroller: Legalise marijuana, tax it and end wrongheaded war on pot

#105

Post by mbrock »

ck2 wrote: post #83

Most neighborhoods I've lived in my life, people drink too much. Every six months or so, there is a DUI arrest where a cop has actually followed the idiot all the way home at (and I've seen people get into/out of the car so drunk they go to the bathroom on the side of their car). I don't care if people smoke pot in their apartments. But once it's legal, it's not going to stop there and I am not sure what can be done…

"Your right not to be bothered by it" sounds really spurious. Being "bothered" is an extremely subjective judgment. If we outlaw everything that's potentially bothersome, that's complete paralysis... It's not a defensible right. Why should people hide in their homes to partake in something that you don't personally care for?

Re: NY Comptroller: Legalise marijuana, tax it and end wrongheaded war on pot

#106

Post by bjourne »

616c wrote: post #44

As someone with a friend who, in a different state and different circumstances, foolishly was detained on a road trip in a state with a strict no-tolerance policy, was subsequently arrested and tried by some small prick DA in the middle of nowehre to teach a lesson with his "sorry, I don't make exceptions because we want to look hard on drugs" apologism, I hope decriminalization succeeds at least in the short term. T…

Why don't employers want to hire people who have smoked weed?

Re: NY Comptroller: Legalise marijuana, tax it and end wrongheaded war on pot

#107

Post by conformal »

it's been pretty apparent to me for some time now that "the war on drugs" is actually a mechanism to drive _up_ the price of street drugs, and i would go so far as to claim this is done intentionally.

without ridiculously stiff penalties for drug crimes, the sky-high premium placed on the drugs themselves would be unreasonable. a higher price on street drugs leads to a similar near-linear relationship with the amount of USD exported outside the US. in this way "the war on drugs" is actually a mechanism to increase demand and circulation of the USD.

softening the penalties for drug "crimes" makes a lot of sense, just look at portugal and other areas that have decriminalized/legalized possession of small amounts of drugs. i hope the US continues along the current vector of softening its approach with drug "crimes".

Re: NY Comptroller: Legalise marijuana, tax it and end wrongheaded war on pot

#108

Post by bjourne »

newnewnew wrote: post #2

It looks like hacker news is in favor of legalizing marijuana.

Rather that those who themselves use marijuana is much more likely to comment and be in favor of legalization. It doesn't tell you anything about the "silent majority." Then HN:s up & down-vote system means your comments are likely to be downvoted in spite if you voice concerns.

Re: NY Comptroller: Legalise marijuana, tax it and end wrongheaded war on pot

#109

Post by bad_user »

oleganza wrote: post #98
Kliment wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're proposing giving insurance companies the power to switch off my power, water and internet when they feel like it? Sounds like an excellent opportunity to abuse power.

First, laws, guns and police are much more excellent opportunities to abuse power and already attract all sorts of sadists and psychopaths. Second, there is no "giving power" anywhere in the voluntary agreements. Your water will be turned off only if your water supplier thinks it's more profitable to please some insured customers than not piss you off. If they turn your water off unreasonably, they risk losing client…

> If they turn your water off unreasonably, they risk losing clients

No, they risk getting sued. If my water company decided one day to turn off my water based on some bullshit claim of one of my neighbours, I would sue the shit out of them.

There are such things as contracts and consumer protection laws you know.

As a disclaimer, I live in Romania, Europe and what you're describing wouldn't be possible here. But it's funny how we've got less problems with drugs, even though Europe on the whole is more relaxed about drug usage than you are. More than 50% of incarcerations in your federal prisons are for drug offences and you've got the highest incarceration rates of all countries. To me that's a sign that you've been fixing the symptoms, rather than the real disease, making it worse in the process.

And really, I don't think that placing such power in your insurance companies would do any good. In theory abuse would be prevented by competition. In practice however, monopolies / oligopolies happen and insurance companies are primarily focused on minimizing risk, so you'd better have a good story when going from one insurer to the next.

Re: NY Comptroller: Legalise marijuana, tax it and end wrongheaded war on pot

#110

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

mbrock wrote: post #105
ck2 wrote: post #83

Most neighborhoods I've lived in my life, people drink too much. Every six months or so, there is a DUI arrest where a cop has actually followed the idiot all the way home at (and I've seen people get into/out of the car so drunk they go to the bathroom on the side of their car). I don't care if people smoke pot in their apartments. But once it's legal, it's not going to stop there and I am not sure what can be done…

"Your right not to be bothered by it" sounds really spurious. Being "bothered" is an extremely subjective judgment. If we outlaw everything that's potentially bothersome, that's complete paralysis... It's not a defensible right. Why should people hide in their homes to partake in something that you don't personally care for?

As an example, cigarette smokers as a group were horribly inconsiderate and often aggressively rude. They littered the ground and the air. The tar and the smell gets in your hair and clothes. They walked around burning people and things with their cigarettes. It was terrible. I don't miss it, even though I am sad that it took a broad law restraining everyone's behavior. That being said, even the possibility that pot smokers might become as obnoxious as tobacco smokers were before they were shunned en masse, it isn't a good argument against legalization.
Post reply on HN