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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’

#181

Post by InefficientRed »

skissane wrote: post #149
InefficientRed wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Alcohol isn't naturally occurring in harvested produce - it's an output from a process. Ethanol is naturally occurring. That said, I agree that including alcohol here is bizarre. As far as I can tell there has never been a monotonic increase in ABV; instead, there is a large selection ranging from high alcohol content to even alcohol-free (which is so unpopular in the US as to be barely worth mentioning, but quite…

> Most alcoholic beverages are made through some sort of distillation process How do you define “most”? - but I’m pretty sure non-distilled/non-fortified alcoholic beverages (wine/beer/etc) make up more of the alcoholic beverage market (whether in litres or dollars) than distilled/fortified beverages. I think they also are a lot more if you were to count SKUs (number of varieties of non-fortified wines/beers/etc > sp…

Oh, okay. Just confusion of terms.

My brain organizes things as "beer, wine, and alcohol (aka spirits)" as opposed to "alcohol, including beer and wine". And an "alcoholic beverage" is just either a spirit alone or a spirit mixed with something.

Probably because that's how my state organizes the stores (with wine/alcohol in separate stores from beer, so if you say "we need to buy beer" that means going to a different place than "we need to by alcohol").

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

#182

Post by samatman »

an9n wrote: post #159
coldcode wrote: post #29

While I have no interest in weed, I never understood why people are against it, since cigarettes are also a drug and are far more damaging to heath and the economy, and in the US kills a couple hundred thousand folks a year, or alcohol, which is a drug, and kills tens of thousands of people a year. Eliminating illegality would save in so many ways, and taxes could help offset other taxes. But no, weed is somehow more…

The trouble is that skunk is now prevalent and much, much more powerful than standard weed or hash - and the stronger it is, the more likely that it will trigger serious mental health problems like schizophrenia in a percentage of users. Also, setting aside the acute and dramatic consequences, take a walk around pretty much any reasonably sized town in the UK and before long you'll smell the characteristic smell of s…

There is no flower available which is stronger than hash.

If you think about it for a few seconds, you'll see why. You didn't because it undermines your argument, since the UK has mostly smoked hash historically.

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

#183

Post by mschuster91 »

mardifoufs wrote: post #173
mschuster91 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities," Ehrlichman said. "We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news.…

This is such an US centric take, on an article about Germany.

I'm German. The complete ban on cannabis and the begin of the full blown war on all drugs and not just opiates in Germany came in 1971, three years after the mentioned events. We only have cultural hegemonism of the US to "thank" for that.

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

#184

Post by InefficientRed »

MauranKilom wrote: post #170
InefficientRed wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Alcohol isn't naturally occurring in harvested produce - it's an output from a process. Ethanol is naturally occurring. That said, I agree that including alcohol here is bizarre. As far as I can tell there has never been a monotonic increase in ABV; instead, there is a large selection ranging from high alcohol content to even alcohol-free (which is so unpopular in the US as to be barely worth mentioning, but quite…

> Ethanol is naturally occurring. That's... decidedly not true. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95DPkPW5_PE

>> Ethanol is naturally occurring.

> That's... decidedly not true.

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95DPkPW5_PE [link to video of animals becoming intoxicated on rotting fruit]

I'm confused. Perhaps you read this as "isn't"?

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

#185

Post by wonderwonder »

yuuu wrote: post #158
kennyadam wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strongly agree. As the THC percentage has increased, so has my anxiety when I smoke it. If I go out of my way to find lower quality weed, I enjoy it much more.

I live in a state where marijuana is legal and recently tried it again for the first time in over a decade. I strolled into a recreational store and asked for a recommendation, specifically requesting a flower with a low THC concentration. They ended up giving me something ("Biker Kush") that had 28% THC, which I had only noticed on the packaging after I left the store. Gee, thanks. Anyway, then I bought supplies to…

That's pretty unfortunate, sorry that happened. I smoke flower relatively often (far less than many), twice a week for the last 3 years (date nights with my wife) and have never experienced anything like that. I have on occasion gotten into a negative thought spiral where I start to obsess on some of my perceived poor choices in life but those generally last less than 20 minutes. Generally I start to worry that I don't give my kids enough attention and resolve to do so. In reality though I consider myself a pretty good parent. Instances of this are very rare maybe once every 20 times I smoke and even then they make up only a small portion of the overall period. They are not intense and no wear near panic level, just reflective.

Unscientifically I would recommend maybe next time smoking with someone else, and getting a lower % thc, try for a hybrid strain, a mix of Sativa and Indica. If you go on the website of the dispensary it will list the details. Don't over complicate it, just choose something in the 15% range if available. Then just sit down and watch a comedy or something. Have some snacks available. Only take a couple hits and call it a day. The next week try 3 etc. Its cumulative and can sneak up on you.

Either way good luck :)

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

#187

Post by wonderwonder »

BrianOnHN wrote: post #27
Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully the canabis producers will see the low (by todays standards) THC level weed as having its own niche and market it accordingly. Like 'light beer'.

I wonder how alcohol would look of people were so incompetent that they would drink vodka by the pint, like beer! Seriously, if you smoke a joint of high-grade then you're doing it wrong.

Snoop disagrees.

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

#188

Post by wonderwonder »

BrianOnHN wrote: post #134
rascul wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Seriously, if you smoke a joint of high-grade then you're doing it wrong. I've met people who prefer smoking joints over other smoking methods. Sometimes I like to have a joint, also. Why are we wrong?

Why are you right? It's probably best if you don't do anything that could be potentially harmful.

Everything is potentially harmful. Not having a perfect diet, drinking a couple beers, not having 8 hours of sleep a night. Life is short, weed is generally not harmful, if you want to occasionally smoke a joint, let them smoke a joint.

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

#189

Post by rascul »

BrianOnHN wrote: post #134
rascul wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Seriously, if you smoke a joint of high-grade then you're doing it wrong. I've met people who prefer smoking joints over other smoking methods. Sometimes I like to have a joint, also. Why are we wrong?

Why are you right? It's probably best if you don't do anything that could be potentially harmful.

You said it was wrong. I'm trying to understand why. Are you saying that smoking joints is potentially more harmful than using a bong? I don't understand.

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

#190

Post by cupofpython »

mschuster91 wrote: post #132
andrewinardeer wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So just because it is complex it won't get done? That sounds rather defeatist to me.

That's how an awful lot of German politics works. Source: am German, am pissed off beyond belief about a lot of things in politics, especially the lack of will to just move forward and do something instead of debating all day.

could be some trauma leftover from a previous time they just moved forward with political goals without fully understanding them.

That said, I am rooting for Germany. It is a relatively young nation overall, and has so many things going for it. I think it has potential to become the biggest European superpower over the next 20 years

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