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US Department of Justice has officially reclassified cannabis as less dangerous

bbc.com

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Re: US Department of Justice has officially reclassified cannabis as less dangerous

#191

Post by giantg2 »

guzfip wrote: post #108
giantg2 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Alcohol is one of the more dangerous drugs on most scales" Can you provide those scales?

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HarmCausedByDrugsTab...

"Note that alcohol (despite being legal and used more often than the other drugs) is by far the most harmful; not only is it the most damaging to societies, it is also the fourth most dangerous for the user. Most of the drugs were rated significantly less harmful than alcohol, with most of the harm befalling the user."

Thanks! Yes, a legal drug that is more widespread and more studied has more aggregate impact. Another sentence in that link specifically calls out legal and cultural impacts on harms. This is also in the UK, so it's worth noting there could be differences with the US. This does not negate my statement and in some areas bolsters it (data discrepancy claims).

Re: US Department of Justice has officially reclassified cannabis as less dangerous

#192

Post by giantg2 »

joquarky wrote: post #170
giantg2 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Alcohol is one of the more dangerous drugs on most scales" Can you provide those scales?

Quitting an ethanol addiction cold turkey can often be deadly. There aren't very many other drugs that can do that.

I thought pretty much any barbituate, benzo, and some opioid based drugs would can also do that.

Re: US Department of Justice has officially reclassified cannabis as less dangerous

#193

Post by pphysch »

GordonS wrote: post #99
pphysch wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Over time, cannabis has also allowed me to analyse and think on the past There is danger in attributing something broad like this directly to drug use. Can you only reflect while high? It may be that the initial psychedelic sessions helped break through some mental/emotional patterns you were suffering from (positive impact), but that continued regular use has an overall negative impact on mental health. That's bee…

> Can you only reflect while high? Personally, yes; at least effectively . > It may be that the initial psychedelic sessions I had a few experiences with mushrooms in my youth, so I know what you mean - but cannabis isn't psychedelic.

Cannabis is psychedelic to the extent that the term means anything. It's not a "classic" psychedelic like acid or shrooms, but there is no obvious category difference between microdosing shrooms vs. smoking a joint vs. having a proper trip vs. greening out, and so on. It's all spectrums of psychedelic experience caused directly by something you ingested.

The opposition to the term likely has more to do with proponents and lobbyists wanting to distance weed from the "harder" psychedelics that are known to fry people.

Re: US Department of Justice has officially reclassified cannabis as less dangerous

#194

Post by GordonS »

pphysch wrote: post #193
GordonS wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can you only reflect while high? Personally, yes; at least effectively . > It may be that the initial psychedelic sessions I had a few experiences with mushrooms in my youth, so I know what you mean - but cannabis isn't psychedelic.

Cannabis is psychedelic to the extent that the term means anything. It's not a "classic" psychedelic like acid or shrooms, but there is no obvious category difference between microdosing shrooms vs. smoking a joint vs. having a proper trip vs. greening out, and so on. It's all spectrums of psychedelic experience caused directly by something you ingested. The opposition to the term likely has more to do with proponent…

> The opposition to the term likely has more to do with proponents and lobbyists wanting to distance weed from the "harder" psychedelics that are known to fry people.

I don't know about any of that - my own opposition is because I've tried psychedelic substances a few times during my youth, and cannabis isn't remotely like that.

Re: US Department of Justice has officially reclassified cannabis as less dangerous

#195

Post by fragmede »

joquarky wrote: post #155
tombert wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not claiming I know how to fix it, but I am quite confident that the solution to fixing issues with depression, focus, or any other number of psychological issues is not reading a Reddit post about weed and/or mushrooms and pretending you understand enough about pharmacology to fix these problems. Therapists and psychologists and psychiatrists require training and as such will still be considerably more likely to…

You seem to be assuming that everyone can afford a therapist.

If only there were some sort of system where everyone who had money gave it to some organization, percentage based so rich people gave more, and then this organization used it to pay for therapists, and everything had access to therapy and other stuff like that? Totally insane crazy idea, I know. It could never possibly work. But just imagine if it did! Everyone would be able to get the therapy and help they deserve. What a world that would be. Alas.

Re: US Department of Justice has officially reclassified cannabis as less dangerous

#196

Post by perrygeo »

atonse wrote: post #77

Honestly, I have zero issues with legalizing marijuana (I'm not an expert on the effects), but I just don't like how the smell really travels and overwhelms local areas nowadays. Fair or not, I think it smells stronger than cigarette smoke (which smells more like a neutral smoke maybe?) so has a higher annoyance factor. So over time, I've gotten more in the camp of "completely ok with the gummies being legal, not so…

I am thankful to live in a town with a full ban on public smoking; weed and tobacco are legal to buy, just not to smoke or vape in the city center.

It's a clear and rational line - do unto yourself if you must, but keep the air clean and don't force others to share your nasty habit.

Re: US Department of Justice has officially reclassified cannabis as less dangerous

#197

Post by boogieknite »

ajay-b wrote: post #183

This has been a long time coming. Now let's tax it, and use that money to pay for drug and mental health treatment, much in the same way that the lottery is used in places to pay for education.

expected Oregon to leap all other states in education with the marijuana taxes over a decade ago and just no results

Re: US Department of Justice has officially reclassified cannabis as less dangerous

#198

Post by lelanthran »

nekusar wrote: post #85
CodingJeebus wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

12 Step recovery and adjacent programs fill this niche quite well, and new communities are popping up all the time to deal with more modern addictions, like internet/technology addiction. I'm sober and have been in that world for several years now, and the most important (and hardest) part of getting sober was accepting that I had a problem and needed help. Macro policy decisions can help with access to an extent, bu…

12 step recovery is just bullshit christian religionism wrapped in some psychobabble. Id much rather have a program that doesnt use "scary man in the sky" doing bad stuff to you. Here's the steps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-step_program We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Made a dec…

I've known more than a few atheists who successfully used this program.

If reality and your theory differs, it's not reality that's wrong.

Re: US Department of Justice has officially reclassified cannabis as less dangerous

#199

Post by thewoodsman »

quickthrowman wrote: post #153
thewoodsman wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The major benefit of legalization of something like marijuana is that you nix a lot of criminality associated with the drug being illegal. You also wind up with a better quality product, labels that help with dosage, potency, etc. The no-holds-barred legalization of gambling apps has none of these benefits, and almost everyone I've talked to, no matter how libertarian their instincts, seems to agree we've gone way to…

> The major benefit of legalization of something like marijuana is that you nix a lot of criminality associated with the drug being illegal. These days, if you exclude ‘possession’ and ‘selling’ from weed-related crimes, there’s almost nothing left. Weed is commoditized and is one of the few products that has gotten cheaper over the last 6 years. There’s very little violence in the weed trade, the profit margins aren…

agreed - s/marijuana/dangerous drug of your choosing/ - the point is more about the differential between the purported benefit of legalization / decriminalization of "sinful" activities and the actual outcome in the specific case of gambling

Re: US Department of Justice has officially reclassified cannabis as less dangerous

#200

Post by Gud »

armchairhacker wrote: post #187
GuB-42 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politically, it has to be a calculated move. Some people oppose it, others support it. I think most people here are pro-cannabis and liberal, and I think most will see legalization as a "win", but politically, is it really? Will your vote change depending on the result? If you don't your voice don't matter as much. Those who matter are at the fringe: pro-cannabis leaning conservative, anti-cannabis leaning liberals,…

I can’t imagine a scenario where the Democrats legalize cannabis and it hurts their elections. You think there are more anti-cannabis liberals than pro-cannabis conservatives? I think that actually, if Democrats just did what seems clearly good for most of the country, they’d have much better electoral outcomes than their current Kafka-esque strategy.

No, but it may push people on the fence away. The “liberals” will never vote republican anyway.
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