How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is making the world better • Hacker News Board

Re: How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is making the world better

#51

Post by flinkblinkhink » Mon, Oct 20, 2014, 12:17 AM UTC

Tloewald wrote: post #48

flinkblinkhink wrote: post #47

I agree it should be legal. However it should not be fully commercialised. Colorado has gone too far. It should be like tobacco in Australia where it cannot be advertised and is sold in plain packaging from behind a counter and cannot be displayed or promoted. It should not be illegal but it is a health hazard and should be treated in the same terms as tobacco. It's not a good thing that it is being sold as a "fun" p…

Since when is Tobacco in Australia sold in plain packaging? AFAIK (it's been a while since I lived in Australia) the health messages have to be very prominent, and they can't advertise on TV, radio, or near schools, but they can still advertise in some places (print) and package as they like modulo "Smoking Kills Babies" type messages. (It's funny, my smoker friends used to identify their packets of cigarettes by the…

Tobacco cannot be advertised at all in Australia except for I think at the Grand Prix car racing.

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Conten...

Re: How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is making the world better

#52

Post by flinkblinkhink » Mon, Oct 20, 2014, 12:19 AM UTC

yodsanklai wrote: post #50

flinkblinkhink wrote: post #47

I agree it should be legal. However it should not be fully commercialised. Colorado has gone too far. It should be like tobacco in Australia where it cannot be advertised and is sold in plain packaging from behind a counter and cannot be displayed or promoted. It should not be illegal but it is a health hazard and should be treated in the same terms as tobacco. It's not a good thing that it is being sold as a "fun" p…

I agree with you. There's a whole trend of advertising cannabis as something cool (or as a miracle "natural" medication that cures everything, from anxiety to back pain). Unfortunately, it's not that harmless. I know plenty of people that have been smoking cannabis daily from an early age and they are suffering because of it. That being said, I'm entirely for its legalisation, but there should be some reasonable midd…

The obvious question is, are the tobacco companies allowed to sell marijuana cigarettes mixed with tobacco?

Re: How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is making the world better

#53

Post by MartinCron » Mon, Oct 20, 2014, 12:31 AM UTC

yodsanklai wrote: post #49

lisper wrote: post #3

The U.S. has done the prohibition experiment twice now, and it was an unmitigated disaster both times. The data are unambiguous: prohibition doesn't work, never has, never will. And yet we're still arguing about it. Funny thing, though, we've done a similar experiment with tax cuts for the wealthy three times now: once in the 1920's, once starting in the 1980s, and most recently in Kansas. The results have been simil…

> The data are unambiguous: prohibition doesn't work, never has, never will Does it mean that all drugs should be freely sold? I have no doubt that cannabis should be legal: not only is it relatively harmless, but it's very easy to grow. But what about other more addictive and dangerous drugs?

We are always drawing lines of what things are and are not permissible. You can move the line to the other side of pot without erasing it entirely.

Re: How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is making the world better

#54

Post by ossreality » Mon, Oct 20, 2014, 12:32 AM UTC

yodsanklai wrote: post #45

lukifer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol prohibition is an apt historical lesson, especially regarding violence and black markets, but there is a significant difference: the intended targets. Alcohol was outlawed primarily to target men, particularly the violent and alcoholic, and was a stand-in for women's issues. It was the first time domestic violence began to be (indirectly) talked about, and was a major driver for women's suffrage and activism.…

> Cannabis prohibition, on the other hand, has historically been targeted explicitly at minorities Cannabis (and pretty much every psychoactive drugs except alcohol) is prohibited in almost every countries in the world. Isn't it a bit simplistic to think that oppressing minorities was the only reason behind it?

When there's a wealth of historical information about how cannabis prohibition was instituted to target minorities in the US? no

Re: How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is making the world better

#55

Post by kyllo » Mon, Oct 20, 2014, 12:39 AM UTC

krschultz wrote: post #23

kyllo wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And as a result the price of legal recreational pot in WA is around $35 a gram which is over three times the going rate for medicinal pot and illicit pot.

That's interesting. Do people seek out the legal weed and pay the premium? Or is it suffering for lack of demand compared to black market weed. I don't live in WA (or smoke pot), but if I did, I probably would pay the premium just to keep it all above board & guarantee quality.

I hear the legal recreational weed is selling out, that's part of the reason why only two stores are open, the supply is so limited. You can drive by and see a line out the door. The recreational weed is a separate supply, they had to grow it from seed and could not fence medicinal or illicit weed.

Because that supply doesn't come close to meeting the demand, most people either have to see a doctor and get their green card, or keep buying on the black market.

Re: How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is making the world better

#56

Post by yodsanklai » Mon, Oct 20, 2014, 12:56 AM UTC

flinkblinkhink wrote: post #52

yodsanklai wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you. There's a whole trend of advertising cannabis as something cool (or as a miracle "natural" medication that cures everything, from anxiety to back pain). Unfortunately, it's not that harmless. I know plenty of people that have been smoking cannabis daily from an early age and they are suffering because of it. That being said, I'm entirely for its legalisation, but there should be some reasonable midd…

The obvious question is, are the tobacco companies allowed to sell marijuana cigarettes mixed with tobacco?

Cannabis can be consumed in various forms. For instance in Europe, most people mix cannabis resin ("hashish") with tobacco, whereas in North America people smoke weed pure. Other ways include vaporisation and ingestion. Mixing with tobacco is probably the worse way as nicotine is highly addictive and we all know the health problems associated with tobacco.

So no, I don't think they should be authorised to sell their tobacco cigarettes with cannabis inside! Actually, I hope that legalisation will give the opportunity to inform people about this.

Re: How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is making the world better

#57

Post by vegedor » Mon, Oct 20, 2014, 12:59 AM UTC

HelloMcFly wrote: post #42

musername wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to understand your comment twice, but it doesn't work for me. Figures, the comment is wrong.

Fantastic contribution - thanks for showing up. What about the comment is wrong to you? It made perfect sense to me, but if you've got another perspective then feel free to share it.

You could pose that question to the GP as well, that's the point. Your sarcasm-detector failed.

Re: How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is making the world better

#58

Post by specialist » Mon, Oct 20, 2014, 1:07 AM UTC

dllthomas wrote: post #20

guard-of-terra wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting that it was introduced by a Dem. I think there should be a move that Dem formally apologise for this law - or all the weed smokers no longer vote for them and they become unelectable.

The nature of both parties have changed substantially since the 30s, no current legislators of either party were involved in government when that bill was passed, and both parties have had ample opportunities to correct the mistake. Holding current Democrats disproportionately responsible is myopic. Refusal to vote for politicians of any party who are on the wrong side of this issue is another matter, for anyone who…

Further, the political parties are not homogenous. My local party, a legislative district representing about 140,000 voters, has its own platform. We disagree often, strenuously with the state organization, various campaigns (which are completely separate from the parties), the caucuses. From our point of view, other state's orgs (of the nominally same party) are more or less lunatics and the national party is a complete tool of the dual party corporatist war party.

Re: How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is making the world better

#59

Post by Avshalom » Mon, Oct 20, 2014, 1:30 AM UTC

sliverstorm wrote: post #46

lukifer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol prohibition is an apt historical lesson, especially regarding violence and black markets, but there is a significant difference: the intended targets. Alcohol was outlawed primarily to target men, particularly the violent and alcoholic, and was a stand-in for women's issues. It was the first time domestic violence began to be (indirectly) talked about, and was a major driver for women's suffrage and activism.…

Cannabis prohibition, on the other hand, has historically been targeted explicitly at minorities Do you have a "when" in mind there? Cannabis has a colorful history in the USA, and it does not seem like its entire history has been centered on "suppressing the Other". To my knowledge it was originally regulated as a part of the opium/narcotics laws that swept the world in the early 1900's.

Opium laws were targeted at the Chinese.

Re: How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is making the world better

#60

Post by wgato » Mon, Oct 20, 2014, 1:35 AM UTC

yodsanklai wrote: post #45

lukifer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol prohibition is an apt historical lesson, especially regarding violence and black markets, but there is a significant difference: the intended targets. Alcohol was outlawed primarily to target men, particularly the violent and alcoholic, and was a stand-in for women's issues. It was the first time domestic violence began to be (indirectly) talked about, and was a major driver for women's suffrage and activism.…

> Cannabis prohibition, on the other hand, has historically been targeted explicitly at minorities Cannabis (and pretty much every psychoactive drugs except alcohol) is prohibited in almost every countries in the world. Isn't it a bit simplistic to think that oppressing minorities was the only reason behind it?

the extremes that the US has gone to force Jamaica to keep it illegal is disgusting