Seems like a sensible approach to an intractable problem. Perhaps the next government could have a look at it.
Adoptive Loiner
1 month ago
Legalize it, tax it, regulate it.
In one fell swoop you bring in a wad of tax the state desperately needs, remove a lucrative black market from the hands of organized crime, and free up many wasted police man hours.
Except it’s nowhere near that clean and easy. Take California, for example, which has legal weed AND an ongoing black market that is heavily armed and protected. Colorado, most notably Denver, discovered the hard way that legalizing it is not a solution, it’s a tradeoff that brings other issues to the fore. Oregon went all-in and legalized everything, only to later backtrack from the issues that arose.
I don’t doubt it, in the same way as there are illicit tobacco and alcohol markets, but this is about choices not perfect solutions.
Speaking of the UK, as that’s where I live, we have a situation where the law is widely ignored, where people of any age can get dope of completely unregulated strength delivered to their door after a few clicks on their phones, and where the police spend huge amounts of money and energy playing whack-a-mole with growers and dealers.
Surely better to turn an already existent free-for-all market into regulated market with age limits and strength controls, free up police time to focus on things like burglary, robbery, and violent crime and making sure the market stays regulated, and turn the whole thing from a net cost to the exchequer to a net profit?
J S
1 month ago
Visit New York to see the disaster the policies you support will lead to. Dispensaries ruin blocks and neighborhoods.
Wow. That Gzuz video. Rather illustrates how the German horrors of the 20th Century were possible. Demonic.
Martin Goodfellow
1 month ago
Those who favour drug legalisation only ever present the positive side of it: taxable benefits, ‘harmless’ fun for users, freedom of choice, and of course, ‘weed is not as bad as alcohol.’ This isn’t the whole story, however. Canabis can be harmful, particularly to adolescents’ brain maturation, and since many people combine its use with alcohol, there is increased danger to the wider public, especially on the roads. It’s a pity that intoxicating substances aren’t seen for what they are: evidence of personal weakness. Any suggestion that life without artificial highs can be a better thing is, alas, not a popular cause, despite proof to the contrary.
” Any suggestion that life without artificial highs can be a better thing is, alas, not a popular cause, despite proof to the contrary.”
The important word here is ‘can’.
Do a Nietzsche. Take a puff or mix a little in some tea.
Do it twice or three times. The first time you may not notice anything.
Wine features heavily in the bible. We have lived with additional catalysts to life other than the necessarily mundane, and by using the word mundane I do not disparage the bare necessities.
Chris Milburn
1 month ago
For a cautionary tale on the downsides of legalizing weed, look at Canada. As a doc here, I can tell you there are significant downsides. It is now NORMAL to smoke weed daily, multiple times. We see the effects in our ER’s and in the community. We have “destigmatized” marijuana, and reaped the whirlwind.
There is a sensible argument that ‘follows the money’ as to why it was criminalised.
In the 1920’s & 30’s hemp was massive crop in the US. The cotton industry could not get a toe hold so useful was/is this plant.
It is not necessary to provide the necessary conclusion here.
Seems like a sensible approach to an intractable problem. Perhaps the next government could have a look at it.
Legalize it, tax it, regulate it.
In one fell swoop you bring in a wad of tax the state desperately needs, remove a lucrative black market from the hands of organized crime, and free up many wasted police man hours.
Except it’s nowhere near that clean and easy. Take California, for example, which has legal weed AND an ongoing black market that is heavily armed and protected. Colorado, most notably Denver, discovered the hard way that legalizing it is not a solution, it’s a tradeoff that brings other issues to the fore. Oregon went all-in and legalized everything, only to later backtrack from the issues that arose.
I don’t doubt it, in the same way as there are illicit tobacco and alcohol markets, but this is about choices not perfect solutions.
Speaking of the UK, as that’s where I live, we have a situation where the law is widely ignored, where people of any age can get dope of completely unregulated strength delivered to their door after a few clicks on their phones, and where the police spend huge amounts of money and energy playing whack-a-mole with growers and dealers.
Surely better to turn an already existent free-for-all market into regulated market with age limits and strength controls, free up police time to focus on things like burglary, robbery, and violent crime and making sure the market stays regulated, and turn the whole thing from a net cost to the exchequer to a net profit?
Visit New York to see the disaster the policies you support will lead to. Dispensaries ruin blocks and neighborhoods.
Then let people grow it.
Wow. That Gzuz video. Rather illustrates how the German horrors of the 20th Century were possible. Demonic.
Those who favour drug legalisation only ever present the positive side of it: taxable benefits, ‘harmless’ fun for users, freedom of choice, and of course, ‘weed is not as bad as alcohol.’ This isn’t the whole story, however. Canabis can be harmful, particularly to adolescents’ brain maturation, and since many people combine its use with alcohol, there is increased danger to the wider public, especially on the roads. It’s a pity that intoxicating substances aren’t seen for what they are: evidence of personal weakness. Any suggestion that life without artificial highs can be a better thing is, alas, not a popular cause, despite proof to the contrary.
It is fortunate that miserabslists lile you are a declining minority
Is it miserabilist to want to protect children’s brain development?
” Any suggestion that life without artificial highs can be a better thing is, alas, not a popular cause, despite proof to the contrary.”
The important word here is ‘can’.
Do a Nietzsche. Take a puff or mix a little in some tea.
Do it twice or three times. The first time you may not notice anything.
Wine features heavily in the bible. We have lived with additional catalysts to life other than the necessarily mundane, and by using the word mundane I do not disparage the bare necessities.
For a cautionary tale on the downsides of legalizing weed, look at Canada. As a doc here, I can tell you there are significant downsides. It is now NORMAL to smoke weed daily, multiple times. We see the effects in our ER’s and in the community. We have “destigmatized” marijuana, and reaped the whirlwind.
What is this whirlwind.
There is a sensible argument that ‘follows the money’ as to why it was criminalised.
In the 1920’s & 30’s hemp was massive crop in the US. The cotton industry could not get a toe hold so useful was/is this plant.
It is not necessary to provide the necessary conclusion here.