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Do you support marijuana legalization?
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Except that if it was legal you'd be able to run campaigns highlighting the dangers of using drugs while driving. If the drug is blanket-illegal you can't raise awareness of the few genuine dangers because you're not supposed to use it at all.
For medical use sure.
As for recreational use, no. Though I do agree that making it totally illegal isn't the best solution, so I could see myself agreeing to something like marijuana cafes or something like that.
As for recreational use, no. Though I do agree that making it totally illegal isn't the best solution, so I could see myself agreeing to something like marijuana cafes or something like that.
Yes, but there's a "but..." involved.
A few of my friends smoke (occasionally), and I myself VERY occasionally*. But what they told me...either it was naive when we were young, or marijuana has changed. and I fear the latter.
You see, like all drugs, marijuana consists of different chemicals. And - ironically - because it is illegal, there is no oversight. It is made by either lucrative gardeners (unlikely) or at best gray-ish criminals (likely). Because they don't want to get caught, they don't want to do it for charity either. And that changes to "making profits". And that means that they looked for ways to either increase the effect or the addiction ratio. And since marijuana is a plant, it can be boasted like that.
Result: the marijuana that goes around "on the street" and is being smoked is no longer that relatively harmless plant that could get you high and not much more.
So that's basically the but: it should be legal, but (IMHO) also government regulated, in rather similar ways that tobacco and alcohol are regulated (and that, certainly in Belgium, are taxed to a pretty high degree).
*when applying for an insurance, I actually told them the truth: in the last five years I had "done drugs": I had smoked exactly one joint.
A few of my friends smoke (occasionally), and I myself VERY occasionally*. But what they told me...either it was naive when we were young, or marijuana has changed. and I fear the latter.
You see, like all drugs, marijuana consists of different chemicals. And - ironically - because it is illegal, there is no oversight. It is made by either lucrative gardeners (unlikely) or at best gray-ish criminals (likely). Because they don't want to get caught, they don't want to do it for charity either. And that changes to "making profits". And that means that they looked for ways to either increase the effect or the addiction ratio. And since marijuana is a plant, it can be boasted like that.
Result: the marijuana that goes around "on the street" and is being smoked is no longer that relatively harmless plant that could get you high and not much more.
So that's basically the but: it should be legal, but (IMHO) also government regulated, in rather similar ways that tobacco and alcohol are regulated (and that, certainly in Belgium, are taxed to a pretty high degree).
*when applying for an insurance, I actually told them the truth: in the last five years I had "done drugs": I had smoked exactly one joint.
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Legalize consumption, regulate it and tax it. Decriminalize the rest of the drugs, and since we're at it, legalize, regulate and tax prostituion. Treat drug addiction like a serious health condition and not a crime.
Do all this and you actually have a positive effect. My country decriminalized all drugs and treats it like an health issue, in a few years time we crushed an heroin crisis. Weed consumption maintained but has virtually no impact on society. Human trafficking broke as prostitution was decriminalized and pimping criminalized - prostitutes came out of the streets and started advertising on proper sites and do it on private property.
Do all this and you actually have a positive effect. My country decriminalized all drugs and treats it like an health issue, in a few years time we crushed an heroin crisis. Weed consumption maintained but has virtually no impact on society. Human trafficking broke as prostitution was decriminalized and pimping criminalized - prostitutes came out of the streets and started advertising on proper sites and do it on private property.
I am against smoking in Public but I don't care what people do at their homes or in Private Clubs ...
As long as I am not "forced" to inhale this stuff because everyone around me is smoking I don't mind
As long as I am not "forced" to inhale this stuff because everyone around me is smoking I don't mind
All my police friends say they would rather have alcohol illegal and marijuana legal. These are police that work in a big city. So i say yes, i support legalization.
I don't believe in drug prohibition at all. I think that whatever adults choose to put into their own bodies in the privacy of their own homes is their business, not the governments' and not anyone else's. That doesn't mean people get to run around high in public, and that they've accepted the consequences for their own actions.
As long as it is clean source and you can grow it yourself not sell and make a fortune like Scumbag Drug Dealers or Big Pharma for that matter trying to sell it to the Peeps Put that in your Pipe and Smoke it Son.
Yes because that worked out really well last time...
After Spain, Italy has recently legalized marijuana too, but only those low % hallucinogen ones are allowed and IT CAN BE BOUGHT by any adult, the goal was taking back any illegal activities about selling Marijuana which were under mafia's control and obvious it generate tax too.
the motto is suppose to be ''When you can't fight drugs, then you become dealer''.
LMFAO!
the motto is suppose to be ''When you can't fight drugs, then you become dealer''.
LMFAO!
Last edited by leon315,
The canadian prime minister got my vote solely for that. It's completely legal now , and barely anything's changed from before. No increased violence, no increase of people driving under the influence. Everything is relax, it's as if it always been legal. So yeah, totally for it.
The my body, my rules thing is a fairly persuasive argument. However ease of access, education, being able to be compelled to treatment and more on the basis of harm potential (proper big boy science and evidence based approaches too) go with that. Treatment would probably want to be overhauled as well -- I quite like Switzerland's model here where it is tied to giving people a means to get themselves out of the things that got them in (boredom and hopelessness are far bigger factors than many seem to realise, or at least societal recourse and treatment protocols seem to reflect).
As weed is not chemically addictive, you have to go out of your way to overdose on it and its typical effects on people don't turn them into raging knobheads (unlike booze) then I find few reasons for it to be treated as harshly as it is in a lot of places. If people are going to drive stoned then I am quite for stern treatment (though stripping of the ability to drive is a harder thing to justify -- "what days do you have off? good because you will be on this course for the next X months" sort of thing) even if driving stoned is not as bad in some ways (still impaired driving though). Speaking of evidence then we seem to have several US states of varying richness, population types and more to compare and contrast before and afters for at this point, as well as the Netherlands. I have only been to Washington state since things, much the same as it was before (give or take the Seattle homeless thing being insane, though that seems unrelated) and otherwise a reasonably pleasant (if bloody expensive) place to spend a bit of time and grow up/spend your life. Did not go to the Netherlands before it started (mainly as that was the 70s) but went between the "somewhat rare and hard to come by" and "walk four or five buildings in major parts of Amsterdam" points, also still seems to be a pleasant enough place to be, especially for a capital city.
As weed is not chemically addictive, you have to go out of your way to overdose on it and its typical effects on people don't turn them into raging knobheads (unlike booze) then I find few reasons for it to be treated as harshly as it is in a lot of places. If people are going to drive stoned then I am quite for stern treatment (though stripping of the ability to drive is a harder thing to justify -- "what days do you have off? good because you will be on this course for the next X months" sort of thing) even if driving stoned is not as bad in some ways (still impaired driving though). Speaking of evidence then we seem to have several US states of varying richness, population types and more to compare and contrast before and afters for at this point, as well as the Netherlands. I have only been to Washington state since things, much the same as it was before (give or take the Seattle homeless thing being insane, though that seems unrelated) and otherwise a reasonably pleasant (if bloody expensive) place to spend a bit of time and grow up/spend your life. Did not go to the Netherlands before it started (mainly as that was the 70s) but went between the "somewhat rare and hard to come by" and "walk four or five buildings in major parts of Amsterdam" points, also still seems to be a pleasant enough place to be, especially for a capital city.
no ,not in its current iteration
it's a scam, you can not tax a plant
i support decriminalization
the government has no right to tax a plant , nor do they have any right to tell me which plants i can grow on my own property and how many
do not buy the "legal" weed do not pay them taxes on it,
it's a scam, you can not tax a plant
i support decriminalization
the government has no right to tax a plant , nor do they have any right to tell me which plants i can grow on my own property and how many
do not buy the "legal" weed do not pay them taxes on it,
Last edited by weatMod,
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They aren't, they're taxing sales of the plant. You don't have to pay taxes just to grow your own.
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