Biden thread III: Still Robinette after all these years

There is definitely a case to be made that legalization is a bad public health choices since it increased use and bad health outcomes.

5 years of legal cannabis: fewer charges, many hospitalizations and more than a few questions | CBC News.

I donā€™t consider that a downside in that I have a libertarian streak with this kind of thing. I donā€™t see why government should be telling adults what they should and should not consume.

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Same about Tobacco?

I think I read on a per smoke basis marijuana is much worse than cigarettes (Iā€™ve never smoked either), but smokers tend to smoke more than 30x the amount that pot heads do.

Thatā€™s fine. Everything we consume is encouraged/discouraged to some extent through policy because of SOCIALISM, I think itā€™s fine to say that legalization is a net positive but I wouldnā€™t say there are no downsides at all. There are some clear downsides. Of course there are downsides to making it illegal as well.

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i donā€™t know if canada experienced the same problems, but obama era doj officials have said that legalization increased the amount of all drugs that arrived in schools. although the reasoning concluded that illegal dealers switched to adolescents who couldnā€™t go into a legal weed store.

thereā€™s likely truth to it, but the scale of the problem does not appear to negate legalization outright. thereā€™d be slower rollout if they could do it over.

I donā€™t have any reason do doubt this, I was just pointing out that the evidence shows that there were some measurable bad health outcomes from legalization here. I would suspect that the benefits of legalization outweight this cost, but I donā€™t know.

Yep. I think itā€™s disgusting and we need laws to keep it from others but itā€™s one place I deviate from progressive ethos. I donā€™t like sin taxes or laws.

I guess I should clarify I donā€™t think there have be significant downsides. Certainly nothing like the end of the word predicted by the right.

Probably too early to see how will pan out but I expect the big societal harm is going to be increased cannabis related psychosis and then the unfortunate subset of that which translates into chronic schizophrenia. Although US probably has pretty well front run this in some ways with piecemeal legalization leading to increases over time so we not going to have some massive spike in use all in one year.

we only have medical where i live, and last year i could walk to not less than 6 dispensaries from my apartment. since then about half of those 6 have shut down because of oversaturation.

Wait is reefer madness a real thing?

Weed should be treated like how tobacco is treated in countries with effective legislation.

  • restrictions on labelling and advertising
  • punitive taxation
  • health warnings on packaging, with graphic imageries
  • public health campaigns to encourage responsible use/reduction
  • publicly funded education in schools

The challenge is that after campaigning for legalisation, it feels backwards to advocate for the above.

But itā€™s perfectly reasonable and consistent to think something is bad and should be discouraged, but also people should be able to make their own choices and we shouldnā€™t be locking people up for drug use.

FWIW. Iā€™d like the above for all drugs pretty much. With some drugs maybe just being given for free in health settings (E.g. heroin)

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I knew someone well who killed a family member while under weed psychosis from being extremely high.

Maybe states should copy the alcoholic beverage control model for selling weed.

I call bullshit on that one. It is not like underage alcohol drinkers turn to illegal alcohol. They get someone older to buy the legal stuff for them. Same has been true for weed in the Netherlands for decades.

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I have a young relative that had a break in his early 20s. Pot was thought it play a role. Apparently todays varieties are not your fathers.

I have medical sales and recreational use legal with recreational sales expected soon and the number of dispensaries already open is absurd. Itā€™s a running joke in my townā€™s reddit that all new construction is either a gas station or vape shop, but itā€™s often true. Iā€™m looking forward to the consolidation. I think weed should be legal but the shops on every corner is a legitimate annoyance.

Arenā€™t there local zoning laws that could fix this issue rather easily? If those laws were in place and used, that is?

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I genuinely donā€™t understand why itā€™s an issue? How does the type of store matter to you? Are you assuming something you like better would be there if it wasnā€™t a pot shop?