Social Marijuana legalization is inevitable. How will it effect society?

[HereticBD]

I see you and his point. Yes if you go weed instead of pills than you might be making a great choice. If it works and you never start on the pills thats probably a good thing and i can sse that lowering the numbers a bit. I was kind of thinking about people that are on pills heroin and fenty already when I said I don't think weeds gonna help them and opiates is what they need/want.

Yeah, I don't think it would help current addicts. They're already hooked on the legal heroin, which will be FAR more "effective". Can't replace that with weed. It could put a stopper in there for potential addicts, though, which would ultimately bring the numbers down over a period of time.

 

[HereticBD]

My mother once told me a story about what my father relayed to her when he was in the Vietnam war.

He had said that in his little company of men, there were two groups. The drinkers and the MJ smokers.

On any given night, the MJ smokers (of which he was one) would simply relax, listen to music, and laugh. However on any given night, the drinkers always had arguments, outright fistfights, and generally rude and obnoxious behavior.

And that's ultimately the issue governments' have with keeping weed illegal. If the government says that this one drug, that can cause people to get aggressive, violent, and delusional(and all three at the same time)at it's worst, is A-OK, then what is the issue with a drug that has never killed anyone, and doesn't have an effect that can make you feel like an angry drunken God? I can't say I've heard too many stories of violent crimes being committed, being solely attributed to the person being high on weed.

I've never heard one good argument to keep weed illegal. It's always some lame "gateway drug" shit, that apparently doesn't apply to alcohol, which is far stronger in it's effects, and objectively more dangerous to the public in every single way.

 

[nhbbear]

Yeah I don’t believe that at all. I’m sure it can help some people manage it but not in mass numbers.

What we know can actually help a lot of people with addiction is psychedelic drugs like mushrooms an lsd used in a therapeutic session with a provider. It’s really kind of interesting how it works you should check it out if you haven’t seen it before

Well, I am not actually addicted to heroin, so it’s not real high on my list atm, however, I am interested in the micro dosing for depression and ptsd. I currently take a two hour session of s-ketamine or sprovato and it can fuck you up or feel like nothing. It depends, but I have found it helps a bit and is one of my tools to combat those issues. I have an appointment in two hours in fact. I chill and watch nature shows and shows with dinosaurs or space. Sometimes, it feels like I am riding the back of a T. rex and sometimes I am flying through space. It depends. One time, I had a really bad reaction and I thought I was dying and had a panic attack

 

[mozfonky]

all i can tell you is that Seattle went on a rapid decline just as soon as mj was legalized, and it wasn't MJ that was the major problem, people just went nuts and started shooting up and smoking fentanyl on the streets and on the busses. the city passed a law a couple weeks ago and started locking people up for public drug use, before that, it was everywhere.

The city and the country is going down the toilet. MJ and other drugs might help the people who want to cope with their misery get away but it won't make things much better for anyone.

 

[Renard]

I don't think it would do much of anything. If it were someday removed from the schedule drugs list altogether, that would allow scientific research on it to resume, like pain management research, which is nice.

Marijuana is a pretty meaningless drug in my opinion. There are a couple of studies on it which have shown it mildly impairs cognition and memory. Long-term users and heavy users have cognitive deficits even when they're not intoxicated. As far as I know there are no studies checking whether former users recover fully or not. There was also a Canadian study which found that heavy users temporarily lose 4 IQ points as long as they use the substance, which is pretty funny. It really does make you dumber and slower.

Regardless, people will keep taking it and sing the drug's praises because it gets them high and they like that. That's about it, it's not that deep. I suppose you could argue that it's a better drug for degenerates to get hooked to compared to the legal alternatives like alcohol or cigarettes.

 

[helltoupee]

And that's ultimately the issue governments' have with keeping weed illegal. If the government says that this one drug, that can cause people to get aggressive, violent, and delusional(and all three at the same time)at it's worst, is A-OK, then what is the issue with a drug that has never killed anyone, and doesn't have an effect that can make you feel like an angry drunken God? I can't say I've heard too many stories of violent crimes being committed, being solely attributed to the person being high on weed.

I've never heard one good argument to keep weed illegal. It's always some lame "gateway drug" shit, that apparently doesn't apply to alcohol, which is far stronger in it's effects, and objectively more dangerous to the public in every single way.

I don't know how true this is, but I had always heard that MJ was made illegal for the most part due to the paper industry. Hemp of course makes for good paper and rope, among other things, however the traditional paper industry lobbied to make MJ illegal so they wouldn't have to compete with the newly budding hemp industry. Of course it spurned off into different directions after that, but that's what I had always heard.

The funny thing is, even though MJ was legalized in CA some time ago, it's still a racket. CA voters voted for legalization precisely based on the idea that it would not turn in to the corporate alcohol industry, with a few huge companies dominating everything. So CA came out and said "we're not going to issue licenses for mega farms" (cultivation). But guess what, they left a loop hole in that big businesses were able to purchase as many small or medium sized licenses as they wanted, which effectually eliminated the little guy. Something like 80% of all the weed grown and sold in CA comes from a handful of big businesses. Not only that, the barrier to entry is made quite high on purpose. Not only do you have to pay the state of CA a licensing fee, which can be several hundred thousand dollars, but you have to pay it up front before you are even approved in the county or district you will be operating in, which have their own licenses and fees. Despite what people might think, there are only a handful of counties in CA that even allow for cultivation, or even selling it. And most of those licenses are limited as they were bought up by big companies. You have to do things like pay $15,000 just for a fire inspector at the county level, with possible renovation costs if things aren't right. This is also supposing that the landlord or property owner will even lease to you (many do not). So you have to pluck down several hundred thousand dollars for a state license, plus an attorney, and that's no guarantee that you will even find a county and/or property owner to lease some cultivation land to you. No joke you probably need $500K to $1 million before you can open the front doors for business. Then, selling it to dispensaries/etc becomes just as big a challenge. You have to use CA's software which tracks the weed from seed to store shelf and the only way you can get it in stores is through CA licensed distributors, and of course the big boys dominate those spaces.

 

[deadshot138]

More chill, less addicted to opioids, job creation.

 

[Morning Star]

I grew up and spent 90% of my life in SoCal and it always felt like it was "legal" to me. Never had that much difficulty acquiring it. I don't really see it changing much of anything. Those who want it will still do it, those who don't won't. As much as I loved smoking at one point one of the best things I ever did was quit.

 

[Sinister]

 

[sickc0d3r]

Relatively harmless drug. Fewer criminals is a good thing. Locking people up for smoking a plant was always immoral. I loves me some alcohol, but it is way worse for me.

 

[blaseblase]

My concern is it will be exploited by the corporations and not properly regulated, which we are already seeing happening.

 

[Striderxdj]

Legalization does 3 things, you find out about people from all walks of life who have smoked for years and you realize the "gateway drug" D.A.R.E. fear mongering is a load of horse s**t.

Then you start to think how f**ked the system is that there are people serving hard time for what you can now buy in candy form at a shop down the street.

Beyond that things don't really change.

 

[Bballfan123]

I don't think it will change all that much. It'll be good that people don't have their lives ruined by getting caught with some weed. And as far as kids go, weed has always been easy to get. Even when it was illegal everywhere, everyone knew kids at school to buy some off of.

I will say, potency and especially edibles need to be regulated. Those things are on another level when it comes to how fucked up they'll get ya.

Queer

 

[no fat chicks]

I believe in Freedom and personal responsibility. FUCK YOU to any government telling me I can't use cannabis.

I fucking hate cannabis and will never use it, but goddamn I should have the freedom to do it.

It is weird that 'freedom' loving red states are full of shit and want to lick you ina dungeon for some weed. Hypocrite bullshit.

Yep especially weed. The most boring ass drug known to man. No bar brawls are happening because everyone accidentally had an extra toke.

 

[StonedLemur]

It should be legal, but it will affect society in a negative way, at least overall, imo.

The proliferation of weed stores has been, without a doubt, a negative for communities. Eyesores all around. Moreover, like you said, it’s going to be difficult to keep teenagers from smoking, because of the ease of access (the research on adolescent cannabis users is pretty compelling). But you wanted to talk about implications and what we can do about it, right?

States/municipalities can already limit the amount of licenses they dole out; yet it appears that money over planning has ruled the day. I would be fine with a one store every twenty miles rule, or something (don’t attack me, potheads). Driving while high isn’t given an exception simply because of the new weed law, only I don’t know how enforceable the existing laws are (@nhbbear @Protectandserve @deadshot138). Like, you can’t blood test for weed lol, right?

Yeah, alcohol is so much better.
Liquor stores are everywhere as well but I don't hear you saying anything about them.

 

[DizzyDaze]

I don't think it would do much of anything. If it were someday removed from the schedule drugs list altogether, that would allow scientific research on it to resume, like pain management research, which is nice.

Marijuana is a pretty meaningless drug in my opinion. There are a couple of studies on it which have shown it mildly impairs cognition and memory. Long-term users and heavy users have cognitive deficits even when they're not intoxicated. As far as I know there are no studies checking whether former users recover fully or not. There was also a Canadian study which found that heavy users temporarily lose 4 IQ points as long as they use the substance, which is pretty funny. It really does make you dumber and slower.

Regardless, people will keep taking it and sing the drug's praises because it gets them high and they like that. That's about it, it's not that deep. I suppose you could argue that it's a better drug for degenerates to get hooked to compared to the legal alternatives like alcohol or cigarettes.

This was hard to read

 

[freakroor]

Decriminalization > legalization

Legalization brings all sorts of red tape and corporate fuckery. California is an example of what not to do. Cannabis should be treated more like coffee than like alcohol. Decriminalization is the only right answer.

 

[Sara]

The smell alone will drive non smokers insane.

 

[Loiosh]

Got a deal on edibles today, I'm going to be baked for weeks.

Day three of being incredibly baked.

Life is good.

 

[BreatheSherBro]

Day three of being incredibly baked.

Life is good.

Glad you are doing well. Given that full national legalization is inevitable, I want the vast majority of experiences to be positive. Enjoy the ride man.