Legalized Marijuana

[TinCow]

Ok, it's finally happened. Washington and Colorado have both legalized the possession, production, and sale of marijuana for recreational use. The drug remains illegal on a Federal level. Will the Fed actually try and enforce that law without the cooperation of state authorities? With no border controls at all between states, how can the Fed possibly hope to contain legal marijuana production in two states from spilling over into the rest of the country, particularly the west? Is this the beginning of the end of the Federal ban?

[Kadagar_AV]

This is a good day for successful people who wants to chill back once in a while.

For people not having much human interaction it's a rather black day IMHO.



I have seen my brother go down because of marijuana (and WoW). I have also seen plenty of people who appreciate the drug as a recreational thing without any ill effects.

Social isolation is the problem, not the drugs.

[Lemur]

This is a bad day for the Mexican Cartels, who are estimated to lose up to $1.2 billion in revenues if even a single state legalizes mary jane. Weep for the hardworking cartel, my friends.

[Fragony]

This is a bad day for the Mexican Cartels, who are estimated to lose up to $1.2 billion in revenues if even a single state legalizes mary jane. Weep for the hardworking cartel, my friends.

That is what worries me, been arguing that since forever. They won't like it and they are beyond cruel. What do people expect.

[Ironside]

That is what worries me, been arguing that since forever. They won't like it and they are beyond cruel. What do people expect.

Do they have enough influence in those state to something serious about it without losing most of their firepower though?

[Fragony]

Do they have enough influence in those state to something serious about it without losing most of their firepower though?

What do you do about it, I think it's a mistake but we will see. Drugs is currency nothing more, and destroying it might just be not the brightest idea ever. Or just might be really stupid because it will not just be accepted and you won't have the means to do anything about the violence that's comming towards you.

[Vladimir]

I imagine federal fines will be a new source of revenue.

Do we really need drunk AND high people driving about?

[rory_20_uk]

Do we really need drunk AND high people driving about?

Strawman, but I'm sure we'll hear a lot more theoretical problems emerging.

Assuming these states don't implode with Domino's vans whizzing street to street with and almost universal unemployment it will provide a good case study for the rest of us.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I imagine federal fines will be a new source of revenue.

Do we really need drunk AND high people driving about?

Yeah, and I've met quite a few people who think marijuana doesn't impair driving.

I'm hopeful about the cartel's losing money, but we'll have to see how it turns out.

[Lemur]

I'm hopeful about the cartel's losing money, but we'll have to see how it turns out.

I got my numbers off; in fact I was lowballing the predicted impact on the cartels. Details:

What would happen if Colorado, Oregon or Washington were to vote for such a “market alternative” on Tuesday? None of those states is a very big drug market in itself. But if it were legal to grow pot in, say, Washington, it’s not hard to imagine that a certain amount of it would illegally leak out into neighbouring states. Would Mexico’s bandits find themselves undercut by “El Cártel de Seattle”?

IMCO reckons they could be. [...] Mexico’s traffickers would lose about $1.4 billion of their $2 billion revenues from marijuana. The effect on some groups would be severe: the Sinaloa “cartel” would lose up to half its total income, IMCO reckons. Exports of other drugs, from cocaine to methamphetamine, would become less competitive, as the traffickers’ fixed costs (from torturing rivals to bribing American and Mexican border officials) would remain unchanged, even as marijuana revenues fell.

Legalisation could, in short, deal a blow to Mexico’s traffickers of a magnitude that no current policy has got close to achieving. The stoned and sober alike should bear that in mind when they cast their votes on Tuesday.

[drone]

Of note for the WA law is that you still can't legally grow your own; you have to buy it from a state store.

So if the feds do crack down, they will be raiding state property? That ought to lead to some amusing incidents. Does the law specify where the state gets the product from?

The sports radio guys this morning were talking about the new-found advantage the Denver Nuggets now have on signing free agents.

[Xiahou]

So if the feds do crack down, they will be raiding state property? That ought to lead to some amusing incidents. Does the law specify where the state gets the product from?

The sports radio guys this morning were talking about the new-found advantage the Denver Nuggets now have on signing free agents.

Or they'd just take it to the federal courts and the law gets overturned by the commerce clause.

[Idaho]

I imagine federal fines will be a new source of revenue.

Do we really need drunk AND high people driving about?

<facepalm>

The whole point is that people smoke weed regardless of the law. Responsible people will not drive when impaired and reckless people will continue to do so. Legalisation won't make much long term difference to usage, just a difference to law enforcement costs and the destructive effects a criminal penalty can have on people's lives.

[Major Robert Dump]

I come from a long line of professional bakers

Based on how the fed responds to this, opening a WEED BAKERY may be the only thing to stop me from moving to the Philippines

[Fragony]

Heh, me and a friend made one we put half an ounce in it, my mom wasn't very pleased the whole house smelled for days

[HopAlongBunny]

A bakery is an excellent idea and the health benefits of ingestion vis. inhaling might make it very popular :)

The problems would be bending the interpretation of personal use and keeping enough pot on hand to do your morning "run" w/o breaking the allowable.

[Kralizec]

Heh, me and a friend made one we put half an ounce in it, my mom wasn't very pleased the whole house smelled for days

I once tried to make pancakes this way, but it didn't turn out as as expected. Something about using oil instead of butter as I heard later.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Of note for the WA law is that you still can't legally grow your own; you have to buy it from a state store.

CR

[Beskar]

I wonder if Government run vending machines would 'buy' confiscated weed from other states to sell in the said machines.

[Xiahou]

A few musings....

I don't like marijuana. I don't like getting high. Tried it a few times back in college and I decided I'd rather keep my wits about me.

Having said that, I'm fine with legalization with one caveat- I don't want to be breathing the stuff. If you want to live in a cloud of it, that's your business- but what about people who don't want to? What if you live in a duplex and your neighbors are (now legal) hardcore stoners. What's my recourse to their smoke infiltrating my living space? Do the laws that were just passed address any of this?

[Idaho]

There are a wealth (pun intended) of industries related to and dependent on prohibition. These people will fight tooth and claw to maintain the status quo. Keep an eye out for stories from the prison rehabilitation industry. A lot of people with a lot to lose.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

There are a wealth (pun intended) of industries related to and dependent on prohibition. These people will fight tooth and claw to maintain the status quo. Keep an eye out for stories from the prison rehabilitation industry. A lot of people with a lot to lose.

Quite possibly true. If we were to return all of the non-violent drug offenders to the population, we might actually have enough prison space.

[Major Robert Dump]

As soon as I get out of the Army, I am going to try my hardest to overdose on marijuana.

for research.

[Idaho]

As soon as I get out of the Army, I am going to try my hardest to overdose on marijuana.

for research.

Maybe you can be the first person ever! You'd be famous for sure.

[Tellos Athenaios]

it contains almost none of the same carcinogens as cigarette smoke.

And there was me thinking that the main source of those carcinogens would be, in fact, the tar like substance itself which is what makes the smoke a smoke and not a gas in the first place?

[Idaho]

Cannabis smoke does contain carcinogens, but most research seems to suggest that it isn't a significant factor in lung cancer. There is also some suggestion from studies that CBD (one of the main cannabinoids) has cancer preventing/restricting properties.

[spankythehippo]

Cannabis smoke does contain carcinogens, but most research seems to suggest that it isn't a significant factor in lung cancer. There is also some suggestion from studies that CBD (one of the main cannabinoids) has cancer preventing/restricting properties.

To overdose on marijuana, you would need to smoke 20 pounds of it.

I wish they would hurry up and legalise it in Australia. I'm getting tired of smoking in alleys when I'm outside.

[rory_20_uk]

When I was foing my Pharm and Tox BSc, one article I read was clearly anti-drugs, and with cannabis managed to find danger if the crushed plant material was administered... intranvenously!

The fact that this holds true for almost all plant materials (and indeed many of the problems drugs cause is the impurities rather than the drugs themselves.

[Idaho]

When I was foing my Pharm and Tox BSc, one article I read was clearly anti-drugs, and with cannabis managed to find danger if the crushed plant material was administered... intranvenously!

The fact that this holds true for almost all plant materials (and indeed many of the problems drugs cause is the impurities rather than the drugs themselves.

Damn. You mean mainlining vegetable matter is bad for you? I'll have no hobbies left at this rate.

[rvg]

RVG you're position is needlessly contrarian. It's easier, safer and more politically and morally sound just to legalize it.

If the majority believes that, then I won't be able to stop them. I do not believe however that we as a society are somehow morally obligated to make that happen. Thus I will fight it for as long as it is feasible.

There you go restricting supply and bumping up the illegal pay day. The gangsters couldn't agree more.

It's hard to make money from fines. Legal costs, court fees and associated infrastructure is massively expensive. If you want to make money off drug users, that's about the daftest way to do it.

Fines are strictly a punitive measure. Their financial benefit is not important.

As for alcohol being different, you are right. It will always be vastly more popular and vastly more harmful.

True, but it's part of who we are as a society. Marijuana is not.