Pros/cons to legalize marijuana in a country
Pros/cons to legalize marijuana in a country
Question for those of you living in a country where marijuana is legal. What are the positive sides, what are the negatives?
If you could go back in time, would you vote for legalising again? Does it affect the country's illegal drug business , more/less?
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Pro:
- people aren't criminalised for kinda nothing.
- you detach it from other drugs (the regular dealer will also have other stuff for sale - not an issue if you buy officially or grow yourself).
Con:
- despite what people claim, there are people that get highly addicted to cannabis. Probably similar to alcohol, you'd say? Well, in my unpopular opinion, alcohol also shouldn't be available the way it currently is (make it insanely expensive please).
- most people consume it with tobacco, so there's that to deal with.
Agree with the pros, not really with the cons to the extreme that you describe.
Kurz gesagt did a pretty good episode, balancing the pros & cons
Oh hey look the propaganda machine I used to watch.
I've seen people so addicted to it that they stopped going to work and completely ignored their family. I don't have numbers to put it into perspective, but the sheer level of addiction was beyond what I thought was realistic.
Hey, I noticed it in another comment of yours so I thought I'd say something-
"Stopped to go to work" in English implies that they stopped smoking weed so that they could go to work. You're looking for "stopped going to work"
Appreciated!
People can get addicted to anything.
If the addiction isn't a chemical dependence, and isn't inherently extremely harmful, then I think it should be accessible and addiction support should be available.Cannabis is legal here, and the level of addiction you're describing is both very uncommon, and typically just exacerbating issues caused by other drugs or mental illness.
The important factor isn't whether someone can be addicted (otherwise you're banning nearly everything), it's the harm that addiction causes. As a general rule of thumb physical dependencies like alcohol are more harmful than habitual addictions, but that obviously isn't the whole story.
Caffeine addiction is the same category as alcohol and tobacco but causes so little harm that I don't think anyone is seriously opposed it. On the other end of that scale is something like meth or other hard drugs, generally understood as destructive and has few serious supporters encouraging use. Breaking these addictions is almost always hard and physically taxing, in some cases can even be lethal.
Marijuana addiction is in the same category as most things that make you feel good or form habits so it's harder to nail down a proper scale, but the lower end is probably something like video games; a debilitating addiction is possible but uncommon and most people would oppose a blanket ban on the basis of "can be addictive". Gambling is on the other end can definitely ruin lives. I'd say that's a little worse than coffee. Breaking these addictions is more like breaking a bad habit, it can feel hard for the addict but generally isn't going to kill them.
True to an extent, but looking at it from an individual's perspective, it can be devastating. I've seen people stop to function as human beings because of this.
What I am genuinely concerned about is the scale. So far, we don't have too much insights into the long term effects of this, both on individual and on society level. Cannabis addiction can cause long term psychological issues, and it will be years before we will truly understand what this means for us.
Alcohol just isn't hard to make. It's also really easy to sneak into places. You could never make it insanely expensive. It would just all go black market.
As if Finland and Norway wouldn't exist. 😉
We already tried making it illegal. Plus we don't have the health infrastructure for it. We have a shotload of people self-medicating a variety of disorders with alcohol. And lots of people brewing beer just for fun. I don't know what they do in Finland and Norway but it wouldn't work here.
Not saying the model works in every country, but we see more and more moving against tobacco and alcohol in the EU, which is a good development.
I guess you're from the US? I think we can agree alcohol isn't the biggest drug issue you have.
Making it expensive only bankrupts addicts and makes more things privileges for the rich.
Worked in Norway and Finland.
Places with much stronger social safety nets and much more accessible healthcare.
Compared to...?
Looking across Europe, I think they're comparable. No reason to not go for a similar model here.
Poonited States
Nah, won't work in Murica.
In my experience, most people definitely don't consume tobacco with marijuana. Some people smoke on the side, but mixing is quite uncommon in western Canada.
That being said, I am definitely highly addicted. I think anyone with chronic pain, trauma, or mental health disorders or probably at a higher risk. Not to mention the risk of psychosis for a very small portion of people.