Taking the Fun Out of Pot

[Drachir]

I can't say I agree with everything in this article. There are just too many leaps of faith, but it is interesting to look at. Taking the fun out of pot

[sloweye]

Interesting artical, yeah, i'd go with that.

[Urlik]

I don't think there are that many leaps of faith

historically, prohibition has only allowed organised crime to flourish and added a glamour to whatever is labelled as taboo.

legalising "soft" drugs like cannabis will take the profits away from the criminals and allow the government to tax it for extra revenue.
this will free up prison spaces and also take pressure off the police and the courts and allow them to go after the real criminals.

[Drachir]

Originally Posted by Urlik

I don't think there are that many leaps of faith

historically, prohibition has only allowed organised crime to flourish and added a glamour to whatever is labelled as taboo.

legalising "soft" drugs like cannabis will take the profits away from the criminals and allow the government to tax it for extra revenue.
this will free up prison spaces and also take pressure off the police and the courts and allow them to go after the real criminals.

That seems to be the theory, but it is always worth noting that the most serious problem drugs in most societies are those that are legal or quasi-legal. For example cocaine producing countries like Colombia and Peru, where the drug laws are only partially enforced, have very serious drug addicition problems. Similarly, heroin use in Afghanistan has increased greatly among its population due to easy access to the drug. In my country, and I suspect yours, the most serious problem drugs are all legal; namely alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, and non-prescription drugs. In short, those drugs that are most easily available and considered socially acceptable cause the most problems. I suspect very strongly that legalizing cannabis would lead to even more widespread abuse of the drug than already exists, simply because more people would be tempted to give the drug a try.

[BookStop]

Latest News - UCSC Sociologist Says Making Pot Legal Does Not Boost Use

Well, statistics differ depending on what paper you read. I figured there wouldn't be a discernable difference and easily found a paper with statistics to back it up.

Opinion - If pot were globally legalized, then, yes, at first more people would try it. Direct MJ crime should disappear. Driving under the influence crimes would go up. Health could suffer as perhaps more folks would put pot smoke into thier lungs that wouldn't otherwise smoke at all(and they could take up that bad habit as well). In the end, over time, I think things would level out and the government would be left with good revenue, businesses selling pot would make a new strong economic sector, and the thrill of pot smoking would all but disappear.

[Peter Graham]

This debate has rumbled on for as long as I can remember, but in my view, the reality of the situation is that pot smoking is uncool. Deeply uncool. There's nothing difficult or impressive about it, after all.That doesn't mean it isn't fun, or at least mildly diverting, but by and large the British recreational weed smoker, whether they be feral little scroats of the sort who upset the Daily Mail, students who think they are inventing rebellion or gnarled old hippy burn-outs who are old enough to know better, fall into two unremittingly tedious categories.

The first category consists of the numpties who think that getting caned/stoned/bladdered or whatever is, like, really cool and great, whether it's drink, weed, pills or whatever else. "Like, I was totally cabbaged, yeah? It was, like, really mint." These people just reinforce everything that is depressingly puerile about the British attitude to intoxication. They are not cool, although they generally believe themselves to be.

The second category consists of those who think that smoking weed is somehow a political statement or a religious experience. They are not cool either. If anything, these people are even more dull than the wreckheads, who at least go about life with a modestly positive, albeit vomit-stained and bug-eyed, joie de vivre.

If alcohol and tobacco were dicovered now, they would be banned. But they cannot be banned because they are totally entrenched in society (although ciggies are on their way out, I suspect). But that doesn't make it hypocritical to ban the rest of it.

If it is true that people smoke weed because they like breaking the law and breaking the law is cool, isn't that actually the best argument for keeping weed illegal? Because if we don't, they'll all end up injecting smack or smoking crack instead. Unless we're going to legalise all that poison too.

I suspect that the reality is that it is not breaking the law that is cool, but rather that certain laws are considered to be rather stupid and petty and therefore it is OK to break them. In Britain, you might lump weed smoking in with breaking the speed limit, forgetting to renew your tax disc, not having a TV licence, small-scale defrauding of Her Majesties Revenue and Customs and disobeying licensing laws. The same might be true of other countries, but speaking as a man who has recent first hand experience of how slowly Canadians drive on straight, empty roads, I'm not sure. But that said, Canadian rozzers are so utterly joyless that perhaps it is best not to have any dealings with them for fear of some Dementor-esque sapping of your life force.

So I suspect that legalisation wouldn't really change a thing, at least not over here.

Right. I'm off for a pint. Just the one, mind.

Regards,

Peter

[Ursa major]

* Wonders whether the closure of libraries in the UK - and the conversion of the rest into PC-dominated learning centres - is part of a strategy to increase the reading of books by banning the activity and thereby making it "cool". *

[Allegra]

Forbidden fruit psychology...

What would be Ankh-Morpork like without thieves guild and assassins guild? Unthinkable!

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Urlik

I don't think there are that many leaps of faith

historically, prohibition has only allowed organised crime to flourish and added a glamour to whatever is labelled as taboo.

legalising "soft" drugs like cannabis will take the profits away from the criminals and allow the government to tax it for extra revenue.
this will free up prison spaces and also take pressure off the police and the courts and allow them to go after the real criminals.

But if we decriminalize pot won't those who are deeply involved in the trade just turn to other illegal means to make the same kind of money? Does it follow that if honest people are allowed to sell the stuff, all of the people who are selling it already will suddenly turn honest?

Personally, I'd rather keep as many criminals as possible busy selling pot if it keeps them from doing worse things.

(Mind you, I voted to legalize marijuana for medical use. But that's another story.)

[Urlik]

Originally Posted by Teresa Edgerton

But if we decriminalize pot won't those who are deeply involved in the trade just turn to other illegal means to make the same kind of money? Does it follow that if honest people are allowed to sell the stuff, all of the people who are selling it already will suddenly turn honest?

Personally, I'd rather keep as many criminals as possible busy selling pot if it keeps them from doing worse things.

(Mind you, I voted to legalize marijuana for medical use. But that's another story.)

the trouble is that, as with organised crime in the US blossoming during prohibition, the damage has been done.
the gangs have made their money and now have capital to invest in other ventures.

legalising cannabis would just be an inconvenience to them (and possibly a slight financial strain on those who have just spent out on the expensive illegal cannabis when it suddenly becomes legal and cheap)

[Ursa major]

If a non-pharmaceutical drug were to be legalised, it would in all probability be taxed, and probably quite heavily (in the way alcohol and tobacco are). These latter are legal, but it doesn't stop them from being smuggled (to avoid the tax).

So there'd still be criminals involved in the trade, but we'd more than likely have an increase in addicts (made up of those who naturally avoid doing (or using) things that are illegal**).




** - These people do exist; otherwise why have laws at all.

[Wybren]

Interesting Article.

I think the best way to deter kids from smoking pot is to introduce them to some of the wasters in Nimbin and say - you smoke pot this is what you end up as- let them spend time with a smelly brain dead Nimbinite for a while and it will turn them right off

I don't think that legalising it would make usage more wide spread however. As a teenager I can safely say that 95% of the people I knew had tried pot, some of them were pretty constant users, others only at parties or on the odd occasion. Now, 15 years on I can only think of a handful of the same people who still use it. Humans, by nature, are always going to want to experiment with mind altering substances of some sort or another, regardless of if they are legal or illegal. The fact that something is illegal just makes it harder to obtain. Here at least, all legalising pot would do would be to take the revenue away from the dealers and put it in the governments hands, it would also allow the police to focus on more serious crimes and unclog the court systems.

[Wiglaf]

Here in California it has little stigma and use is criminally between a parking ticket and a speeding ticket. If legalization included eliminating it from drug testing for jobs (outside of if a test was created to determine if you were currently under the influence), its usage would soon become simular to that of alcohol. If they launched a campaign against it like the jihad against cigarettes it might be different.

[pyan]

Originally Posted by Wy

Here at least, all legalising pot would do would be to take the revenue away from the dealers and put it in the governments hands,

Exactly, Wy - and it would take away the contact with the criminal element that often leads to escalation.

I'm just amazed that our government hasn't already legalised and taxed pot - not like them to let an opportunity go by to screw a bit more cash out of us than they already do...

[Wybren]

Originally Posted by pyan

Exactly, Wy - and it would take away the contact with the criminal element that often leads to escalation.

Spot on Py.
The little place I spent my teenage years, when I was there the dealers of pot, were mostly enterprising youth with a green thumb, then after we moved away the town got bigger - as often happens- and one of the biker gangs moved into town and took over all the dealing so what happened then was that those that wanted to by the stuff did have to go to those who also dealt in the harder things. If they legalised it here, and people could just buy if from a chemist they wouldn't need to have contact with this element and perhaps not get introduced to other substances. (sure statistically some still will but take away the contacts and it makes it a bit more difficult)