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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?
There are no negatives.
I don't know much about the effects of legalization on society as a whole, but I personally feel I have benefitted from weed being legal. I find weed to be useful in helping me sleep and manage stress. That said, people should also be educated about the potential dangers of weed. Using it too often can lead to neglecting one's responsibilities, and people underestimate the danger of driving while stoned. I also find, since I've gotten proper therapy, I don't need weed as much as I used to.
On principle, I think drugs should not be treated as a criminal issue. At most, drug addicts should be made to get treatment. Governments should focus on education and treatment instead of harsh punishment. People who are on drugs should feel safe admitting to what drugs they're on in the event of an emergency.
Decriminalisation is the way IMO.
I don't want lots of people taking up smoking even. But being punished for smoking weed? Ridiculous.
I think that the pros are obvious. It should simply be legal, and other comments have given good reasons.
However, there are some cons that I haven't seen mentioned yet.
It impairs you, so any activity where that is a problem, like driving, may need extra attention or public education.
For smokers, inhaling smoke is dangerous.
weed smokers are not cool anymore, like wow bro you're going to go home and follow the law. Lame
There are no cons
Eh, I don’t know anyone who managed to get themselves to Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome without legalization. Easier access to high quality highly concentrated doses has been increasing prevalence.
I can't think of a single negative consequence of legalizing marijuana here, while the positives are numerous such as earning the state more money and people having alternatives for pain management that isn't a highly addictive opioid.
Never smoked anything in my life, having one side of the family wiped out prematurely by nicotine, all of them.
Lived in Colorado. The pros outweigh the cons a million to one. The biggest positive was the massive reduction in DUIs, since people drink in bars but smoke weed at home. There may be a reduction in harder drugs, too, given how much easier and cheaper it is to get weed. The tax revenue from weed sales is huge (was bigger, though) and because the laws were changed after Colorado turned liberal-ish, the money was mostly allocated to great causes.
Government loves having a law that can be selectively enforced and is broken by a lot of people. Taking it away is a huge plus, especially in times where the government is looking for easy ways to control the population. Even before now, White people caught in possession or smoking marijuana rarely got more than probation, while some Black people were three-striked for the same.
The only downside is that it still smells bad, and I am still not sure that hacking up your lungs is all that sane or safe.
Yes, it appears that young humans can have very negative reactions to weed, and that it can affect their brains negatively. That would absolutely be a problem if legalization increased week use among teenagers, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Never smoked anything in my life, having one side of the family wiped out prematurely by nicotine, all of them.
Well one good thing is that you don't need to smoke anything.
Pros if properly managed, takes away profits for criminals and helps prevent grow ops causing a lot of problems in communities.
Con Managed poorly fucks over consumers and propogates the criminals by creating a bigger market for them
Pro new tax revenue to pay for services
I have a hard time imagining making an argument where alcohol and cigarettes are legal and weed is not. In terms of harm it does to people acutely and over time. I understand the position of "nothing like that should be legal" and "everything should be legal" even though I disagree. But I think if you choose one, weed might be the least problematic?
No, it's not easy to test for driving. But alcohol is and TONS of drunk driving incidents happen still. I think that's more a function of not having non-driving options to socialize over alcohol.
Pros: I don't have to sneak around like a criminal just to get a plant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)
It's not completely safe. Regulation makes sense. Especially for protecting developing brains from long-term negative damage.
If you look at it as an illegal drug, it's obvious that it doesn't work to criminalize. It seems much more appropriate and effective to legalize, regulate, and have information and support programmes in place.
In Germany, it was legalized, but only in a very limited form, to get it through the coalition government. I think the current form is too bureaucratic, too restrictive. The most important thing is that it legalized holding personal consumption belongings.
Cons: capitalism is already ruining it with monoculture strains and subsequent crop loss from one little thing wiping out everything. Industry trade groups are forming to be the next generation of lobbyists. For now, they're on our side by focusing on legalization, but they won't be on our side forever.
That's a bad reason to make (or keep) something illegal. Having legal weed does nothing to stop enthusiasts breeding their own strains or propagating 'heirloom' varieties - because they were already doing that illegally since forever before it was legalized.
Put another way, swap weed for alcohol. Should alcohol be banned because Anheuser-Beusch ans InBev exist and lobbies the government for favourable legislation? No... Fighting against the crap legislation is a better idea, and who would be better positioned to do that than an industry growers union or an independent growers union or similar.
Making something legal or illegal doesn't magically make it immune to capitalism, it just goes back to a black market where you have no protections as a buyer nor as a seller.
My state has 10 million people and made over $300 million in tax last year distributed around $100 million each divided between roads, schools, and local municipalities/community organizations.
