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?

  • HotCoffee@lemm.ee
    141·
    3 days ago

    Here in the Netherlands we have the “Gedoogbeleid”, which translates to Tolerance policy. It’s somewhere in between Decriminalized and legal. U are allowed to purchase and have up to 5 grams with you. And using it is okay in your own home and in places that don’t disturb the public. But it’s still partly illegal, as in no indoor growing and carrying more than 5g… It’s a weird setup.

    It’s also a weird construction because technically the coffeeshops themselves are not allowed to buy the bulk amounts of weed to sell in their shops. So everything has to come in sneakily through the backdoor…

    Lately legalization has been getting a good push, and now shops are buying their flowers from legit, government approved “Wiet boeren” weed farmers.

    True Legalization Pros:

    • Good alcohol alternative. It’s one of the better substances to abuse.
    • Better byproducts of flower. So more room for edibles, hash, concetrates and all the good stuff.
    • Quality control, now you have some traceability where your flower is coming from. They put de Wiet Boeren on the bags with a qr code to see your flowers origin.

    Cons:

    • The wallet doesn’t like the flowers.
    • Weed is very habbit forming. Addiction might be too strong a word for weed. But oh boy is it habbit forming. Ppl who deny this, are in denial.

    As for how it affects the overall drug trade. Our number 1 export in the Netherlands is XTC. But that’s a whole different beast. As for weed drug trade, it does decrease it. In smaller townds without shops u will always have you local dealers. But weed really isn’t drug to be afraid of as in violence and crime surrounding it.

    • adrian@50501.chatEnglish
      83·
      2 days ago

      Weed is very habbit forming. Addiction might be too strong a word for weed. But oh boy is it habbit forming. Ppl who deny this, are in denial.

      They’re also in denial about it making you dumber if you smoke frequently. When I still smoked, it became obvious to me that my thoughts were slower and I’d have trouble finding the right words when I started smoking nearly every night. Took a T break and cut back to weekends only and the problem went away.

      • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        Took a T break and cut back to weekends only and the problem went away.

        So it didn’t make you dumber. You just didn’t understand that the effects of frequent weed usage takes longer to wear off than alcohol.

        • meep_launcher@lemm.ee
          1·
          2 days ago

          It does make you dumber, and so does alcohol. As we all know, the only drug that makes you smarter is huffing glue pantsless on a unicycle.

          Saw a dude like that in Portland once. He had it all figured out.