Legal Weed?

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L'Emmerdeur
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Re: Legal Weed?

Post by L'Emmerdeur » Fri Sep 22, 2017 6:16 pm

A new study apparently cuts the 'Won't Somebody Please Think of The Children?' argument against legalization off at the knees.

'Legal weed doesn’t hurt youth outcomes; Jeff Sessions doesn’t care'
Soon after his election, Donald Trump announced he would appoint Jeff Sessions as attorney general, sending a wave of panic through the world of activism around legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana. Sessions is an old-line drug warrior who opposes all state-level efforts to liberalize marijuana laws, and it was widely feared he would reverse Obama-era Department of Justice policies recommending that federal authorities not interfere with states that legalize marijuana.

In July, Sessions made his first tentative move toward cracking down on states that legalize pot, sending a letter to Washington state officials in which he expressed skepticism about marijuana legalization, repeatedly singling out the fear that such laws would lead to more pot smoking among minors.

If Sessions is legitimately concerned about high school kids and that's not just a front for promoting laws that are disproportionately enforced on black people, then he probably shouldn't worry so much. A new study published in the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that the effects of liberalizing marijuana laws on the behavioral outcomes of minors are . . . well, nothing. At least nothing of significance.

“Zeroes are always hard to sell," said study author Angela K. Dills, an economics professor at Western Carolina University.

...

"Notably, many of the outcomes predicted by critics of liberalizations, such as increases in youth drug use and youth criminal behavior, have failed to materialize in the wake of marijuana liberalizations," the report reads.

In fact, the researchers found the opposite: Marijuana liberalization was associated with "reduced marijuana, alcohol, and other drug use; reduced desirability of consuming these substances; and reduced access to these substances on school property."

In fairness, it's not clear that those correlations are anything beyond coincidence. As Dills told Salon, there's been a trend of young people exhibiting less interest in risky behavior than their forebears. Kids these days smoke less, drink less, use fewer drugs and have less risky sex than their elders did. For all we know, Dills added, they may be better at managing boredom than previous generations, since they have computers and phones and video games to distract them.

Dills emphasized that the study doesn't really show any positive effects on youth behavior from marijuana legalization either. Mostly she hoped these findings would "be reassuring to people who are really worried about possible effects of these laws on young people."

Marijuana legalization or decriminalization apparently doesn't do much to change young people's behavior. Getting arrested for possessing or selling marijuana, however, can have a massive impact on a person's life.

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Re: Legal Weed?

Post by Brian Peacock » Sat Sep 23, 2017 12:57 am

But the conservative drive against cannabis and other stimulants and intoxicants isn't based in evidence or reason L'Emmy - it's rooted in a deep and righteous sense of moral OUTRAGE!!! One of the worse thing a conservative can imagine is not just other not being a miserable as them, but other people having more fun than them - and fun they're not entitled to t'boot!
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Re: Legal Weed?

Post by L'Emmerdeur » Sat Sep 23, 2017 2:18 am

Brian Peacock wrote:But the conservative drive against cannabis and other stimulants and intoxicants isn't based in evidence or reason L'Emmy - it's rooted in a deep and righteous sense of moral OUTRAGE!!!
I'd agree that evidence and reason generally don't have a lot to do with opposition to legalization, but it can have other motivations than moral outrage. For instance I think that Attorney General Sessions sees continued cannabis prohibition as a nice fat club he can use to beat on the heads of those he finds objectionable, primarily dope smokin' lefties and the dreaded swarthy folks. He seems to have a visceral reaction to cannabis which I think comes from a long-standing association in his mind between it and those same bêtes noires.

Sessions is also old enough to be a true believer in the reefer madness school of anti-weed propaganda as is, apparently, Peter Hitchens, who in the video describes cannabis as "one of the most dangerous products known to man". The science remains unsettled, but despite claims that cannabis can induce schizophrenia (and studies that appear to support that claim), there is one rather telling statistic:
@@vote ore people smoke cannabis today than ever in history. If the connection between weed and schizophrenia is solid, then the number of people with schizophrenia should also be going up. But it hasn't. The fraction of people who have the disorder still hovers at around 1 percent.@@

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Re: Legal Weed?

Post by Sean Hayden » Sat Sep 23, 2017 2:41 am

Marijuana is an outstanding drug. It's not for everyone, and it's not always a fun drug. But in my case, why should it be? Sometimes I might benefit from a bit of an introspective ass kicking. :tea:

I can't recommend such an experience for Sessions though, poor bastard.

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Re: Legal Weed?

Post by Brian Peacock » Sat Sep 23, 2017 2:49 am

"U.S. Vets with PTSD Smoke Weed"



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Re: Legal Weed?

Post by JimC » Sat Sep 23, 2017 5:12 am

I certainly enjoyed my past experiences of getting high, but they had to end, after I started getting a condition akin to petite mal every time I smoked dope...
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Re: Legal Weed?

Post by DRSB » Thu Dec 13, 2018 12:39 pm

Since I have been posting Fiodor Chistyakov's stuff, one more brilliant video, "Walking, smoking".

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Re: Legal Weed?

Post by Cunt » Mon Nov 27, 2023 7:37 pm

Weed has been legal here a few years now. I was wrong that Trudeau couldn't do it. Lots of stores, lots of tax, lots of money in it.

The home-grown is still usually better, but I doubt it'll make a dent in the commercial production/consumption.
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Re: Legal Weed?

Post by JimC » Mon Nov 27, 2023 10:05 pm

Is it legal to grow your own, or do you have to buy the commercial stuff?
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Re: Legal Weed?

Post by Svartalf » Mon Nov 27, 2023 10:17 pm

I'd guess that it's legal to grow one's own wherever consumption has been legalized.
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Re: Legal Weed?

Post by Cunt » Mon Nov 27, 2023 10:19 pm

'legal' is a bit subtle, but I can grow up to 4 plants at home, and carry up to an ounce on me in public.

Each plant can produce 0-280+g of dried flowers...
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Joe wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2023 1:22 pm
he doesn't communicate

The 'Walsh Question' 'What Is A Woman?' I'll put an answer here when someone posts one that is clear and comprehensible, by apostates to the Faith.

Update: I've been offered one!
rainbow wrote:
Mon Nov 06, 2023 9:23 pm
It is actually quite easy. A woman has at least one X chromosome.
Strong ideas don't require censorship to survive. Weak ideas cannot survive without it.

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Re: Legal Weed?

Post by JimC » Tue Nov 28, 2023 12:19 am

Not that I smoke weed anymore, but I wish Oz had moved in the same direction...
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Re: Legal Weed?

Post by Cunt » Tue Nov 28, 2023 2:28 am

I'm still undecided, but leaning toward it being better off not lawful.

Maybe I'm just nostalgic for a bygone era :)
Shit, Piss, Cock, Cunt, Motherfucker, Cocksucker and Tits.
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Joe wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2023 1:22 pm
he doesn't communicate

The 'Walsh Question' 'What Is A Woman?' I'll put an answer here when someone posts one that is clear and comprehensible, by apostates to the Faith.

Update: I've been offered one!
rainbow wrote:
Mon Nov 06, 2023 9:23 pm
It is actually quite easy. A woman has at least one X chromosome.
Strong ideas don't require censorship to survive. Weak ideas cannot survive without it.

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