The only thing hallucinating in my place is neural language models that I do research on.
However, I do support the legalization of cannabis, as scientific evidence suggests that can reduce crime and reduce attractiveness of it as a kind of "forbidden fruit", and I think it'd be wrong to criminalize those people who were too curious for their own good. There also seem well-attested cases for medical use.
That's like deciding to never try beer after seeing some people getting blackout drunk. Of course, it's your choice and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that but still a weird argument to make. A lot of things when taken to the extreme can lead to very negative outcomes, not exactly a good reason to penalize (I know you're not suggesting that) or judge the people capable of moderation.
It's naive, not weird, which is to be expected by someone who never smoked.
I think, the observation isn't even far off in many situations, especially with youth (who smoke and drink for peer pressure, too). Because of illegalization, there was a substantial incentive to breed extremely potent cannabis genetics, grown in tightly controlled and optimized indoor operations. Or even worse: Weed cut with synthetic cannabinoids. Because you get more bang for your bug, and in particular more bang for trafficked mass (same reason fentanyl is everywhere). There is nothing chill about your typical street dope. For a first time user, chances are they will have a bad time. Too many people do one or two puffs and find themselves already way too "high". As of now, smoking is really only enjoyable, if you have some tolerance, in my opinion.
This will change now. We will see a huge variety of weed strains in people's hands. Not only because, obviously, people will exchange home grown produce (although still illegal), but also because medical cannabis access got a lot easier too now. Meaning you get clean, controlled, defined cannabis in pharmacies, if you find a doctor to $ign the prescription. There will be less pure flower, more leafy mixes, which I believe was common in the past. E.g. a high CBD, moderate/low THC breed will offer a much more enjoyable "on-boarding" experience, but it was nearly impossible to find on the illegal street market.
The culture around weed will change. It will get less intense, but more casual, more chill, more fun. OP will see more people smoking cannabis the same way people enjoy a glass of wine.
Out of all reasons to never try beer, this actually seems like a pretty good one? If my #1 reason would be seeing a drunk driver crash, then this would be a solid #2.
I'm not one to go moralize other people's use of substances, but it's also weird for me to read your take on it. Those are very common and good reasons for people not to try substances.
One set smoke weed and then partake in creative, explorative, or otherwise effort filled pursuits. Generally I feel that weed has likely improved their lives.
The other set smoke weed and consume... consume tv, consume video games, consume food, consume music. These people seem to fall into a slump that weed seems to participate in keeping them in. Weed lowers the bar to enjoy yourself and thus raises the bar for other activities. If weed and video games feels good, then why call up friends and go bowling? It's not addictive, but it does have a kind of gravity because it's an activity that participates in the economy of potential activities. For these people weed entertains them, at the cost of them becoming a more boring person.
That said, I feel like I drifted between the two categories you describe. Sometimes I'd chill on the couch and do nothing but consume. Others I'd feel inspired to do something productive, like work on a side project, clean the house, go for a walk, or practice guitar.
This reaction is not representative of the general effects of cannabis smoking.
Cannabis is a tool, if you misuse it, you can waste your entire life - but it's heaps better than sugar or alchol, especially if you avoid smoking it (which destroys your lungs). Edibles or vapes are much better.
If you use it well, it can be a good aid to relax and improve your quality of life - or maybe to endure a hard time in in your life.
If it wasn't a hassle to buy it, I'd definitely vape some instead of drinking beer to relax.
Maybe let's not get ahead of ourselves... sugar when consumed in moderation and with enough fiber/etc. is not really an issue. Also a lot depends on how you chose to consume cannabis if you're smoking it, it's no better than tobacco (besides that you're likely to do that way less frequently).
Not because of the effects it has on the consumer, but because the effects it has on the producer.
It depends on where you are, but where I am - the UK - the producers are primarily enslaved. A fact that is rarely talked about.
Recently there was a big drug bust. The headlines all described how many dogs were freed - less than twenty. But deep in the articles behind euphemistic language you could read that one and a half thousand enslaved people were also freed.
There's power-creep to consider. Modern weed isn't the weed of the 70s after all the cross-breeding. I've read about high schoolers acquiring cannibus-induced psychosis.
Source: https://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_effects.shtm.... Do note that Erowid calls hallucinations "visuals".
> I enjoy being in full control of my senses
Heh. I suspect you're a lot less in control than you think you are. It took me experiencing mushrooms and LSD to really open my eyes to the ridiculous amount of processing our minds do just outside of our awareness. I'm sure this could be explored without mind altering chemicals too, but few do.
https://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_effects.shtm...
It doesn't explain the difference, no, since the same is true about the US. In most states, consumption of most drugs is not a crime - possession, production, distribution, sale, and trafficking are the actual crimes prosecuted.
I assume that Germany does drug testing for safety-related roles? Crane operators, pilots, nuclear plant operators?
It would be wild if they don't.
Not really. The business of employer-mandated drug testing in the EU is generally tricky, and employees enjoy wide ranging protections. Most countries only allow drug testing where there is a certain aspect of risk, and in most of those case, only a physician can perform the test, and cannot share findings, only declare the subject as fit for duties or not.
In Germany, specifically, a pre-employment test but a physician is allowed, and when employed only rarely and for very specific circumstances.
I hope that legalization in Germany will lead to more sane laws in Sweden, but honestly, I'm not holding my breath for it
I'm sure selective enforcement is at play, but at least in my experience they didn't care.
So you have Singaporeans testing positive for cannabis upon arrival at the airport after a trip to Thailand, who are not in possession of cannabis, have not consumed it in Singapore (or another country where it is illegal) and they are charged with a crime.
[1] https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/cannabis-drug-laws...
Production and trade under very strict restriction in so-called cannabis clubs.
Trade as a non-narcotic medication in pharmacies, restricted to prescriptions.
Production at home, with very strict limits towards quantity of plants and size of harvest.
Possession of limited amounts of cannabis and thus public consumption with restrictions regarding proximity to institutions for children.
I totally agree. It is, however a flawed argument in the context of legalization. One of the arguments for the legalization by the health ministry is that prohibition has been ineffective, factually not avoiding or even reducing (excess) weed consumption (among minors). Prohibition has criminalized many people for their consumption (via necessary circumstances such as possession), at the same time often denying help to those consumers who needed it.
The goals of drug policy should be: - help consumers to avoid or treat harmful consumption, especially minors - do not criminalize adult citizens who do no harm to others
Neither of these goals have been achieved by prohibition. Legalization is not going to help on the first point either, but might make it easier.
In the context of the second point: prohibition has been a nasty vehicle for arbitrary, often racist policing. Given that prohibition is not realistically possible in full consequence, the inherent tools of criminalizing alleged drug users are often applied to specific groups only, often for racist motives. Throwing around cocaine at the company party of your startup will hardly be punished, whereas the immigrant neighbor ends up in jail for smoking a joint.
Either it's okay for adults to consent to activities that don't harm others or its not. People should have the right to choose what to do with their bodies, and the legal system should have to ability to disincentivize antisocial behavior in ways that are productive i.e. that actually reduce it.
The antisocial behavior is not people selling/smoking a joint or having/selling consensual sex -- and while it might be associated with them, the government should be tackling those other, actual problems instead.
It also imbues and latches itself onto to whatever is around you. Now legalization has people smoking it in my apartment complex or at restaurants and the smell just lingers around my house or on your clothes when your near it.
And then Every weed smoker I brought this up to told me tough luck.
Tough luck.
I also dislike coffee breath, cigarette smoke, the smell of energy drinks, cinnamon chewing gum, perfumes, beer, dog shit, fertilizers, some garden flowers, car exhausts, ...
But on the bright side, there will be more variety in weed strains. They do smell differently. Some really are nasty, some are very pleasant. I absolutely love the smell of hashish, but I guess that's still gonna be rare.
In any case nobody cares what you think, about MJ, sorry but not sorry. If this were true we wouldn't have highly deadly/poisonous substances such as alcohol around.
But ooo man the moral panic over plants nature provides
It all just screams fake moral outrage to keep people buying man-made vices
I've seen so many people waste their life on weed and alcohol that I can't be very happy about this news.
I agree with that for some drugs, but certainly not cannabis. That's observational; there are simply not enough reported cases of problems to make that true wrt cannabis use. Of course, that leaves the possibility that cases aren't reported.
Again, based on personal observation, I would be amazed if the ratio of cannabis users that 'waste their life' on the drug is as high as the ratio of alcohol users that do the same. And that's before you even take into account the harm caused to others.
Alchol is more available so more people are alcholics.
I think cannabis is preferable as it won't destroy your liver and there are ways (vaping, edible) to assume it without wrecking your lungs.
I think you are either intentionally exaggerating, or vastly overestimate the number of people destroying their lives, or underestimate the number of people who use drugs (especially alcohol, consumed by >50% of the US population).
There are estimates that 70% of alcohol addiction is hidden.
Either we have the freedom to consume what we like and deal with the consequences or state has to nanny us and prevent us from consuming harmful substances altogether.
People are fast to point out that prohibition don’t work, but if there were no legal ways to obtain sugar a lot less would be consumed and a lot of weight would be shed by our fat population
I wonder if big-Keto would push for harsh penalties to illegal bakers? Maybe a 3 (bread) slices law would rise?
We cannot and should not penaltize all these things just because a few cannot handle them. Rather, we should invest into helping and preventing abuse. Of all above.
Some people are just lazy
I give it 3 microseconds until every single new rental contract / landlord prohibits this (and consumption).
Also, here’s an article with slightly more info on limits and prohibited places: https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-celebrates-legal-cannabis-posse...
I do not see 1) at all, laws are pretty reasonable all around
Consumption is different, but the new law is very specific in what is allowed and what isn't, and an unconditional ban is unlawful, as is already the case with cigarettes.
For example, they often prohibit plants of certain sizes on balconies, and entirely elsewhere.
Legal? Maybe not - but here in reality you have little recourse.
At the same time, I strongly hope that the cannabis smokers will be considerate of the people around them. It is quite a foul smell if you are not partaking yourself.
I’m not the biggest fan, but as a person who enjoys drinking from time to time, who am I to rob people from their good times when I get to do it freely?
Are there regulation on the production of cannabis on sale ? concentration and limits in amount of impurities etc ?
When outdoors, wind comes into it. They really ought to have two smoking areas on each railway platform, one on either end, and make it compulsory for smokers to use whichever one would carry the smoke away from other users on a given day. Or, have a smoking shelter with a tall chimney to take it away more effectively vertically.
I don't smoke myself (tobacco or weed) but I know plenty of people who do, or who used to (multiple packs a day, like my friend above). Quitting is hard apparently. So, from that to one or two per day sounds like it should be an improvement.
The nastiest thing with weed is having to deal with drug dealers to get it. Bringing it out of the criminal corner is a good thing. There are a lot of drug dealers who also sell far nastier stuff than weed. Crack cocaine apparently is a growing problem in Berlin.
Is there any good reason why alcohol should be prohibited?
Regulating the quality of the cannabis on the market is a large win for public health among users of cannabis. In a black market, you can't be really sure what you're buying and people are incentivized to buy a stronger product even if they don't actually need the stronger variant.
Is there anything blocking the rest of EU from legalizing cannabis in this manner, aside from internal (national) politics? Whenever this topic comes up in our country, it's always met with opposition claiming that it would be against the EU regulations, or international treaties, or some other external blocker that we can't control.
These reasons sound like a stall tactic given that a few EU countries have managed legalization thus far, but I'm not familiar with the relevant laws. Do they have any legitimacy to them?
However, we're already pretty sure that the current change in law will require further tuning as issues become apparent. Still, you need to start somewhere.
And "international law" seems like a joke at this point anyway (in general, but especially regarding weed). Canada went way further with no repercussions and more importantly the US which basically forced the 1988 Convention/treaty on the rest of the world is completely flaunting it itself.
healthy skepticism seems in short supply thou
it's definitely necessary, no one should talk to cops
All these questions could be resolved with litigation using many of the same processes that the courts already have. However, I would wager that the state would spend as much additional money on the judiciary as they would simply providing an unconditional paramedic service in the first place! This also applies to financial situations, because it's hard to, say, confidently ascribe the failure of someone's life savings on a supposedly poor choice they made while under the influence of a drug. I personally think it would be inhumane not to provide a safety net, but it would also be considerably cheaper to!
think "too big to fail"
Whilst the majority of users seem to be fine, it can absolutely and seriously ruin some people's mental health.
For example, if in 2025 the CDU/CSU and SPD form the new goverment (a constellation that has happened already a few times), I'd say chances are high that cannabis is going to be illegal again. And this turnout is a relatively probable scenario.
> Whilst the majority of users seem to be fine, it can absolutely and seriously ruin some people's mental health.
I never doubt that marijuana can negatively affect certain people with the potential for mental health issues, but are there any hard science about the affect on mental health? You mention "majority" vs "some". Is that 51/49? 99.99/.01? The former sounds significant; the latter sounds like a stat to push an agenda.
I think almost everybody can enjoy it, perhaps in the top 5% of safest drugs of all (cannot die from any amount, no interactions I know of, no hangover). I think it will replace alcohol as people learn to have a good time with it.
- Start small. (.5mg THC : 1.5 CBD would be reasonable).
- Start with higher ratios of CBD to THC to make sure you have a good time. Basically the amount of THC is the amount of trippiness/woah/anxiety and the CBD is the amount of calmness. Dispensaries will give consistent product, in terms of labeling the ratios and those ratios being correct.
- Give 90-120 minutes for an edible to kick in.
- If you're already an anxious person do it in a place you can feel totally comfortable and safe
- Maybe have some pure CBD oil (purchasable at most grocery stores) to dial the whole thing back if it becomes too much. It won't make you sober, but it will help stop you mind from "racing" (whether from THC/anxiety/whatever). Also a great cure for headaches.
- I don't recommend it if you're underage, or if your brain feels too haywire. I do recommend it for people who are overly-intense nerds who would join the CIA and find the world very black-and-white.
- If you have a nice place where you can eat some healthy food, stretch outside in the sun, listen to birds, without fear of being bothered by cops / whatever, then that sounds like a great time. Maybe bring along a very trusted friend. It won't make you have a good time, but a lot of things you already enjoy will feel more enriching.
- There's a bunch of other standard advice online too (hydrate, etc, all important).
- Everybody reacts differently, don't let anybody else's preferences override your own. Do the amount you want of what you want, only when you want. Never push it onto people, even if you love it, and don't hang out with people who push.
That above description is overpreparation for something that you might not even notice the first time you have it, but it's kind of like skiing, better to start slow -- if you've got time on your hands it's better to be patient -- otherwise it's entirely possible to have a bad time quickly (particularly for nerds, I find nerdier friends have like up to 10x the reaction to weed as non-nerdy friends).
Zwischenrauchgenusserlebnisgrünblattsorte (Inter-smoke-enjoyment-green-leaf-variety): Das ist für die Zwischendurch Raucher. Machst du happy ohne zu viel Trubel. Gutes Grünblatt!
Wolkenkuckucksheimtraumwolkenpuff (Cloud-cuckoo-land-dream-cloud-puff):Dieses bringt dich hoch, hoch, bis zu den Wolken! Man träumt schön und fühlt sich wie im Märchenland.
Glückseligkeitsgefühlsauslöserkraut (Happiness-feeling-trigger-weed): Einmal puffen und du bist im Glückseligkeits-Himmel. Alles fühlt sich super an.
Gedankensprunghochflugblütezeit (Thought-leap-high-flight-blooming-time): Für die Kreativen Köpfe! Deine Gedanken machen Sprünge und fliegen hoch – Boom, Ideen überall!
Entspannungswunderwirkungsgewächs (Relaxation-miracle-effect-plant): Mega Entspannung garantiert. Nach einem Zug, alles ist chillig. Wie ein Wunder!
Lachanfallverursachendeswundergras (Giggle-fit-causing-wonder-grass): Vorsicht, Lachkrämpfe vorprogrammiert! Mit Freunden rauchen und der Spaß hört nicht auf.
Seelenruhigbalsamblattgenussmittel (Soul-calm-balm-leaf-enjoyment-substance): Deine Seele wird super ruhig. Stress? Welcher Stress? Alles easy.
Tiefenentspannungsnaturgenusserlebnis (Deep-relaxation-nature-enjoyment-experience): Bringt dich runter auf die Erde. Natur pur, tiefenentspannt und glücklich.
Kreativitätsschubgrünblattinspiration (Creativity-boost-green-leaf-inspiration): Künstler? Musiker? Hier kommt deine Inspiration! Kreativitätsschub im Anflug.
Wolkenreitertraumwiesengenusskraut (Cloud-rider-dream-meadow-enjoyment-weed): Fühl dich wie auf einer weichen Wiese, fliegend durch die Träume. Totaler Genuss!
trying to lose like 10 pounds and i think the weed is holding me back
eat healthy before you smoke
Making cannabis legal in Germany unfortunately will not help to improve this situation.
