Colorado 'legalises' cannabis

[faun]

I read somewhere that they expect to make half a billion in taxes per annum from cannabis in washington state! Think how much good that could do to the economy.

 

[LittleBoo]

It always gives me a chuckle how ridiculous it is here, I could nip over the road and buy enough alcohol units to kill me for a bargain, hell we even have stores named for it, Bargain Booze! Walk into ASDA, three whole aisles dedicated to poison, offers promoting you to buy not one bottle of wine, but three for a tenner! Good deals, good deals. Yet it kills, it destroys the body and mind, destroys families when addiction comes into play, promotes violent outbursts, disgusting public displays and then there's the driving under the influences, costs to the health services from long term damage or just drunk idiots who need a bed for the night, not to mention the smashes glass, ease of availability and did you know it's legal as far as I'm aware for a child as young as 5 to drink with a meal? It may have changed, but I do recall reading a loophole like that.

It's advertised on TV (with the obligatory "Drink Aware" in teeny tiny writing at the bottom), advertised everywhere for that matter, they sell alcohopops designed to appeal to youngsters, wine is even seen as a classy drink, one must be posh to know about that stuff.

Meh.

But how do you want to deal with that? Restrict alcohol sales? Ban alcohol advertising? It's more of a cultural problem in Britain than anything.

It's the countries with the most puritan alcohol laws (I'm talking about Europe) which have the biggest problems with alcohol. That either means strict measures don't help with alcohol abuse, or strict measures encourage alcohol abuse.

What about other legal highs like meths or air freshener? You have to give people some margin for error.

I'm not sure what the wine comment is about, but it seems wine-producing countries have less of a problem with alcohol abuse than say whisky or vodka producing countries

It was meant to be sarcastic. Though reading back, it was a very rambling, out of control post. Moods' been quite erratic the last week, tends to show.

 

[Fergie]

They need to legalise it over her. I don't smoke it, never have and tbh can't stand the smell of it, but i'd rather have an A&E full of seasoned tokers than a bunch of pissed up arseholes .

My wee bro has just announced (after me telling him this thread) that he's going to move to Alaska ... but only for the fishing ... honest .

 

[Liesje]

It's not a 'right' or 'wrong' issue. It's whoever provides a greater profit to the government. Currently, lumber companies pay large to governments and politicians. Hemp threatens lumber profits therefore they're not terribly keen on legalizing the plant.
The government doesn't care that everyone knows a loser who lives in their parents basement and eats Cheetos and smokes pot all day.
They also make money from the criminalization of marijuana by way of privately owned prisons. In the US prisoners are kept for a profit (much like slavery) so it's very advantageous for them to make as many fun things illegal as possible. It's not a cncidence that 1/3 (2/3s? can't remember) of the world's prison population are in the US.

 

[Katy Bug]

It's only taboo because it's illegal most everywhere else. Alcohol would be taboo too if it wasn't legal. If alcohol remained illegal throughout the centuries we'd have people treating it like cannabis too.

I say fine, tax the crap out of it.