Make cannabis a Class A Drug, say Conservative Police Commissioners...

[arknor]

I kind of agree. I mean we can't, because prohibition doesn't work and alcohol is just too easy to produce. But I do think this whole culture of "you must accept a drink unless you're willing to divulge your medical history/religious beliefs to get you somehow socially exempted" thing some people seem to engage in should die a death.

people in the forces seem to drink like sponges.

I've got a step son in the RAF and he mostly walks around with a can in his hand when he's on leave, seems they have a big drinking culture in the forces...

no wonder so many of them end up homeless and on the streets when they leave. all they know is taking orders and getting drunk it seems.


you can prohibit alcohol and it would just be as easy to get as Cannabis is now, they are both easy to produce.


I'd argue alcohol is far more destructive and anti social behaviour surrounds it as well as A&E

 

[Tefal]

people in the forces seem to drink like sponges.

I've got a step son in the RAF and he mostly walks around with a can in his hand when he's on leave, seems they have a big drinking culture in the forces...

no wonder so many of them end up homeless and on the streets when they leave. all they know is taking orders and getting drunk it seems.


you can prohibit alcohol and it would just be as easy to get as Cannabis is now, they are both easy to produce.


I'd argue alcohol is far more destructive and anti social behaviour surrounds it as well as A&E

Big difference though would be the lack of instant availability for most people.

Either you take the time to make your own usualy bit crap drink, or you have to buy from the equivilent of a drug dealer.

Much less easy for people with a problem than the 24/7 local garage etc to organise in a weak moment.

 

[Maple Leaf]

Fun fact : for a period during prohibition the US government deliberately poisoned industrial alcohol which they knew full well people were drinking. God knows many of their own citizens were killed.

Yes, that doesn't surprise me. The "Temperance Movement" in the USA who advocated for and secured alcohol prohibition were dominated by Christian fundamentalists and Nativist groups. Morality warriors like them would approve of ruthless methods to enforce prohibition for the greater good (in their view).

Interestingly, Harry J. Anslinger, the Assistant Commissioner of the USA's Bureau of Prohibition in 1929 went on to start a personal crusade against cannabis (just as alcohol prohibition was coming to its inevitable and popular end). He later became the first Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and manufactured a national moral panic about recreational cannabis use which subsequently got it banned.

He used the mass media as his forum to propagate hundreds of untrue stories about cannabis causing violent crime/insanity and untrue stories designed to appeal to common racist attitudes, for example, about black men using it to rape white girls. His most shocking untrue stories were used in the ludicrously over-the-top anti-cannabis film Reefer Madness made in 1936.

 

[Tuppy_Glossop]

Harry J. Anslinger

A1 nutter. He even wanted to ban coffee because of caffeine.

 

[Scougar]

And the fact that you won’t get arrested or killed by police officers looking for an excuse to enact state violence?

I’m assuming you forgot this part because you are white? It’s a fairly big part.

I live in Philly, next to one of the most violent neighborhoods in America. You think I don't know a thing or two about it?

 

[Stretch]

The problem I have with drugs is that it's often taken by boring people who think they become more interesting/entertaining.

When it really does not.

You could say the same about virtually any hobby.

 

[ArcticHeron]

You could say the same about virtually any hobby.

Exactly. If you take up a hobby and aren't boring your significant other with it every day then you're not doing it right.

 

[Ayahuasca]

The problem I have with drugs is that it's often taken by boring people who think they become more interesting/entertaining.

For me alcohol is good enough.

lol, you've literally just described why people often consume alcohol.

Alcohol is also a drug.

 

[Orangeade]

You could say the same about virtually any hobby.

Yes but marijuana exacerbates it a lot.

lol, you've literally just described why people often consume alcohol.

Alcohol is also a drug.

Alcohol makes people chatty, less awkward and generally in my opinion more amusing.

Weed makes people into morons.

(Awaits screeching from some weedbros about how there has been no deaths it's suppressed by pharma or some other irrelevant ****).

 

[godinman]

Yes but marijuana exacerbates it a lot.



Alcohol makes people chatty, less awkward and generally in my opinion more amusing.

Weed makes people into morons.

(Awaits screeching from some weedbros about how there has been no deaths it's suppressed by pharma or some other irrelevant ****).

But it's none of your business? You're not forced to hang around with people who smoke weed.

You stick to being loud and obnoxious while drunk, and weed people will do their own thing, no one needs bother the other.

 

[Orangeade]

But it's none of your business? You're not forced to hang around with people who smoke weed.

You stick to being loud and obnoxious while drunk, and weed people will do their own thing, no one needs bother the other.

Why so defensive? Haha.

And no I don't hang around people that do. I know friends of friends that smoke but have nothing to do with them. Thankfully the Venn diagram of people that do something with their lives and weed doesn't usually meet.

(the smell in public is atrocious and obnoxious though ).

Interestingly enough I'd say lots of people don't get loud or obnoxious on drink it just happens to be a feature of some who do.

 

[oggiet]

Why so defensive? Haha.

And no I don't hang around people that do. I know friends of friends that smoke but have nothing to do with them. Thankfully the Venn diagram of people that do something with their lives and weed doesn't usually meet.

(the smell in public is atrocious and obnoxious though ).

Interestingly enough I'd say lots of people don't get loud or obnoxious on drink it just happens to be a feature of some who do.

Talk about stereotyping people

 

[pioneer2000]

It does absolutely reek though. Can’t walk round my town without it stinking out most streets, usually the council housing.

 

[Maple Leaf]

Alcohol makes people chatty, less awkward and generally in my opinion more amusing.

Weed makes people into morons.

I've seen many fights that started just because someone had too much alcohol to drink and started throwing punches. Just ask any nightclub bouncer in Newcastle about how many fights they've seen where normally mild-mannered young men turned fighting mad after having a skin-full and perceiving that they were being disrespected by someone for some trivial reason. I've honestly never seen anyone get violent after using cannabis.

Alcohol and cannabis are both central nervous system depressants, so if you take the right dose they will both socially disinhibit you and make you more chatty, less awkward, more playful etc. At high doses cannabis also acts as a potent muscle relaxant which means that the last thing its users want to do is start fighting. Whereas, alcohol at high doses will make many people rowdy and aggressive which can lead to conflict and violence.

Intellectual functioning while intoxicated is negatively affected by both alcohol and cannabis. In terms of the harm they do to the individual user and society alcohol is far more damaging than cannabis (many studies have shown this).

It does absolutely reek though. Can’t walk round my town without it stinking out most streets, usually the council housing.

Yes, that's because Skunk makes up virtually all the black market cannabis in this country, (it was only created due to prohibition in order to increase the profit margins of drug-dealers). The pleasant smelling strains, (which are also much safer due to their natural THC/CBD ratios), would be available if recreational cannabis was legalised.

 

[Diddums]

Weed makes people into morons.

Here speaks a man with a ton of experience.

 

[Roar87]

I've seen many fights that started just because someone had too much alcohol to drink and started throwing punches. Just ask any nightclub bouncer in Newcastle about how many fights they've seen where normally mild-mannered young men turned fighting mad after having a skin-full and perceiving that they were being disrespected by someone for some trivial reason.

To be fair that is mostly Coke these days rather than alcohol, or both

 

[imtoooldforthis]

Alcohol makes people chatty, less awkward and generally in my opinion more amusing.

Weed makes people into morons.

I don't believe you don't take drugs because you've got to be an absolute crackhead to think alcohol doesn't make lots of people behave like morons, far more so than weed.

Even if it does turn some people into morons, it turns them into passive morons for the most part who don't bother anyone else. A much better alternative to the legions of aggressive pissheads you see out on town every weekend.

 

[godinman]

Why so defensive? Haha.

And no I don't hang around people that do. I know friends of friends that smoke but have nothing to do with them. Thankfully the Venn diagram of people that do something with their lives and weed doesn't usually meet.

(the smell in public is atrocious and obnoxious though ).

Interestingly enough I'd say lots of people don't get loud or obnoxious on drink it just happens to be a feature of some who do.

Oh, so you're entirely clueless on the matter but thought you'd stick your oar in anyway? Never mind

 

[Stretch]

Weed makes people into morons.

Others just don’t need as much help.

 

[dowie]

Here speaks a man with a ton of experience.

I am also reminded of an old expression: it takes one to know one.

On a more serious note there is a risk of it creating some schizos:

Cannabis use fuelling rise in psychosis among young adults, says top Priory expert

www.priorygroup.com

Teenagers are particularly vulnerable to cannabis because of their brain development. The brain is still developing in the teenage years – up to the age of around 20. The Royal College of Psychiatrists says there is “a massive process of ‘neural pruning’ going on. This is rather like streamlining a tangled jumble of circuits so they can work more effectively. Any experience, or substance, that affects this process has the potential to produce long-term psychological effects”.

This, combined with the strength of today’s cannabis, can have a devastating effect on mental health, said Dr Campbell.

“We know the chances of developing mental illness from using cannabis are greatly increased depending on how young you are when you start smoking it, the more you smoke it, and the stronger it is,” he said, warning that the chemical profile of marijuana is “up to 100 times stronger than substances around in the 1960s – they have much stronger tetrahydrocannabinols (THCs) – the main psychoactive part of cannabis”.

I used to be very pro-legalising it, not because I'm keen on using it myself or anything but just in general I figured if alcohol is legal then why not weed as it's mild, arguably stoned people cause less problems than drunk people etc. I still am in favour of people being able to use it for "medical" reasons, especially people with chronic or terminal conditions and I'm in favour of it being vaguely decriminalised for small amounts or first-time offences etc.

But the problem with good intentions, the notion that there's not much harm in some otherwise sensible person having a bit of weed occasionally is that that's not really where the main problems are going to be, now we have ridiculously strong strains and people who use it very frequently - that sort of thing is a mental health disaster waiting to happen for some.