half time scores
Well-known member
Should we follow the Canadian / Uruguayan model?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-44543286
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-44543286
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[News] Canada legalises recreational cannabis use.
- Thread starter half time scores
- Start date
Silverhatch
Well-known member
Yes. Don't smoke myself but have been amazed by the widespread/epidemic use of the drug among young teenagers. It's easier to get weed/skunk than it is to buy a four pack if you're under 16. But I'm not sure what legalising it will do for this group.
dingodan
New member
- Feb 16, 2011
- 10,080
If it's legal and regulated then they will have the same difficulty in getting it that they have getting a four pack today, which would be an improvement. It would also mean that the cannabis that is available is the equivalent of todays regulated and licensed alcohol instead of what it is today which is the equivalent of yesterdays moonshine.
If it's easier to study and talk honestly about, then that will also help provide evidence and information to people, which should improve awareness of the risks of interfering with brain development, which is really the only proven risk with cannabis (and the exact same risk applies to alcohol and other substances).
brakespear
Doctor Worm
As are many legally available items. I don't smoke it myself at present but I can't see much of an argument against it and its taxable presumably.
super-seagulls
Soup! Why didn’t I get any Soup?
But that won’t solve the criminality issues.
Leagalise it and shaft the criminals.
People will smoke it if they want to, anyway so why not regulate it?
daveinprague
New member
How do you even legislate against nature.
dingodan
New member
- Feb 16, 2011
- 10,080
How much of a health hazard is it though? If it ends up being prescribed to patients I guess we will find out, but then it's already been prescribed to medical patients accross the world and has been for some time. In Israel it's been available to medical patients since 1993, and is prescribed to around 33,000 people for things like cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Crohn’s & PTSD.
Even today we have enough experience with it around the world as a medicine to know whether the patients using it are being put at risk of serious harm, and it's use as a medicine hasn't been restricted due to it being found to cause harm to patients. It has largely been expanded, because it is found to be effective and safe.
The WHO concluded in their report published in early June this year that Cannabis is "relatively safe".
http://www.who.int/medicines/access/controlled-substances/Section3.CannabitPlant.Toxicology.pdf
They will probably recommend a rescheduling globally when they publish their final report. In the UK we are now looking at rescheduling it the coming days or weeks. In fact there is already a bill to do exactly that which is due on 6th July (which would reschedule to schedule II), and (if we haven't done it already by then) that bill will likely have much more support after recent events.
I think medical use should certainly be the priority, and the medical question shouldn't be distracted from by the general prohibition/legalisation question, but in the end I can't really see how keeping it illegal can be justified when so much harm is caused by abandoning it to the black market and criminalizing people who use it, and so little harm is caused by the thing itself. Either way, our understanding of it will improve when we take it off of schedule I and start to study it properly.
Pavilionaire
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 30,557
Canada have done the right thing and we should follow suit.
We won't thought because it doesn't play well with Theresa's May's Daily Mail-reading core supporters.
We won't thought because it doesn't play well with Theresa's May's Daily Mail-reading core supporters.
brakespear
Doctor Worm
Go down well with the Treasury though. And the Home Office.
Pavilionaire
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 30,557
I heard the figure mentioned on last night's news of £1 billion in extra tax revenue. Maybe they should ringfence the money for Theresa's next DUP coalition deal?
I suspect that if it was legalised, the government would impose a high tax levy making it significantly more expensive than buying it illegally on the streets. Users will therefore continue to buy it from street dealers which would achieve absolutely nothing.
Only if the tax imposition was low would it become an attractive option and I can't see that happening.
It is the similar to the stupidly high excise duty on tobacco and alcohol. That's how booze cruises started. Increase the price of the legal supply, more and more people start buying imported stuff or do a day trip across the channel, so sales in UK reduce and so does the tax yield.
Baldseagull
Well-known member
As far as I know no one died from ingesting cannabis, can't say that about peanuts.
btnbelle
New member
- Apr 26, 2017
- 1,438
Legalising won't stop criminals. Look at the trade in cheap cigarettes. Criminals will commit crime whatever....
The government are there to set a good example on drugs. Afterall we would not legalise cigarettes or alcohol if they were not already so accepted by society.
btnbelle
New member
- Apr 26, 2017
- 1,438
Not enough tax for the health problems it would cause.
What is this based on!? What about the health benefits?
theboybilly
Well-known member
But won't that just move the criminals onto something else or even worse? I'm not sure what to think about this
btnbelle
New member
- Apr 26, 2017
- 1,438
I agree with medical use. People with medical conditions require pain management and treatment and for them it is quality of live more than the risk to the quantity.
Healthy people are at risk of mental health issues especially teenagers. Okay the law would say over 18's but the dealers will still pedal it to them with the message from society that it is safe. Teenagers will also get it off older friends or family members like they do with alcohol.
It carries a higher risk of Lung cancer than cigarettes and it is a gateway to other drugs.