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UK - Why legalising cannabis isn't logical

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edgarshade

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Guardian

Melissa Kite
The Guardian, Monday 16 September 2013 20.15 BST

With reader comments

The choice is not either to ban or to legalise everything. What is needed is restraint and protection for children.

Whenever the pro-cannabis lobby starts agitating for legalisation, there is one crucial question that is always glossed over. They trot out the evidence proving that legalisation will hurt the drug cartels, help the terminally ill and even boost the economy.

I understand the logic behind those arguments. I accept there are sick people who claim cannabis is the only analgesic in existence that will give them pain relief, despite there being literally hundreds of alternatives . I accept that if you taxed drugs you would generate billions for the economy. I even listen sympathetically to what the "give-a-spliff-a-chance" brigade say about not criminalising "recreational" users who are, apparently, perfectly normal, functioning citizens who should not be labelled criminals.

What I don't understand at all is what decriminalisation of drugs will do for addicts. I mean not only active addicts who are locked in compulsive drug use, but also those millions of potential addicts, most of them children, who have not yet picked up their first drug and could go either way.
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More...
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/16/legalising-cannabis-isnt-logical
 
Hi. I'm a potential addict! And I'm just itching to get addicted to something the instant it becomes legal! Just wait till I tell this to the kids!!!
 
Think of the children...

Some decent comments showing how absurd her article is.
 
"I live in Balham, south-west London, and I remember very well how in July 2001 they started a 13-month decriminalisation trial in Lambeth. During that time, you couldn't walk to the station in the morning without getting high on the smoke being puffed out all over the place by every Nike-wearing hoodlum."

She is making it sound like they were smoking ohmfentanyl or something else that is active in mcg dosages. You will never get high on secondary THC smoke. It just won't happen.
 
What I don't understand at all is what decriminalisation of drugs will do for addicts.
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Hmm, maybe make it so that they don't face criminal punishment for seeking help? Maybe treat those who lack discipline and need help as the humans they are? Not to mention that weed is most likely less harmful than the legal highs kids can get like candy. What a backwards, clueless, dunce of a woman.
 
Toz..it is certainly possible in a small sealed room with a few blunts going around. To claim that it happened while walking down the street is however a blatant lie.
 
If kids want to try it they will anyway... and probly mix with some shady types in the process.
 
Toz said:
"I live in Balham, south-west London, and I remember very well how in July 2001 they started a 13-month decriminalisation trial in Lambeth. During that time, you couldn't walk to the station in the morning without getting high on the smoke being puffed out all over the place by every Nike-wearing hoodlum."

She is making it sound like they were smoking ohmfentanyl or something else that is active in mcg dosages. You will never get high on secondary THC smoke. It just won't happen.
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You should come visit any Dutch city or village. Have you ever seen footage of Chinese cities completely covered in smog? Well, it's somewhat like that, except it's all THC vapors. I've heard it's even worse in Uruguay now that they've fully legalized cannabis, with all trees in the streets being replaced by weed, which are all lit on fire at the same time during their new national holiday.

On a more serious note: I'm not sure how smoking is treated in the UK, but most countries are pushing it more and more away from public places. IMO that's a good thing and I don't see how cannabis should/would be treated any different. But why are we even seriously discussing her article? It's complete bs and I bet even she knows it.
 
Toz, for the scenario in the article I would agree nobody is getting high off second hand smoke, outside walking to the train station. You can't say it is impossible to get high off second hand smoke though, more than once I have seen people get high from being in a room or car for extended periods where people were smoking relatively heavily. In all cases I can think of they were quite young and also not very heavy, having little or no prior experience with cannabis.

One occasion stands out in particular, my brother and I used to share a bedroom, not a particularly large one either, he had an old friend from primary school come over who he had not seen in years (he was in maybe year 8 or 9 at this time) to have a sleep over and he was staying on a mattress on our floor. Anyway, later that night me and my brother broke out the bong and a fat sack of weed and proceeded to blaze quite heavily for a good half hour, by the end of this time his friend was acting really out of character and was laughing at almost everything, his eyes were partially closed, glazed over and red and when he walked around you could tell he was a bit off balance. This kid actually repeatedly tried to deny he was even high so it was not placebo or some kid acting out to be cool, not that he could fake the classic stoned eye look anyway. Anyway, just saying you CAN get high from second hand smoke because I have seen it happen more than once.

I don't have much to say about this article other than it is basically a complete joke.
 
when i saw the headline in DiTM i had all my bets placed on it being a daily mail article :(
 
Just look at the comments on that Guardian article, really says it all. Even people that don't use cannabis are finally seeing that it is all a lie.
 
If you don't want to walk thru smoke cloud then legalize it and no one is going to force you to walk thru a café. People toke in alleys and parks because they don't have a place to smoke.
 
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