News Where Is Marijuana Legal? A Guide to Marijuana Legalization

[RUC4]

Where Is Marijuana Legal? A Guide to Marijuana Legalization

US News
By Claire Hansen, Horus Alas, and Elliott Davis Jr.
31 May 2023

Excerpts:

Twenty-three states – along with Washington, D.C. and Guam – have acted to legalize recreational marijuana.

Today, support for marijuana legalization has become mainstream among Democratic politicians, and some Republicans also back the idea. State legislatures are grappling with if and how to legalize the drug, while several marijuana-related bills – including those aiming to decriminalize it on the federal level – have been introduced in Congress. The House passed a marijuana decriminalization bill on April 1, 2022...

The movement toward relaxing punishment on marijuana use took a new turn on Oct. 7, 2022, when President Joe Biden said he will issue pardons to everyone convicted of the federal crime of simple marijuana possession, while calling for governors to make similar moves for convictions under state laws.

States where legal recreational marijuana has been approved:

• Colorado
• Washington
• Alaska
• Oregon
• Washington, D.C.
• California
• Maine
• Massachusetts
• Nevada
• Michigan
• Vermont
• Guam
• Illinois
• Arizona
• Montana
• New Jersey
• New York
• Virginia
• New Mexico
• Connecticut
• Rhode Island
• Maryland
• Missouri
• Delaware
• Minnesota

 

[Antiprosynthesis]

Weed and hash are not actually legal in holland, but they used a loophole, we are going to drogen drugs (condoning), so thats why coffeeshops can sell hash, weed, spacecake and so on to smoke there or take home, thats why in smartshops drugparapharnelia are sold, ayahuasca, salvia divinorum, shrooms and much more and thats why in the growshop everything is sold to grow weed and so many other psychoactive plant, in the flowershop you can buy an erythroxylum coca, thats why we have free government funded test labs for any drug, thats why we have rc shops and thats why a user amount of any drug is not a criminal act to own, I could go on but I think I can make my point, all of this is illegal yet possible cause they now call it gedoogd (condoned).

Haha, how fucking genius is Holland??? The best drug policy in the world is Amsterdam, the end.

 

[RUC4]

The Dutch government implemented this policy to distinguish between "hard drugs" like heroin and cocaine and the relatively softer drug, marijuana. By allowing regulated sales in coffee shops, they aimed to separate the marijuana market from the illicit drug trade, providing a safer environment for users and reducing the associated criminal activities.
The sale of marijuana in coffee shops is subject to strict regulations. These include restrictions on the amount of marijuana that can be sold per person, age restrictions (18 years and older), and the prohibition of selling other drugs or alcohol on the premises. The Dutch government maintains a distinction between the sale and production of marijuana, as the production and supply of cannabis to coffee shops are technically illegal but tolerated under certain conditions.

It's an interesting policy. I'm sure something like that could work in the US.

 

[Nas47]

Uruguai....Thailand remove weed from most restrictive category too.People say that people smoking openly without legal problems...boosting tourism after Covid.Jamaica after so many years of illegal status of weed got new laws for use at least for rastas...some other carrebean islands too i think.There is rumours,that in N.Korea people smoke weed without persecution....In Europe-not legal,but minor offence in Spain,Portugal...most of W.Europe-not big deal....except maybe France...and Italy too.Greece is offence forsure...the laws constantly changing

 

[RUC4]

I found this regarding marijuana policies in North Korea:
North Korea has strict laws against the use, possession, and sale of marijuana. The country has a highly conservative stance on drug use and considers marijuana to be a controlled substance.
The North Korean government enforces a zero-tolerance policy towards drugs, including marijuana. The cultivation, distribution, possession, and use of marijuana are illegal, and those caught violating these laws can face severe penalties, including imprisonment, forced labor, or even capital punishment.

It's really difficult to know because of the secrecy and craziness of that government. In Europe, the laws vary significantly from one country to the next.

Since when has punishment or negative consequences stopped anyone from using any substance? Where there's a will, there's a way.

 

[Antiprosynthesis]

The Dutch government implemented this policy to distinguish between "hard drugs" like heroin and cocaine and the relatively softer drug, marijuana. By allowing regulated sales in coffee shops, they aimed to separate the marijuana market from the illicit drug trade, providing a safer environment for users and reducing the associated criminal activities.
The sale of marijuana in coffee shops is subject to strict regulations. These include restrictions on the amount of marijuana that can be sold per person, age restrictions (18 years and older), and the prohibition of selling other drugs or alcohol on the premises. The Dutch government maintains a distinction between the sale and production of marijuana, as the production and supply of cannabis to coffee shops are technically illegal but tolerated under certain conditions.

It's an interesting policy. I'm sure something like that could work in the US.

Yes this is correct, but fact remains that its not a criminal offense to posses user amounts of any drug, that we have free test labs for any drug, nursing homes for old addicts, ghb clinics where they taper you off with clinical grade ghb, and even more, heavy coke and h addicts get 3 free doses clinical grade h and c per day, if police busts you with 1g coke or h nothing happens, they even let you keep it only thing is a few days later you get some pamflets in your mailbox about addiction or where to go should you want help, ghb was first also sold in the smartshop, we have rc shops, you are free to professionally grow whatever you want,...

You cant imagine what the vibe in amsterdam is like, I travelled a lot, Ive been in norway, the uk, did a european roadtrip to italy and even poland, I spent over 2 yrs in colombia, cartagena, panama, bolivia and peru, i was 6 months in nyc, i was 6 months travelling thru canada and alaska and NOWHERE comes even close to what amsterdam is like, its simply unique, i love amsterdam upto the by far greatest city in the world, and not only drug wise, also sex wise and simply the extreme open mentality here, how progressive it is, we are in many things world leader, come crash my couch and see and find out for yourself.

Cheers amigo

 

[RUC4]

Yes this is correct, but fact remains that its not a criminal offense to posses user amounts of any drug, that we have free test labs for any drug, nursing homes for old addicts, ghb clinics where they taper you off with clinical grade ghb, and even more, heavy coke and h addicts get 3 free doses clinical grade h and c per day, if police busts you with 1g coke or h nothing happens, they even let you keep it only thing is a few days later you get some pamflets in your mailbox about addiction or where to go should you want help, ghb was first also sold in the smartshop, we have rc shops, you are free to professionally grow whatever you want,...

You cant imagine what the vibe in amsterdam is like, I travelled a lot, Ive been in norway, the uk, did a european roadtrip to italy and even poland, I spent over 2 yrs in colombia, cartagena, panama, bolivia and peru, i was 6 months in nyc, i was 6 months travelling thru canada and alaska and NOWHERE comes even close to what amsterdam is like, its simply unique, i love amsterdam upto the by far greatest city in the world, and not only drug wise, also sex wise and simply the extreme open mentality here, how progressive it is, we are in many things world leader, come crash my couch and see and find out for yourself.

Cheers amigo

That sounds absolutely amazing. I would love to travel there, or possibly live there.
Was there a reason for all your traveling? Was it for a job (s)? That's a lot of traveling. I'm interested to hear much more.

 

[Burnt Offerings]

The Dutch government implemented this policy to distinguish between "hard drugs" like heroin and cocaine and the relatively softer drug, marijuana. By allowing regulated sales in coffee shops, they aimed to separate the marijuana market from the illicit drug trade, providing a safer environment for users and reducing the associated criminal activities.
The sale of marijuana in coffee shops is subject to strict regulations. These include restrictions on the amount of marijuana that can be sold per person, age restrictions (18 years and older), and the prohibition of selling other drugs or alcohol on the premises. The Dutch government maintains a distinction between the sale and production of marijuana, as the production and supply of cannabis to coffee shops are technically illegal but tolerated under certain conditions.

It's an interesting policy. I'm sure something like that could work in the US.

For a long time the Netherlands was looked at as an example of what a good, sensible cannabis policy could look like, but the USA has far surpassed it at this point, at least in the states where recreational use for adults has been legalized. To adopt a model like they have would be a regression on the issue at this point IMO. The same period when things really started exploding in the USA regarding this issue (2012 onward) featured something of a conservative retrenchment on the issue in the Netherlands, at least in some Dutch cities, ostensibly in response to concerns related to “drug tourism.”

Uruguai....Thailand remove weed from most restrictive category too.People say that people smoking openly without legal problems...boosting tourism after Covid.Jamaica after so many years of illegal status of weed got new laws for use at least for rastas...some other carrebean islands too i think.There is rumours,that in N.Korea people smoke weed without persecution....In Europe-not legal,but minor offence in Spain,Portugal...most of W.Europe-not big deal....except maybe France...and Italy too.Greece is offence forsure...the laws constantly changing

I think that, while cannabis grows in abundance in the DPRK and hemp seeds are recognized for their nutritional value & widely consumed, cannabis isn’t widely consumed as a recreational drug. I’ve heard that most are unaware that it’s even possible to consume the plant in such a fashion. But who knows, lol, thats just what I’ve heard on the interwebs, hard to know what’s going on in that wacky country

 

[Antiprosynthesis]

That sounds absolutely amazing. I would love to travel there, or possibly live there.
Was there a reason for all your traveling? Was it for a job (s)? That's a lot of traveling. I'm interested to hear much more.

Some travels were for some kind of work yes, the ones in SA, the others were for fun tho nyc was for fun and house hunting since I was planning living there a few yrs but due to personal things I went back to antwerp for a short while and as time went by I had a few very well running businesses in both antwerp as amsterdam, i started switching between them as i still do and I really cant go on vacation anymore Im currently working like a beast to not spend my shitload of money too soon haha grtz

 

[Antiprosynthesis]

The weed from the coffeeshops in holland as well as the hasjish are as far as I know and I think by far the strongest in the entire world, if at least you buy the most expensive ones, they over here do nonstop research on making weed and hash stronger, we also have a few coffeeshop competitions each year where the coffeeshop with the best weed and hashish wins a prize, and also we are the nr 1 leader in the world in the genetic engineering weed plants...


Whats also cool, once a year we have the holiday the queens day, technically by now the kings day, on that day every coffeeshop sets up big boxes with no top on and they are filled to the top with weed, and all day long everyone may once for of course not too long put one hand in the box and when time is up youre supposed to have as much weed in your hand as possible and all the weed in your hand is free of charge for you to take home. Nice, no?

A bit off topic but also cool, one day each year we have coke appreciation day, many bars open, small festivals and lots of things that do something about coke, something fun, and the entire city is in plain site in public snorting coke all day, this only in amsterdam of course, also cool, no?

 

[GodLuck&GoodSpeed]

Recreational Marijuana finally became legal here in Maryland on July 1st. I've been waiting soo long for this! I felt like a kid in a candy store picking out what I wanted.

 

[MedicinalUser247]

How about we try to get Marijuana globally legalized ?

 

[foodcrisis]

^^^^^lol... i'd love it if weed were globally legal cause i want to start a website where people around the world can trade 1/8ths or any amount of weed they want actually. lol. like i'd totally trade 1/8ths of the indoor dispensary weed i get for some random outdoors from other parts of the world... like think about it, if you grow outdoors even if they are good, you are stuck with that weed if that's the only type of grow you do. this would be a game changer if a person could get a good crop. they could trade their outdoors for all different indoor strains across the world. i'm sure some people would trade extra outdoors for an 1/8th of indoors.

i also have a few you tube weed reviewers i'd love to send my favorite local strains to just to get their review... tommy chong or maybe it was cheech picked one of the strains from a dispensary i go to as his favorite for some competition, so i'm pretty sure that's a sign i have some good choices where i'm from... some dispensary weed brands are really bad though.. i'd hate to be stuck in a place with a bad menu. a website like i described in the first paragraph could dramatically make areas with bad weed a lot better cause people would be able to figure out more options.

 

[nepalnt21]

ZERO states in the u.s. have "legalized", can we (humanity) please stop using that word incorrectly?

 

[deficiT]

ZERO states in the u.s. have "legalized", can we (humanity) please stop using that word incorrectly?

What else would you call legal recreational sale of cannabis? I mean, certainly not, il-legal right?

 

[nepalnt21]

What else would you call legal recreational sale of cannabis? I mean, certainly not, il-legal right?

hmu when i can grow 80 million weed plants and smoke it all myself with no government interference. like tobacco.

shit, some states homegrow isn't even a little allowed.

ZERO states allow you to grow a reasonable amount. no right to breed our own varieties? not legal.

cannabis is still VERY illegal, just regulated.

if you accidentally have too much, can they still throw you in jail? cause they can in my state. and they have the audacity to say we have "legalized" it. and no serious homegrow allowance... fucking bought legislature...

 

[Cheshire_Kat]

What else would you call legal recreational sale of cannabis? I mean, certainly not, il-legal right?

The word decriminalized comes to mind. In fact I think that is what the state legislatures called it. It is still technically illegal by Federal law, so there's that.

 

[deficiT]

hmu when i can grow 80 million weed plants and smoke it all myself.

shit, some states homegrow isn't even allowed.

ZERO states allow you to grow a reasonable amount.

cannabis is still VERY illegal, just regulated.

if you accidentally have too much, can they still throw you in jail? cause they can in my state. and they have the audacity to say we have "legalized" it. and no serious homegrow allowance... fucking bought legislature...

I mean you're still "allowed" to grow it to some extent tho. All manner of things are Legal &&&& Regulated. I won't argue semantics longer than two bars though, so salutations for a fine argument this morn

The word decriminalized comes to mind. In fact I think that is what the state legislatures called it. It is still technically illegal by Federal law, so there's that.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, let me see what it says here in my notes...........








____>"_>}_]-==})) FUCK THE FEDErALES+%++«}-]'

 

[nepalnt21]

semantics

i really don't think it's semantics when my life can be destroyed over a technicality.

 

[deficiT]

i really don't think it's semantics when my life can be destroyed over a technicality.

I feel like you just want to use a different word though? More power to you. Im still going to say legal because I can legally smoke marijuana on my porch or have it and not have a problem. For me, its legal, whatever but. Unfortunately laws are all very precise, wordy, and full of semantics. Of course it should be legal but nah this is for sure semantics lol

can we (humanity) please stop using that word incorrectly?

semantics
/sĭ-măn′tĭks/
noun
The study or science of meaning in language

What does legal mean?