Cannabis laws

[djembe2008]

I want to see the varied opinions people have on this..
http://legalisecannabis.ie/

Do you think cannabis should be legalised? With all things, I feel there are positive and negative aspects to the decision.

Positive: The Netherlands has one of the lowest (if not the lowest) rates of opiate abuse in Europe. Funny coincidence? People can get cannabis - and half the time won't bother trying it - so they don't feel the need for taking stuff CNS stimulants/depressants (AKA the bad drugs!). This would lower the number of hospital beds being taken up from overdoses from such drugs..
Purity will be a necessity! Therefore, there won't be any 'diesel hash'... If you have 10 euro's worth of hash, you can soak it in diesel and have a lump the size of 25 euro worth of hash. Dangerous..
I guess perhaps one could say taxes! Add a bit of a tax onto cannabis, so the government benefit from it too (whether they smoke it or just make use of the money..)
There has not been ONE recorded death due to hash/weed/honey oil. How about, ban alcohol, and we can use cannabis?

Negative? Well, it's the same as alcohol, so drink/driving is a problem.
Also, the same as alcohol, people will be smoking it underage.. But that will happen regardless. There would always be the one or two kids in the class who Daddy lets have a few tokes of a joint, the same as you growing up with alcohol.

My main idea, is that people have a propagandised perspective on drugs. They are perceived as bad, horrible things that keep us away from reality. Hello, what does alcohol do? People do drink to AVOID reality :P

Anyway, that's my two cents.. Yay or Nay: Legalise Cannabis?

[CitiZenJon]

I believe consumption of the substance does in many cases cause psychological harm to a greater or lesser degree.
However this 'damage' does not manifest itself in public order offense statistics (alcohol or class A drug related). The negative aspects to hashish consumption in Ireland might instead be observed in suicide figures and unemployment rates.
Sure, sure, there are many exceptions, because use of the drug permeates every strata of Irish society.

[stewiegriffin]

There is no logical reason for criminalizing cannabis ,its prohibition is purely political .

[headworms]

The government in my opinion shouldn't have the power or want to prohibit or control any substance. If we had a government that listened or cared abouts its people and didn't treat us like cattle it wouldn't be illegal.

That aside it should really be legalised so the tax could sort out something like the health care system.

[A_man_about_a_dog]

We've already had this discussion in great length on this site (see here).

Many people for legalisation, or at least decriminalisation, myself included. Also many against, but usually only for the whole "drugs are bad, mmmmmkay" argument.

There was many a good suggestion on the old thread about possible systems of legalisation including the possibility of a licence system for growing one or two plants for personal use. Also been suggested that we avoid the coffee-shop set-up, like the Netehrlands has, if we want to avoid the touristy element of it.

Anyway, not going into too much detail here, my views and those of many others have been set out in great detail on the old thread!

[Gimpanzee]

Decriminalise growing your own on a small scale.
Licence people over 21 who grow their own.
Decriminalise possession for small quantities of weed (not hash) who are unlicenced.
And leave it at that.

[headworms]

Decriminalise growing your own on a small scale.
Licence people over 21 who grow their own.
Decriminalise possession for small quantities of weed (not hash) who are unlicenced.
And leave it at that.

Why have such restrictions? For one I wouldn't register that I'm growing just so I can be the first to be stung when it is illegalised again.

[Gimpanzee]

Decriminalise growing your own on a small scale.
Licence people over 21 who grow their own.
Decriminalise possession for small quantities of weed (not hash) who are unlicenced.
And leave it at that.

Why have such restrictions? For one I wouldn't register that I'm growing just so I can be the first to be stung when it is illegalised again.

So you're going to get stung for something I just suggested? That's a mad post.

I believe there should be a threshold of difficulty involved in getting access to cannabis. Anyone who has the patience and intelligence to grow weed can afford to lose a few brain cells.

[imokyrok]

I worked in vocational rehabilitation for 15 years. It truely amazing how people will overcome all kinds of disadvantage and disability to develop work skills. The one sad exception again and again were those who were psychologically addicted to dope. It just seemed to rob them of any motivation to progress. I wouldn't be in any hurry to increase access to this mind-numbing substance.

[headworms]

I was writing hypothetically, or else I don't understand what you meant by that.

This difficulty threshold idea ... wouldn't that difficulty put people in prison, fines etc.. and still continue to impede our freedom?

I worked in vocational rehabilitation for 15 years. It truely amazing how people will overcome all kinds of disadvantage and disability to develop work skills. The one sad exception again and again were those who were psychologically addicted to dope. It just seemed to rob them of any motivation to progress. I wouldn't be in any hurry to increase access to this mind-numbing substance.

Your talking about hash right? the low thc, high on rubber and plastic drug people only smoke because there isn't proper access to clean weed?