Cannabis Legalisation Ireland

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Gretas Gonna Get Ya! wrote: »

Big shocker, eh... I make different points in different posts.

Creates a bit a problem for you though doesn't it?

How do you explain the lack of alcoholics in countries with very little culture of alcohol consumption?

Makes it very difficult to absolve yourself of blame for problem drug users in society, just because you partake in moderation...

But of course, just like alcohol, most people will bury their heads in the sand and ignore the obvious. Because it suits their agenda to do so. The selfish generation.

I think I agree with George Carlin... we are witnessing the end stages of human civilization. The closing act of our species. And although, like George, I enjoy highlighting the mistakes we are making... I am somewhat indifferent to it all in a way.

Not indifferent enough to join the herd as they march defiantly and stridently off the cliff edge, confident that they'll have a soft landing... but indifferent enough to sit back a watch it unfold.

Good old George was a pot smoker too... go figure! :pac:

I can only go on the posts you make, which were immature and generalistic. And this one neither adds to what you've already said nor resounds to what I posted.

Tony EH

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I’d be extremely hesitant about legalising weed. I’ve seen the effects this supposedly harmless drug has on people. My brother started smoking cannabis as a teenager, and he’s now like a character from that Hardy Bucks show. Hanging around a rural town with no ambitions to improve himself, or to face the reality that he’s psychologically addicted to the dissociative effects of cannabis.

He has also mentioned to me that the modern strains of weed are extremely strong, and this is the product being consumed by the majority of users. It’s a drug that is having a devastating impact on the mental health of young men.

I’d also challenge the idea that stoners are relaxed and chilled people. They become extremely angry when their supply of their drugs is affected. My brother and his friends found a large bag of cannabis at a festival a number of years back. Worth hundreds of euros. I was home on holiday at the time, and decided to burn that bag of cannabis as a way of teaching him a lesson, and to make sure he wasn’t tempted to start selling it.

The anger and bile directed at me was astonishing. It’s a nasty, insidious, and dirty drug.

I have to echo this. I have seen people close to me who can't go a day without it and anyone that says that it's not addictive is...well, blowing smoke up your arse. It might not be physically addictive in the way other drugs become. But it can form a very severe mental crutch. I've seen this first hand in several people, which indicates that there's a pattern involved somewhere.

In saying that, I'd still be in favour of decriminalisation. Getting a criminal record for having a bit of dope on you is rather silly. But I'd be loath to go to outright legalisation.

Still though, as I said earlier in the thread, the conversation around legality needs to be had. But it needs to be honest and truthful. The strains today are not without their dangers and they're a far different kettle of fish than what I would have been used to years ago, that's for sure.

hetuzozaho

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I’d be extremely hesitant about legalising weed. I’ve seen the effects this supposedly harmless drug has on people. My brother started smoking cannabis as a teenager, and he’s now like a character from that Hardy Bucks show. Hanging around a rural town with no ambitions to improve himself, or to face the reality that he’s psychologically addicted to the dissociative effects of cannabis.

He has also mentioned to me that the modern strains of weed are extremely strong, and this is the product being consumed by the majority of users. It’s a drug that is having a devastating impact on the mental health of young men.

I’d also challenge the idea that stoners are relaxed and chilled people. They become extremely angry when their supply of their drugs is affected. My brother and his friends found a large bag of cannabis at a festival a number of years back. Worth hundreds of euros. I was home on holiday at the time, and decided to burn that bag of cannabis as a way of teaching him a lesson, and to make sure he wasn’t tempted to start selling it.

The anger and bile directed at me was astonishing. It’s a nasty, insidious, and dirty drug.

Could be your brother is the problem and not the drug maybe?

I know a guy who smokes the whole time and is an award winning actor, comedian, writer, producer and director.

Like everything in life, YMMV :pac:

AdrianBalboa

hetuzozaho wrote: »

Could be your brother is the problem and not the drug maybe?

I know a guy who smokes the whole time and is an award winning actor, comedian, writer, producer and director.

Like everything in life, YMMV :pac:

What's his name?

Ted_YNWA

Mod

Attack the post, not the poster rules apply. Less of the personal digs at users. Multiple posts deleted.

Tony EH

Tony EH wrote: »

I've seen this first hand in several people, which indicates that there's a pattern involved somewhere.

The people I have seen use it are quite active and live pretty much entirely normal lives. I do a kind of guided meditation thing once a week and since I do it free I sometimes get gifts off the students.

Maruijana in various forms of grass and resin and so on has been common. The drug users who give it to me are normal people - quite spiritual and active and social.

Which all indicates that there's a pattern involved somewhere

I think the pattern in question is maybe clear. In your case - you are the common denominator - in my case I am. For whatever reason my social and extended circles have one kind of user. Yours another. The "pattern" is that we surround ourselves or encounter different people.

This is the danger of anecdote. _Neither_ of us should be using our direct experience to look for patterns as in both cases we can be misled as the data will be selective.

Tony EH wrote: »

The strains today are not without their dangers and they're a far different kettle of fish than what I would have been used to years ago, that's for sure.

Agreed. Black market strains are cut to have a much different agenda today. Which is a bad thing. Something hopefully regulation would address. I like the sound of the shops I have heard described in the US where you can walk in and tell them what you want and what your concerns are. And they try to fit a product/strain to you.

As it has been described to me - you walk in and say something like "Well I want a relaxing experience but since I have some things to do I do not want to be too distracted or out of my head - and on previous experiences I also noticed a slight tendency to paranoia when smoking weed" and the person in the shop can fit a suggestion to you with the right balance of THC CBD and so on for you.

As a very uncommon user of the drug I can not say how true any of that is. Never experienced it myself. It has a touch of the homeopathy practitioner about it. Maybe actual users on here can say more. But it certainly sounds healthier and better regulated than the "skunk" you'll be getting on a street corner.

AdrianBalboa

AdrianBalboa wrote: »

What's his name?

Could be anyone I suppose. But the Irish Podcaster Blindboy is also a smoker. His podcast is doing well enough to make him a living. He does sell out crowds when he appears live. He just completed a two book book deal and apparently has a new deal for two more books. Some of his work is up for Television Awards. As the BBC commissioned him for a series which has done well enough on the iPlayer. And some of his comedy has 20million views on you tube. Not to mention he has landed some interesting interviews with legitimate media people like Spike Lee and well known people in the US like Sami Zayn.

So I suppose "award winning actor, comedian, writer, producer and director" could almost be him for example. And he is known to smoke lightly 2-3 times a week and to go on the very occasional out of his head bender.

Don't really know any smokers that much myself. I did bump into a lovely Irish guy who smokes _a lot_ in Budapest where he runs a moderately successful restaurant and night club. Damn good food it was too. Wonder if he is still there. He looked like an 8 foot version of jesus - but very with it and intelligent and fun guy. Quite kind too as when I couldnt find a particular bar in Budapest I was looking for he took 40 minutes out of his day to walk me there personally.

chrissb8

Ultrflat wrote: »

I don't have a problem with ending prohibition on weed.

How ever I draw the line at bunch of stoners walking around Dublin in some pathetic attempt of protesting about it. While smoking joints the size of sausages and claiming this is the way to get it legalized. Because its not. It just signif's that you have no idea how to present an argument.

If you want to fight to leagalize weed then I'm behind it but do it in a way that's both informative and educational. More people are likely to listen. When you walk around monged out of your mind coming up with bull ****...

Then your only hurting your self.

Yes I partake. I don't feel the need to shove it in peoples faces.

This x1000 times. How I feel about it as well. I detest the lack of awareness at these so called protests when most can see it's half an excuse to just go out and get blazed.

I love the stuff too, but who are you most likely to listen to....a together person putting forward cogent arguments.....or some blitzed red eyed stoner that looks every bit the stereotype. Driveling off some poorly constructed arguments about how it can cure cancer or whatabouutery when comparing it to alcohol etc.

In favour of legalising it, but I just hate that group of stoner culture which I feel by and large don't represent someone like me who likes to smoke. I imagine most who smoke have jobs and live fairly productive lives and like you said, don't make a song and dance about it. Just at these protests, would make you think otherwise.

irishblessing

Tony EH wrote: »

I have to echo this. I have seen people close to me who can't go a day without it and anyone that says that it's not addictive is...well, blowing smoke up your arse. It might not be physically addictive in the way other drugs become. But it can form a very severe mental crutch. I've seen this first hand in several people, which indicates that there's a pattern involved somewhere.

In saying that, I'd still be in favour of decriminalisation. Getting a criminal record for having a bit of dope on you is rather silly. But I'd be loath to go to outright legalisation.

Still though, as I said earlier in the thread, the conversation around legality needs to be had. But it needs to be honest and truthful. The strains today are not without their dangers and they're a far different kettle of fish than what I would have been used to years ago, that's for sure.

While it's not physically addictive it can become a habit or a crutch and well, that's sad tbh. When life is difficult or overwhelming, people sometimes turn to different unhealthy things that helps them cope. Alcohol. Marijuana. Food. Eating disorder. Withdrawing or running away. Other drugs such as cocaine. Etc...The pattern is in life trauma and the effects of that not being dealt with in a more healthy way. Marijuana use does have risks for developing brains and those with psychiatric issues.
Yep, decriminalisation is certainly the way to go. Our schools are mostly older buildings in which our children are educated in some of the largest class sizes in Europe. Massively in favour of legalising and using tax revenue to improve our education sector.

irishblessing

Deleted User wrote: »

I like the sound of the shops I have heard described in the US where you can walk in and tell them what you want and what your concerns are. And they try to fit a product/strain to you.

As it has been described to me - you walk in and say something like "Well I want a relaxing experience but since I have some things to do I do not want to be too distracted or out of my head - and on previous experiences I also noticed a slight tendency to paranoia when smoking weed" and the person in the shop can fit a suggestion to you with the right balance of THC CBD and so on for you.

As a very uncommon user of the drug I can not say how true any of that is. Never experienced it myself. It has a touch of the homeopathy practitioner about it. Maybe actual users on here can say more. But it certainly sounds healthier and better regulated than the "skunk" you'll be getting on a street corner.

I can speak to this. I have family & friends in some US states, and in visiting them over the years my family and I have been to NY, Florida, Colorado, California and Oregon. My family and I were last in Oregon visiting a relative and what you described is exactly the way it is. Marijuana shops are everywhere and in the city centre called Portland marijuana shops were on every other block. You could walk in and tell them exactly the reason or effect you're after and they match it. It's all laboratory tested and has the exact strain and % of the strain mix on a label. If you don't want a high at all and need therapeutic effects they have cbd tinctures and gummies. CBD mixed with a bit of sativa or Indica depending on what you're afte as well. Pre-rolled joints or vape cartridges or gummies in fridges, or tinctures in vials. If you're worried about your lungs via smoking they have gummies or tincture drops you put under your tongue. It's absolutely incredible the choice and the employees are all informed as if they were chemists. Everything is labeled with strength % and traced back to the lab it was tested in. You could tell them you have arthritis, or insomnia, or anxiety or you want to unleash your best creative potential (haha) and they would list your best options.
I was blown away by the professionalism of it all. Workplaces there organising work parties would often have marijuana options as well as a paid bar for drink. Organic options too! Taxes on sales are tied to the state revenue and pour back in to their school system which is all accounted for. Honestly it's amazing...

^ Heh thanks I knew someone would have ins of it. Could you imagine trying to have the same conversation with your local street dealer? Response would be more something like "Deeeyaahh waaaahnt da stufffe rrr not buhd? I aaaahint got all day mahn" in that wonderful Dublin Accent we love so well

irishblessing

Deleted User wrote: »

^ Heh thanks I knew someone would have ins of it. Could you imagine trying to have the same conversation with your local street dealer? Response would be more something like "Deeeyaahh waaaahnt da stufffe rrr not buhd? I aaaahint got all day mahn" in that wonderful Dublin Accent we love so well

haha I can only imagine. I've only ever had the occasional grass from the youngest brother in law and of course no idea where it was grown or what it even is. Such a different experience altogether from my experience in the US or in Amsterdam :pac:

Thelonious Monk

Could be just me but I find all this different strain and effects thing to be bullsh*t, all properly grown indoor skunk has the same effects. The whole weed sommelier thing is a bit ridiculous.

irishblessing

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Could be just me but I find all this different strain and effects thing to be bullsh*t, all properly grown indoor skunk has the same effects. The whole weed sommelier thing is a bit ridiculous.

Sorry, but you're wrong. That's like saying all pharmaceutical drugs are the same- same effects and same strength.

Why do you say you find it bs? Have you experienced this superior system?

murphyebass

I’d be in favour If legalising it but I can’t see it happening any time soon unfortunately.

The UK will do it first then we’ll have no choice with the border situation.

What people against legalising it seem to forget is that the people who want it already get it. Those who don’t want it don’t get it.

Instead of encouraging criminal behaviour And supporting dealers countrywide it needs to be legalised and regulated.

Alcohol is available to buy for everyone but the entire country aren’t alcoholics. Kids aren’t served booze (for the most part) and it would be the same with weed.

Then there’s the tax argument as well. The country could do with a boost to the finances let’s be honest.

It’s a shame we’re so prudish as a nation.

And lastly I hate that Mary Bloggs is sitting there saying absolutely not to legalising weed whilst downing a bottle of Pinot.

The two substances are on par with each other. Both nice in their own right.

lucalux

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Could be just me but I find all this different strain and effects thing to be bullsh*t, all properly grown indoor skunk has the same effects. The whole weed sommelier thing is a bit ridiculous.

I think it's more akin to someone choosing to drink a 4% beer or half a bottle of absinthe.
Strains matter a good bit, the CBD vs THC etc, we just don't have the facilities to study the other thousands of cannabinoids, yet.

ShatterAlan

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

No good reason? Have a word with yourself, he was growing drugs. What age is the cutoff you get a free pass to do what you like then?

Frail . You sound like a red top rag.

Making 100 pints of homebrew cider and getting palatic from it is "growing your owns drugs" too.


Do you slap your kids? Because that's illegal too. Anyone who doesn't slap their kids tends to be more open-minded and would probably be in the "legalise cannabis" camp.

ShatterAlan

Gretas Gonna Get Ya! wrote: »

Yeah maaaan... legalize it all maaaannn... groovy... peace and free love dude! :rolleyes:

You seem so cool and open minded... how can I be more like YOU?

Maybe I should buy some flares too, and we can braid each others hair and sing kumbaya together!

I've no problem if anyone wants to be a pothead... knock yourself out. It's the idea that these notions are somehow revolutionary or that they're going to bring society forward into a new enlightened future.

Everyone chill out, smoke some pot and all society's issues will melt away in a beautiful haze... that's the way I thought too, when I was a smoker.

That's the way potheads think... why can't everyone else just chill out and enjoy the buzz. Your typical pothead thinks if only we could get more people to smoke, everyone would see the world in a new revolutionary way... we'd transcend all these silly problems we have and become a new breed of people!

Cannabis can be fun, but if you spend enough time on it your brain gradually turns to mush... And don't give me that BS about using it properly - everyone thinks they use it the "right" way. And they're all wrong!

You could transport all of these people back into the 60's, and their braindead ideas for society would be just as revolutionary and groundbreaking as those lads...

I'm sure 50 years from now, we'll have the same people thinking the same copy and paste thoughts too. Evolution clearly is a very slow process... (considerably slower for some people!) :pac:

Who's talking about a new society? People who are advocating it's legalisation are of the bent that it will take the criminals out of the equation. What's wrong with that.


The people who rail against legalisation are the same muppets who predicted that society would collapse if divorce was legalised. Children would be abandoned and left to roam the streets as urchins if same-sex marriage was legalised. Women would be shagging like bunnies if condoms were legalised. Then women would be shagging like bunnies WITHOUT condoms and rocking up to the clinic for an abortion like they were going to get their nails done if the 8th was repealed.

ShatterAlan

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

What’s your point, dude? This is all very rambling and quite incoherent.

It's neither rambling nor incoherent. It's quite clear and cogent. You must have attention span limitations.

Potential-Monke

I'd love to ban coffee for a month. Can't buy it in shops, cafes, restaurants, etc. I think within a week we would see the country burn. The amount of people I know who 'just can't' without their coffee in the morning is mind boggling. But it's legal so it's grand. Same for cigarettes, and the same for a lot of people after work or at weekends needing their alcohol fix.

Re: turning people into potheads. I had withdrawn from society before I became a stoner. And it's crazy that in this day and age you can choose your own gender and most people won't care, but god forbid you just don't want to deal with people, society and all the BS that comes with it, there's something wrong with you then. Just so happens that weed suits that lifestyle, but as many, many others have said that's just 1 way to enjoy it.

Even if I gave up weed (which I've had no choice in for a few months in the last year), I won't suddenly become this social animal who is suddenly amazing at sports and making friends and drinking and having a laugh. I'll still be anti-social because people suck. And I also discovered people suck well before I started smoking. Turns out the people I've met via smoking have been far, far nicer and more relaxed and welcoming of people. As taxAHcruel said, your own circle is but a small example of the wider groups of smokers you get. Personal anecdotes ain't worth squat.

ShatterAlan

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

No, it’s not my inability to understand a text. I’m a smart cookie. It’s struggling to understand the point you are trying to make about cannabis. Your post is a mixture of vagaries, rambling and unrelated themes, pop psychology, and getting bogged down in the semantics of words. All it’s missing is tedious multi quoting.

I’m sure there’s an odd person who is a chronic cannabis smoker and successful. Rather like the functioning alcoholic. They are still drug addicts through. The idea that weed is some harmless drug is the greatest myth ever spun. Most potheads are losers in life. Were they destined to be losers before they became stoners, or did cannabis accelerate the process of them becoming losers?

Are they though? This is another stupid generalisation. What's your definition of a loser in life and why would that even enter the debate about the reasons for or against legalisation?


I live between the Netherlands and Ireland. I know a lot of very wealthy people in Amsterdam. I've been to their parties. These bashes were blizzards of cocaine. If by your definition all potheads are losers then all coke-heads are winners and we should legalise cocaine so we can all be uber-rich.


Most heavy smokers and drinkers are losers when it comes to being champion athletes. They seem to make pretty good actors and politicians though.

bobbyy gee

History


https://wayofleaf.com/blog/the-history-of-cannabis-how-it-became-illegal-truth-exposed

ShatterAlan

Ultrflat wrote: »

I don't have a problem with ending prohibition on weed.

How ever I draw the line at bunch of stoners walking around Dublin in some pathetic attempt of protesting about it. While smoking joints the size of sausages and claiming this is the way to get it legalized. Because its not. It just signif's that you have no idea how to present an argument.

If you want to fight to leagalize weed then I'm behind it but do it in a way that's both informative and educational. More people are likely to listen. When you walk around monged out of your mind coming up with bull ****...

Then your only hurting your self.

Yes I partake. I don't feel the need to shove it in peoples faces.

There are many ways to bring attention to your cause. There will always be the detractors because they are reluctant to empathise. They are reluctant to see the bigger picture. Did smearing excrement on prisons walls, dying on hunger strike and bombing British soldiers help? Maybe, maybe not. But all the efforts of going the parliamentary route previously proved fruitless. Did a suffragette throwing herself in front of a horse at the Kentucky Derby help the cause? Who knows? But it damn well got people talking about the topic and it galvanized a lot of women. Did Rosa Parks refusing to sit at the back of the bus help the Civil Rights movement? You could easily argue that she should just have meekly sat at the back like a good little neegra and found a better way to make her point.

Rubberchikken

Nothing anyone will ever say will change my mind regarding legalising any drugs.
They are for wasters and losers. My opinion.

ShatterAlan

Gretas Gonna Get Ya! wrote: »

What about the fact that countries with with no real culture of alcohol consumption, or even an outright prohibition - such as in muslim countries - also tend to have very low levels of alcoholics?

And those countries with the highest consumption of alcohol, tend to have the highest amount of alcoholics!?

You cannot escape the fact that the culture of drug use creates the subculture of problem users. The bigger and more open the culture, the more problem users you will create.

If you opened public houses tomorrow, legally selling crack or heroin to anyone over 18... like we do with alcohol... (which is a much more dangerous drug btw) the country would very quickly develop many multiples of the problem users we currently have today with those drugs.

Just because most people can avoid abusing a drug doesn't mean their use has no effect on society. Ubiquitous drug use creates problem users... always has and always will.

Our culture of alcohol consumption has had disastrous consequences on millions of individuals throughout our history, and 1,000's of families have been completely destroyed by that particular drug culture. It's actually the moderate users that create the culture, that in turn destroys people's lives!

Saying I don't have a problem, and my friends don't have a problem, Steve Jobs didn't have a problem... therefore what's the problem? Sorry but that's head in the sand sort of thinking. We need more intelligent thinking than this... we need people who can look at the bigger picture, and not just view this through their own very small and misguided prism of the world.

This post is just truly pathetic. Alcohol is LEGAL in almost all Muslim countries. Iran, for your information has a chronic heroin problem from neighbouring Afghanistan. Heroin is illegal too.



Your argument that legalising something will automatically result in an epidemic of ill-effects is inane. If we legalised rape tomorrow would you run out on a spree of sexual assault? If assault was legalised would you head out with your baseball bat and engage in an orgy of random violence? Yet if cannabis was legalised the whole country would be transformed into the Land Of The Walking Monged?


What happened when Prohibition was repealed in the US. Did the whole country get wasted and grind to a halt? No.



And to refer back to your alcohol ban. Alcohol is highly restricted (almost banned) in the US state of Utah yet teens in the state are far more likely to binge drink than in any other state.

ShatterAlan

Gretas Gonna Get Ya! wrote: »

But that's what many people do when they use the drug... so why would that not be a great way to portray the drug to the masses?

Unless you would prefer to present a more dishonest picture, so as to give a more respectable image of the drug?

It's a hallucinogenic drug... so why wouldn't people who want to push it's legalization, be hallucinating while promoting it? Perfect advertisement!

Cannabis is NOT a hallucinogenic.

ShatterAlan

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

I don’t think “legalising” is a good idea. I, certainly, believe it is a waste of Garda time to be raiding grow houses or “busting” a dealer.

My main fear is people taking up weed smoking at an early age. It just isn’t good for “developing” brains. Anyone I know that smoked the weed when we were growing up, the ones who didn’t like sports, just became slow witted and unhealthy.

Most went nowhere, they’d still be living at home “puffing” their life away now. With their poor parents worried about who will look after the guy when they are gone. It’s just a very sad situation.

If it was ever to be “legalised” I would like to see excessive punishments for those found “dealing” to anyone under 18. We really don’t need anymore of these infantilised, grown assed, man-children, addicted to the weed, and computer games, and being cared for by their, pension age, parents.

Would you prefer they had a criminal record and still smoked their life away?

AngryHippie

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

Well enough to be growing the **** though. Bottom line: it’s illegal.

Hate to break it to you.....Its a weed. Thats where the name comes from. Drop some seed in the ground and it grows. You don't have to pedal it or nurture it or drag it out of the ground. Rain and daylight and hey presto.

Cultivating is a drastic overstatement of what is required to grow dooby.

It grows like nettles or briars.

He wasn't funding organized crime, he wasn't funnelling money into the black market, he wasn't doing anything destructive at all.

The criminal justice system is way out of date in this regard and Dail Eireann completely out of its comfort zone in this regard because it is afraid of some mad electoral backlash that doesn't exist. It is just a gallery of tutting biddies and whatabout merchants with a lot of nodding and winking from the Vintners that are stopping anything being done about this.

Decriminalization or re-scheduling would be a very basic step that can allow people to openly participate and have informed discussion first hand, not just with the drastic case-workers that have seen psychosis, but the other tens of thousands of people who harmlessly have a toke or a cookie for their amusement, for pain relief, for relaxation or for recreation. It would eliminate the judgement and stigma and allow an actual adult conversation about it.

Instead people who know nothing about it run around convincing each other they know best and heap sh!t on anyone that dares contradict them with inconvenient facts, social norms in countries or states that have already taken the step and are seeing the impacts (not all positive, but net positive)

Stating that "bottom line: its illegal" is practically trolling in a thread titled cannabis legalisation Ireland. It adds nothing to the conversation, and just repeats the bleeding obvious

ShatterAlan

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I’d be extremely hesitant about legalising weed. I’ve seen the effects this supposedly harmless drug has on people. My brother started smoking cannabis as a teenager, and he’s now like a character from that Hardy Bucks show. Hanging around a rural town with no ambitions to improve himself, or to face the reality that he’s psychologically addicted to the dissociative effects of cannabis.

He has also mentioned to me that the modern strains of weed are extremely strong, and this is the product being consumed by the majority of users. It’s a drug that is having a devastating impact on the mental health of young men.

I’d also challenge the idea that stoners are relaxed and chilled people. They become extremely angry when their supply of their drugs is affected. My brother and his friends found a large bag of cannabis at a festival a number of years back. Worth hundreds of euros. I was home on holiday at the time, and decided to burn that bag of cannabis as a way of teaching him a lesson, and to make sure he wasn’t tempted to start selling it.

The anger and bile directed at me was astonishing. It’s a nasty, insidious, and dirty drug.

So it being illegal had zero effect on his penchant to partake then.

AngryHippie

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Could be just me but I find all this different strain and effects thing to be bullsh*t, all properly grown indoor skunk has the same effects. The whole weed sommelier thing is a bit ridiculous.

Ever noticed the difference between a cappucino, flat white and a latte....Thats just toying with the milk.

Different strains do 100% have different impacts.

Some nice dutch purple haze would have you welded to the couch with a packet of cookies listening to dark side of the moon. AK47 would have you perked up and looking for stimulation even though a bit gooey and lethargic. These are some of the basic historical strains that came out of the dutch cultivation movement. It has become a bit of a science. Some of the differences are orange carrrot/purple carrot and not that noticeable, others are much more extreme.

The longer the black market is allowed to run as it has been, the more extreme the strains will become as they try to charge higher prices for a lower grow cost. Thats just business as far as they are concerned.

All of the above being said, decriminalisation would help to reduce the 'rebel' appeal to teenagers and move it away from school gates. If that was the only benefit, it would be worth it. Teens are vulnerable enough and suggestible enough without having the pressure of putting something that can actually do harm at their stage of brain development