So not nearly as destructive as alcohol.

Thankfullly drug driving is now an offence with number being convicted increasing daily.
Pot smoking is as bad as drink driving and causing deaths. It appears some of the SN massive are habitual offenders.

It's another reason I wouldn't do it now. When I was doing it you could get stopped and plod wouldn't do anything but search your car as drug driving wasn't even an offence then. If anything I stuck to the speed limits religiously to try and avoid getting searched after having a smoke but would no way take that risk now as it is considered as bad as drink driving. I'll take the freedom of driving legally over being at home getting stoned and it staying in your blood for days and risk getting nicked for drug driving.

Also back then when I walked in to work of a morning it was a running joke with colleagues and my manager about it must have been a good night etc and laughing about looking a state. Now it would be a sackable offence if you turned up to work like that or it was known you'd been taking any drugs.

Things are far more harsh now if caught out for doing it and so how is that enjoyable knowing you can't drive without the risk of being nicked or getting sacked from work if anyone finds out you do it.

Yea if you smoke a joint dont drive for 6 weeks till ur piss is clear hah

I have tried it. What ever it is meant to do for you, it didn't work for me. lol

In fact what does it do? Is it meant to be like having a few beers?

lol. I am super ignorant on this subject

I agree, but that's not a reason to make it legal

Not nearly as destructive or addictive as some prescription drugs either.
Fact is that cannabis can now legally be bought online and on the high street.

Totally agree. At least it’s nice to see it’s being discussed more and more. I think legalization is overdue.
The big point for me is, it’s been banned for many decades and that hasn’t worked at all. The policy is a complete failure, the drugs are still everywhere, the drug producing countries get corrupted and the ones making huge profits are the organized crime.
Only when it’s legal can we attempt to regulate it with age restrictions, quality control, harm reduction, education, medical help. All this while taking away the biggest revenue stream from organized crime and making huge amounts of tax money. And we save huge amounts in policing and prison costs.
Time for change.

The amount of none smokers that engaged in conversation about it was amazing after that TV show Gone to Pot,
even my mother was interested.

I think you would.

Its a bit like smoking. All legal to buy in shops from a certain age. Once that person his hooked, they will want to reduce the amount they spend, so will look for a local fag house to buy from - where they get the same amount for half price. Hence with drugs, the local drug dealers will not want to go out of business if its legalised so will look to sell bigger amounts at a lower price.

Most of the 'cool kids' still smoke from an early age as its freely available for them (always cigarettes lying around the house from parents etc) so just because its legal, it will not stop them.

Soon, you will have loads of 'drug houses' selling un-taxed drugs to the masses leading to loads of people being constantly under the influence of drugs. And drug addiction will go through the roof with all the problems it creates.

At present, only about 6-7% of people use drugs. Compare that to the 20% who smoke cigarettes and that's where the percentage level of drug users will head towards.

That will put a huge burden on the NHS etc and the rest of the tax paying public.

Has this happened in the countries it has been made legal in then ?

for medicinal use yes rec use no, as a teen i watched 4 out of five old mates all move on to coke then lsd then heroin and 30 years later 2 are still on h one died and the other one is and has been clean for years

How was this the cannabis ?
I know many that took pills back in the day, didnt touch pot,
also if we are linking things people did, 99% of all killers drink milk, but milk is still ok.

1 in 5 smoke cigarettes ??!

There are people who move to the next and better high. Like alcohol, for some just a quick straightener, then two then Wetherspoons on an afternoin session followed by on it all day. From beer to spirits.

Not read any further. This says it all to me. I've never done drugs but could do very easily if I wanted, so easy to get hold of. So sell it and tax it.

Related; the mother in law has MS and I've offered to get her some to try, but she refuses out blank because it's illegal. I think that's a shame. Me and the Mrs have considered getting some anyway and slipping it in something but we are not sure if you have to smoke it to get the benefits.

It appears so

https://elpais.com/elpais/2016/05/09...21_992773.html

It is the Daily Fail but the content is not. It does seem to reflect the cannabis users I have met.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...nal-study.html

Absolutely not, sprinkling some on a pizza as a little extra herb or some crumbled in a cup of tea all works nicely etc. Basically put it in or on anything as ingesting it orally still works as well as smoking it.

However giving it to someone against their wishes is obviously more the issue even if it is for medical reasons.

i know plenty of losers who have never touched drugs

Perhaps if drug were legal there would be less limbs being blown off over in Afghan too but then where would all the cannon fodder go ?

war on drugs failing just like war on terror.

Any drain on nhs would be paid back tenfold by cannabis users

in the same wae tobacco and alchohol users pay their way and subsidise the rest of society.

Well that is not my experience, I was working for a top 5 investment bank at the time and my career only went forward thankfully so that is not a way to pigeonhole cannabis users.

Users are from all walks of life so I think it's completely unrepresentative overall. However with how it's no longer tolerated by employers I think habitual users face a much tougher time now trying to hold down a decent job and keeping it quiet from their employer. If you get caught you get sacked.

just got back from Lanzarote where I found myself a nice coffee shop and sat down and had a smoke without any problems ,, no signs of anyone selling it anywhere else apart from there and no smell you normally get when on the beach on holiday so looks to me like its keeping it where it should be over there and everyone seems happy with it so to me there set up is working fine ,,, I know it made my holiday more relaxing and its on the places to return lol,, Amsterdam was too bloody cold lol

lol.I found a kilo of Morrocco's finest washed up on the rocks in the north of Lanzarote a few years ago . It's a very relaxing island!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...bute-tax-take/

Tax revenue per year from smoking is about 12.3 billion
Costs to society per year from smoking (incl NHS) is about 14 billion

You could project that cannabis would yield about the same figures - so it wouldn't be a 'tenfold' payback

You could argue that the problems in the middle east would be worse, as everyone would be paranoid with each other leading to more violence.

War on drugs failing? - is it when 93-94% of the population don't touch the stuff.
You still have people drink driving, so has the war on that failed and should that be legalised?

I live in Holland (Amsterdam) where cannabis is legal. Only 6% of the population have tried cannabis so arguments legalizing it will cause more people to use it are not supported by facts. There are no downsides to legalizing it.

Heroine comes from Afghanistan. The majority if cannabis in the UK is home grown.
Your statement is just detracting from fact. A moot point therefore.

You forget that there's a very real limit to how low illegal sellers/producers could or would be willing to drop their prices, given that even after legalization they would be facing the same potentially lengthy prison sentences for large scale distribution and supply if caught and convicted as they would have done prior to legalization. Would they run the same risk as lightly as they do now with a profit-margin cut 5 or 10-fold, if not more? I highly doubt it.

Sorry, but you're going to have to join the dots up for us here and explain how you've come to these conclusions. Just to be clear, in no legalization scenarios that I've ever heard of, whether hypothetical or real, has it ever been the case that the untaxed/illicit trade was suddenly free to do as it pleased without attracting the same level of unwanted (for them) attention from law-enforcement as under prohibition.

If that's 6-7% of the total population, and we work on the assumption that drug-use among under 14s and over 65s is at almost negligible levels, that actually means that over 10% of the of-age population takes them. Hardly a glowing indictment for the success of prohibition.

As with much of the rest of your post, this assumes there will be a sudden surge in the numbers of people who will not only try cannabis for the first time, after legalization, but begin consuming it in large enough quantities and/or frequently enough to have a significant impact on their health. Has this happened in Colorado or anywhere else where legalisation is now a fact? Do hypothetical/predictive analysises support that such a trend would occur? Have you even bothered to look for research into either of these things, to see what it actually says? Nothing you've said so far suggests that you have.

i cant honestly understand why you would want to take drugs.

is your life that bad that you need to be out of your face to cope?

i cant imagine that many of you weed users would be happy if a person under the influence of it mowed down a loved one yet you call for it to be legal.........idiots.

drugs (illegal or not) bring problems,housing estates would become full of people walking around like zombies because they could smoke it like its going out of fashion.would you really want your kids growing up around that?

i worked on the doors for many years and ive seen 1st hand the shocking behaviour people get up to when they are on any sort of drugs. paranoia,violence,theft,hallucinations,anxiety etc etc. alcohol is a massive issue too and i believe the uk has very relaxed laws regarding drinking.

why the hell would you want to make it easier for people to get there hands on drugs? makes no sense to me at all, drugs should stay illegal-end of and anybody that needs them to get through life (apart from a medicinal purpose) do us a favor and end your ****ing misery.

plus weed stinks,i mean it really ****ing stinks-why for the love of god would you wanna walk around smelling like that..............