A beginning

[viljo]

A well presented document is needed. One that can be viewed online and addresses how the introduction of cannabis affects the other rules in place.

Take australia for example...

1. At what age can you legally try cannabis if its introduced, tobacco is still restricted to under 18's.

2. Can you drive under the infulance of cannabis. Drug testing is in place over here and will become more frequent and accurate.

3. Are we talking government manufactured or home grown and if so what is the size limit.

4. Exactly were can and were not is it acceptable to smoke cannabis. Tobacco is now illegal to smoke in clubs and pubs over here.

and there's many more individual questions that will be asked by the public.

 

[Crimzen]

to 1. the answer is surely over 18s would be only logical, seeing as its an intoxicating substance like alcohol

2. I would say they would keep driving off limits, as with alcohol it slows reaction time etc etc. and yeah im in Perth and they do it pretty frequently here

3. My guess would be that it would work like the tobacco industry as we already have those set up, some may even decide to cash in on this new market and start growing for distribution

4. I think it should also be like alcohol in this respect also, at home or in designated places like 'coffee' shops in Amsterdam or in a parallel to alcohol again pubs/bars but they would be smoking bars with that specific purpose so im sure there could be some kind of exception on the indoor smoking ban, theres a club in Mandurah that has an indoor smoking room so yeah..

obviously you'd have to go into more detail but these are my opinions on each of these points
btw this is the nonsense and twisted truths that the aussie government tells australians, same old shit but its a fairly new campaign
http://www.drugs.health.gov.au/internet/drugs/publishing.nsf/Content/get-the-facts-1

We need to show the undiluted truth with no sugar coating and no bias, no confusion unlike the government "information" which is completely biased and transparently so
sincerity and professionalism should be the aim
dispel the myths about its 'dangers'

 

[viljo]

I like your approach crimzen,
so much I wondered why cannabis classification wasn't lowered. Keeping it restricted to youth completely addresses mental health concerns, yet still gives adults the freedom.

The more you look at it the more it seems to make sense. personally I've never liked choosing a side for or against.
I knew there must be some sort of compromise that would stop the inner debate going on in my mind.

I like to construct a document that has for and against arguments, then adds a compromised solution. If it turns out alright maby send it to my government.
Who knows!

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

1. At what age can you legally try cannabis if its introduced, tobacco is still restricted to under 18's.

What are the penalties for selling tobacco to someone under 18, or for someone using tobacco before they're 18? There should not be harsher penalties for cannabis. In fact they should be lower as far as I'm concerned.

2. Can you drive under the infulance of cannabis. Drug testing is in place over here and will become more frequent and accurate.

Drug testing should be on the basis of the symptoms of intoxication, just like they used to do for alcohol: "Can you walk a straight line sir? Now stand on one foot and touch your nose." Eventually they exchanged such testing for breath samples, which is fine, because they had collected enough data from their experiences with the old-fashioned tests to determine which levels of alcohol would typically make people unable to drive.

But for cannabis they skipped that part. They directly went for testing of urine samples or similar methods. And that's a crime.

So before they continue developing their methods of drug detection, they should invest some time and money in determining the effects of THC (and not drug & alcohol combinations) on driving skills in responsible adults. And not just reaction time, but driving skills in general. Because what we all care about is safety. SWIM has been a stoned driver for many years, and never got involved in an accident.

 

[imagine]

The main problem with legalising any thing is that industries have been built up around stopping these drugs getting in. Its not in the police, DEA (especially) interest to stop illegal drugs being sold. Everytime you hear about a kid getting messy and dying they get a materiel gain from the public interest and which hunts that happen. Now i believe that some drugs have the addictive potential that they cannot be appropriate managed through a market system (coke, hammer, crystal). Marijuana while having the potential for addiction is not on the same levels and the risks surrounding it are rather minimal.

To appropriate claim that a substance should be legalised a few things must happen (my opinion):
1. Appropriate large scale studies on use (daily, weekly, monthly) has on a large section of the population.
2. Infomation which is so easily distributed over the net gets checked and then verified. With so many lies floating about to hope that they might legalise will take a well set up information which can be verified through research and is not so esoteric or biased that people will dismiss it as a lie to achieve our goal.
3.Image repair. The advertising campaigns in australia that have been run in regards to marijuana have been rhetoric and we all know rhetoric is effective, but how do we repair the image of a substance (which i find beautiful)
4. Dismantling of illegal framework. Like the police, drug dealers have a very large interest in it remaining illegal. For this to happen i think it might be necessary to attack these people and organisations on their financial history and then dismantle the structure by prosecuting the head honchos and organisers, instead of allowing them to turn over their minions and continue reaping the benefits of a very unethical business.
5. Cultural attitudes. Now it really pisses me off that its socially acceptable to get so drunk that you vomitt, pass out and ruin your body for days. I cant express how much it pisses me off to see cops get if a drunk is okay when they chase me for having a joint outside the pub. To change this i have absolutely no idea. But with appropriate health data it might be possible to slowly remove (my) cultures dependance on alcohol.
6. Tax. Now what really surprises me is that the lesson of legalising alcohol was lost on the government. This seems like a very appropriate time to open a new revenue root which has the potential to reinvigorate australia's balance sheet.

Who but us the people that have experienced this illegal world have the opportunity and motivation to bring about this change?

I feel that i have missed major points so ill think about this,

Regards

 

[viljo]

Well I have advanced.
Recently the only thing that is a concern is that cannabis does not become a pharmaceutical image.
Meaning it's not manufactured and distributed commercially and forced with Propaganda.
So I was thinking that growing a fixed amount should be legal and selling to other individuals should also
be legal provided they have registered.

That way cannabis can be split into the two distinct areas.
people who wish two use it and people who wish not.

advice please!