Rolling Cannabis Politics Thread

documentation:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-10-cannabis-symptoms-crohn-disease-effect.html

iirc this was Israeli research and shows the benefits of being able to do lab research in a legalized environment, we really need to get cannabis off of Schedule 1.

JiC -- i think you are being unfairly dismissive wrt mental health benefits of mm
I'm sure it helps suppress nausea and increase appetite, and probably alleviate some anxiety and stuff like that

Not to mention there are very few medications available for appetite loss, which can be life threatening if you think about it.

I have Crohn's too, thankfully only ever had 1 flareup. I cannot imagine using only mj to treat the pain. Though really the only time I needed opioids was post-op. Oh and I guess codeine due to infection spreading & nerve damage to leg from botched interventional radiology session. But for nausea and lack-of-appetite, sure.

The only thing I wanted to eat during my flare-up was Arby's lol go figure

I was about to ask, is Crohn's one of the conditions, like glaucoma, where it has shown some demonstrated benefit?

Obviously if it works it works. I just can't imagine people with severe chronic pain and/or serious addictions to opiates finding comfort through cannabis. Now, about ten years ago I had a kidney stone, and it was the most painful thing ever. They gave me this huge jar of Vicodin, iirc, and though I only ended up using maybe three pills over the course of a week, I do recall it made me feel sort of hazy but not much more than that. Maybe it might work like that? (The urologist, incidentally, told me that were my stone not as large as it was he would have just prescribed a six-pack of beer.)

And I was not at all being dismissive of mental health benefits. I even say it probably helps!

that link doesn't specify which sx were alleviated

Again, I don't think cannabis is dangerous, and it clearly does have benefits for some people for some things. Future studies will likely bear that out. I just think it's being oversold as a miracle drug panacea is all.

xp how about this one:

https://www.tikunolam.com/article.php?id=1107

90% Significant Reduction of Crohn's Disease Symptoms with No Side Effects;

Verification of full Remission in 50%

I know people who take it for fibromyalgia as well and report [to me] amazing results.

I think the more studies the better.

i find marijuana to be effective pain and sleep medication following a year of severe neck issues. still haven't quite figured out how to vape properly but, in coordination with 800mg of ibuprofen, i can get through the night and keep my sanity.

Seen a couple of articles lately about how predicted economic benefits of cannabis have not quite panned out because the high prices and taxes have actually driven people to the black market.

Here's an admittedly early one about Canada:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/canada-legalized-pot-in-october-but-its-black-market-is-still-going-strong/2019/01/04/ca09a3b0-fe53-11e8-a17e-162b712e8fc2_story.html

But here's one about CA and how the state's massive surplus has been largely going elsewhere, and how sales have actually *dropped* since recreational legalization:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/us/buying-legal-weed-in-california.html

has usage gone down though too? isn't a longterm policy goal to curb recreational usage of this "dangerous" substance, like what's happened with cigarettes?

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43ej5n/now-that-weed-is-legal-in-canada-we-asked-college-students-if-its-still-cool

Yeah, there's some funny stuff happening. Legalizing cannabis was intended, in part, to counter the black market. But the black market is thriving because of surplus (or shortages!) of high quality legal cannabis, and also because the high tax on legal cannabis is driving people to cheaper alternatives, which in turn means less tax revenue than predicted. But that would have happened anyway, since usage is dropping. So legalization, at least to some degree, is bolstering the black market even as the bottom drops out due to surplus driven by ... legalization. Which is or may be bringing in less taxes than predicted because some people would rather skip the tax-imposing middle man and just go straight to the source. Which means the only way to encourage or increase legal sales would be to ... stop the sale of pot on the black market, which brings us back to square one.

https://lcb.wa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/annual_report/2017-annual-report-final2-web.pdf

WA collected $315 million in sales tax (37% on retail) on weed in fiscal 2017, $113 million more than from liquor. Sales of $259 million in 2015, $786 million in 2016, $1.3B in 2017.

What a disaster for low-income health care.

Cannabis taxes are significantly higher than liquor taxes. Regardless, the more taxes/money made for the state the better.

So I wonder why sales are not as robust in CA as in WA? Or, flipped, why a state with a fraction of the population of CA would have numbers so high (relative to size)? Is it because CA is priced/taxed too high?

For a decade, cannabis had already been legal in CA if you were happy spending 10 minutes and $30 to get a licence. Prosecution/enforcement of illegal consumption had therefore dropped enormously. Licences for legal stores had not been adequately established by 1/1/2018, and stocks still ran out in the first week.

(Similarly, long-standing legal dispensaries in Vancouver are now illegal under national legalisation, but federal response is to shrug and guess it’ll get sorted out sometime, so leave them alone for now.)

A few months’ data from a state here and a territory there is not really representative of an overall market. WA has been legal for six years, with walk-in stores open for 4.5 years. Wait a bit before you draw any conclusions about markets that have opened since some ilxors changed their sheets.

Just seems weird that sales should *drop* in CA the first year of full legalization. You'd think they'd at least hold steady.

Sic otm

How does Washington deal with the banking problems? Like, one of the big issues in California is that because it is still illegal at the federal level, banks aren't willing to finance weed companies, and in many cases (idk) not even allow them to have bank accounts.

not sure how safe my thoughts are to begin with tbh

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/14/is-marijuana-as-safe-as-we-think?

Does it affect motivation and cognition? Hard to say, but probably.

i think it's safe to accept anecdotal evidence here

Is that the Malcolm Gladwell piece? Fuck that guy and his flimsy rhetorical questions.

thanks now i know not to even open the link

Wasn't there an Onion story? Marijuana linked to sitting around and getting high?

Wow what a worthless article

sure ice cream is good... but is it good FOR you? the answer might not surprise you.

it's really interesting how one of the most notorious bars among the boston college cohort possibly being turned into a recreational dispensary is making people lose their minds

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2019/01/07/recreational-marijuana-shop-proposed-mary-anns-cleveland-circle-boston/
http://bcheights.com/2018/10/13/report-potential-conversion-of-mary-anns-to-dispensary-draws-bc-cleveland-circle-merchants-opposition/

haha, I love this, I lived right near there for many years, can't wait to go back and buy some w33d!

How does Washington deal with the banking problems?

Three WA credit unions and 2 WA banks handle hundreds of businesses each; at POS, stores are all cash (or bitcoin) and have ATMs inside ime

Just seems weird that sales should *drop* in CA the first year of full legalization. You'd think they'd at least hold steady.

You're basing this on one second-hand citation from one company

with no figures or methodology given

i lived right there for a few years too! never went in. i hated that neighborhood, except for the reservoir. living there and working at BC at the same time was ... too much BC

the location is perfect because of nearby parking

lol what

possibly the thing i hated most about that neighborhood was owning a car in it

I definitely abuse the ol marijuana

cvs has a lot i guess?

oh right and i guess there is that meter lot across the circle too

Other than caffeine name me a psychoactive drug where people self-regulate their dosage that is proved to be safer than weed.

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/03/08/39549859/study-washingtons-pot-is-way-cheaper-than-weed-in-california-nevada-or-colorado

I forgot there were two different threads on which JiC was tenaciously arguing against both weed legalisation and the general existence of facts

Well a vote to legalize recreational adult use through the legislature was called off just now in NJ . This is because a majority democratic senate could not whip their own fucking caucus to vote yes . fucking losers

They want the political cover of having the voters endorse it directly, keeping their own fingerprints off it. I guess the calculation is that there are more voters who'd punish them for a yes vote than voters who would reward them.

or that the anti-weed squad is vocal and active minority who will go gunning for anyone who step over the line

serious question, who are these people who are so adamantly against legalization?

Squares

Liquor and beer companies, pharmaceutical companies, private prison companies and a handful of rich wackjobs who still think Reefer Madness was a documentary.

Xpost afraid they will turn into chilled out junkies. 🙄

in a nice bit of irony the closest dispensary to me - a block from my apartment - is no longer selling weed, directly because of legalization. dispensaries were tolerated while illegal, now they have to be regulated to stay open.

Illinois approves legal weed, expunging criminal records for pot crimes

Money raised by the new taxes would first be dedicated to expunging about 770,000 minor cannabis-related cases. Expungement has long been a goal of marijuana-legalization advocates, who argue the federal government's war on drugs disproportionately targeted minorities. Other states have similar provisions, usually added after the fact, but Illinois' law is the first to contain such a sweeping expungement provision from the start.