Drug legalization thread

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white sauce: Apr 29, 2012; by R. Guyovich

ColoradoCleric posted:

So you don't have people who give their card and ID to someone else so they can purchase it illegally.

But places like bars and dispensaries card before you walk in.

# ? Apr 15, 2014 22:51

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# ? Jun 1, 2024 04:03

ColoradoCleric: Dec 26, 2012; by FactsAreUseless

Tight Booty Shorts posted:

But places like bars and dispensaries card before you walk in.

So then what's the point?

# ? Apr 15, 2014 22:53

DeadmansReach: Mar 7, 2006; Thinks Jewish converts should be genocided to make room for the "real" Jews.

Put this anti-Semite on ignore immediately!

If they card you when you walk in then you could just use a vending machine instead of demanding the time of an employee. It's just self checkout.

# ? Apr 15, 2014 22:55

ColoradoCleric: Dec 26, 2012; by FactsAreUseless

DeadmansReach posted:

If they card you when you walk in then you could just use a vending machine instead of demanding the time of an employee. It's just self checkout.

You're also losing the ability to talk about the variety of strains offered or have any recommendations offered to the customer and will have significantly less variety offered.

# ? Apr 15, 2014 22:57

white sauce: Apr 29, 2012; by R. Guyovich

ColoradoCleric posted:

You're also losing the ability to talk about the variety of strains offered or have any recommendations offered to the customer and will have significantly less variety offered.

So?

# ? Apr 15, 2014 22:58

DeadmansReach: Mar 7, 2006; Thinks Jewish converts should be genocided to make room for the "real" Jews.

Put this anti-Semite on ignore immediately!

Yeah the only benefit to the customer here is obviously convenience. The vendor has the greatest interest in getting these machines out to be sure.

# ? Apr 15, 2014 22:59

ColoradoCleric: Dec 26, 2012; by FactsAreUseless

Tight Booty Shorts posted:

So?

If the problem is you can't process customers fast enough you're gonna be better off just opening up another register.

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:00

computer parts: Nov 18, 2010; PLEASE CLAP

ColoradoCleric posted:

You're also losing the ability to talk about the variety of strains offered or have any recommendations offered to the customer and will have significantly less variety offered.

There exists a type of person who doesn't want variety and just wants comfort food/weed/etc. A vending machine would work well for them and it would free up employees to help people who are genuinely curious.

e: Hey, it's my first red title.

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:00

ColoradoCleric: Dec 26, 2012; by FactsAreUseless

DeadmansReach posted:

Yeah the only benefit to the customer here is obviously convenience. The vendor has the greatest interest in getting these machines out to be sure.

Pretty much just comes across as a gimmick unless your target market is some sort of autistic that can't handle any human interaction whatsoever.

ColoradoCleric fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Apr 15, 2014

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:02

cafel: Mar 29, 2010; This post is hurting the economy!

ColoradoCleric posted:

You're also losing the ability to talk about the variety of strains offered or have any recommendations offered to the customer and will have significantly less variety offered.

Sometimes I want to discuss expensive foreign cheeses with a cheese monger who owns their own specialized shop in which there's a lot of discussion and recommendations. Sometimes I want to grab a giant brick of cheddar cheese at the local grocery story and take it quickly and conveniently through self checkout. Thankfully both options exists and I'm not forced to choose between one or the other for life.

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:05

ColoradoCleric: Dec 26, 2012; by FactsAreUseless

If your target market wants to look at all your weed like a big candy store then it might be a bad investment.

That or your cashier is really bad at getting people through the line.

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:07

ColoradoCleric: Dec 26, 2012; by FactsAreUseless

Also depending on your municipality/medical marijuana law it may be required that you have a separate room for dispensing and only allowed 1 customer in it at a time so you're just going to have your customer fumbling with a vending machine will your bud tender just sits there.

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:23

DeadmansReach: Mar 7, 2006; Thinks Jewish converts should be genocided to make room for the "real" Jews.

Put this anti-Semite on ignore immediately!

Yes, just like ATMs, these awkward and soulless machines will never appeal to the pot smoking public.

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:33

white sauce: Apr 29, 2012; by R. Guyovich

Why do we need ATM's when we have banks :lol:

e: only autistic people would ever use an ATM, because everyone else just goes to a teller and chats them up while they count their cash

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:36

How are u: May 19, 2005; by Azathoth

The merits of pot vending machines seems like an argument well worth having!

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:38

ColoradoCleric: Dec 26, 2012; by FactsAreUseless

Yes I'm sure pot vending machines will be in every building and every street corner like alcohol vending machines.

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:39

Nonsense: Jan 26, 2007

How far along is the movement for marijuana as legal tender?

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:40

white sauce: Apr 29, 2012; by R. Guyovich

How are u posted:

The merits of pot vending machines seems like an argument well worth having!

You're right, it's stupid. Have a lovely article instead!

quote:

Law enforcement from neighboring states agree, Colorado has strongest marijuana in the world

When it comes to quality and potency, Colorado pot is at the high end of the spectrum.

"There is no place in the world where you can buy as strong marijuana legally as you can in Colorado," said Mark Overman, sheriff of Scotts Bluff County, Neb. "It's the most powerful stuff you can find."

Overman is also the operational coordinator of the Western Nebraska Intelligence & Narcotics Group, which covers 11 panhandle counties.

Colorado pot's muscle has also been felt in Oklahoma.

Mark Woodward, spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drug Control, compares it with cannabis from California.

"It's some of the most powerful marijuana we've ever tested," he said. "Some of the most powerful marijuana we have found on earth is coming out of California and Colorado. It's frightening."

Potency and quality of Colorado cannabis have been on an upward spiral for several years, said Genifer Murray, founder and CEO of CannLabs Inc., a Denver-based testing lab for medical and nonmedical cannabis products.

"As far as potency, there's no doubt," Murray said. "Since we started testing years ago, the numbers are exponentially higher. In the 1980s, it was 3 to 5 percent. Now we have seen our highest pot for THC at 29.4 percent."

That would qualify Colorado pot as "skunk" pot in Amsterdam, where you can buy your marijuana at coffee houses.

There, skunk pot is marijuana with a THC level higher than 15 percent.

The Dutch government has proposed a ban on pot at that level, calling it a "hard drug" that could lead to addiction.

But it's an ongoing battle.

"In Amsterdam, they consider it on a par with heroin if it's more than 15 percent," Overman said.

Why is Colorado pot such powerful stuff?

"Because of the quality controls and standards," said Colorado Springs pot entrepreneur KC Stark.

Stark is the president of Marijuana Business Academy.

He also owns Studio A64, a club on Colorado Avenue that allows its members to indulge, which has become a point of contention with the city of Colorado Springs.

"The market in Colorado has matured enough that it has reached a level of consistency and professionalism," he said. "We are taxed and highly regulated like any other industry and it is quite amazing what that's done to us. We are forced to be remarkably efficient and caring in every step and every breath we take. That's not an exaggeration."

Indeed, Stark said Colorado is drawing California pot producers.

"Many of them are coming here for the jobs," he said.

Murray agreed.

Colorado pot growers, she said, are "doing things with the plant that we've never done before."

Facilities "are very controlled, versus before when it was mainly cartels growing it outside."

There have also been advances in plant nutrients that have led to stronger, higher quality cannabis, she said.

"It shouldn't be a surprise that things are moving up the scale in potency," Murray said.

In some markets, such as Nebraska, Colorado pot is driving out Mexican weed.

"People don't want the Mexican pot any more," Overman said. "The Colorado pot is way better."

In Nebraska, an ounce of Colorado pot costs about $400, he said. Mexican pot goes for between $100 and $150 an ounce.

"I've spent 17 years as a drug cop," he said. "You can look at this pot, and you can smell it and you can tell by the odor. The people who use pot can tell, too."

It's even packaged differently, Woodward said.

From Mexico, it comes in the form of compressed bricks.

Colorado and California pot is more professionally wrapped, he said. It is packed in air tight, clear packaging.

The displacement of Mexican pot by Colorado pot could have dire consequences, said Tom Gorman, director of Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program.

"So you run a retail store and you make $200,000 a week - expect to see Mexicans come into the picture if they see an opportunity," Gorman said. "It's a great resource for them, there's little danger involved and extortion is one of their big ways of making money."

Eventually, he said, "It's either going to be the cartels or it's going to be the tobacco industry. There's a lot of concern about that. You don't think some of the tobacco companies aren't looking at this as the next tobacco industry?"

http://gazette.com/law-enforcement-from-neighboring-states-agree-colorado-has-strongest-marijuana-in-the-world/article/1518194

Mexicans?

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:41

ColoradoCleric: Dec 26, 2012; by FactsAreUseless

Yes I'm sure extortion is going to be a problem in a state with as open gun laws as we have.

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:43

Nonsense: Jan 26, 2007

The cartels are all over the southwest, owners of plenty of glitzy restaurants and night clubs these pols attend every weekend. What a poo poo article.

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:45

ColoradoCleric: Dec 26, 2012; by FactsAreUseless

Also if you keep calling it marijuana you're contributing to the drug war propaganda by using a term that's historically been tied to racism. It's called Cannabis.

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:49

cafel: Mar 29, 2010; This post is hurting the economy!

quote:

Eventually, he said, "It's either going to be the cartels or it's going to be the tobacco industry. There's a lot of concern about that. You don't think some of the tobacco companies aren't looking at this as the next tobacco industry?"

Haha, if there's anything America absolutely will not stand for, it's allowing giant corporations to exist. I wonder if it would be a problem if weed became the next alcohol industry?

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:49

Nonsense: Jan 26, 2007

cafel posted:

Haha, if there's anything America absolutely will not stand for, it's allowing giant corporations to exist. I wonder if it would be a problem if weed became the next alcohol industry?

Which popular contemporary song will be used in the first Super Bowl commercial?

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:50

ColoradoCleric: Dec 26, 2012; by FactsAreUseless

In a state with high emphasis on custom brewing of alcohol we will turn into a mass market corporate ownership of cannabis.

# ? Apr 15, 2014 23:56

AYC: Mar 9, 2014; Ask me how I smoke weed, watch hentai, everyday and how it's unfair that governments limits my ability to do this. Also ask me why I have to write in green text in order for my posts to stand out.

ColoradoCleric posted:

Also if you keep calling it marijuana you're contributing to the drug war propaganda by using a term that's historically been tied to racism. It's called Cannabis.

Marijuana has lost all of its original racist connotations, and is now exclusively used as a neutral term to refer to a drug. "You're not allowed to say 'marijuana' because it was offensive 80 years ago" is just stupid.

# ? Apr 16, 2014 00:30

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Also we don't need to stop using marijuana because words sounding slightly spanish no longer implies that such things are bad.

# ? Apr 16, 2014 00:32

AYC: Mar 9, 2014; Ask me how I smoke weed, watch hentai, everyday and how it's unfair that governments limits my ability to do this. Also ask me why I have to write in green text in order for my posts to stand out.

Jeffrey posted:

Also we don't need to stop using marijuana because words sounding slightly spanish no longer implies that such things are bad.

You said it, chico. :sun:

# ? Apr 16, 2014 00:38

Nintendo Kid: Aug 4, 2011; by Smythe

ColoradoCleric posted:

Also if you keep calling it marijuana you're contributing to the drug war propaganda by using a term that's historically been tied to racism. It's called Cannabis.

It's called weed, nerd. There's a shitload of Cannabis plants that ain't smokable.

# ? Apr 16, 2014 00:43

Salt Fish: Sep 11, 2003; Cybernetic Crumb

Install Windows posted:

It's called weed, nerd. There's a shitload of Cannabis plants that ain't smokable.

There are more weeds that you want to avoid smoking than cannabis flowers.

# ? Apr 16, 2014 00:45

Mc Do Well: Aug 2, 2008; by FactsAreUseless

'This colorado poo poo is really dank man'

What seems to be the problem with this?

# ? Apr 16, 2014 00:51

white sauce: Apr 29, 2012; by R. Guyovich

Only 2 states have legalized recreational use since this magazine came out. I wonder how many years or decades it will take for it to be legal in all states...

# ? Apr 16, 2014 00:53

Mirthless: Mar 27, 2011; by the sex ghost

That's a bit of an odd metric to measure the success of legalization and it's rate of adoption.

e: Also to be fair that article was written right before Nixon started the war on drugs to distract us all from how badly the war in Vietnam was going.

Mirthless fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Apr 16, 2014

# ? Apr 16, 2014 00:55

AYC: Mar 9, 2014; Ask me how I smoke weed, watch hentai, everyday and how it's unfair that governments limits my ability to do this. Also ask me why I have to write in green text in order for my posts to stand out.

Yeah, if I'm a historian, I'm looking at the legalizations in Colorado and Washington as the turning point in public perception of the drug. It's one thing to talk about legalizing, another to see it in action and working reasonably well.

# ? Apr 16, 2014 00:59

white sauce: Apr 29, 2012; by R. Guyovich

AYC posted:

Yeah, if I'm a historian, I'm looking at the legalizations in Colorado and Washington as the turning point in public perception of the drug. It's one thing to talk about legalizing, another to see it in action and working reasonably well.

Do you think public perception matters to American politicians? I moved out of the US last year, so I don't know which senators or congressmen are making this an important issue.

# ? Apr 16, 2014 01:08

Mirthless: Mar 27, 2011; by the sex ghost

Tight Booty Shorts posted:

Do you think public perception matters to American politicians? I moved out of the US last year, so I don't know which senators or congressmen are making this an important issue.

Considering that politicians are still voted into office by the public, yes, I do think public opinion ultimately matters to American politicians.

# ? Apr 16, 2014 01:11

ColoradoCleric: Dec 26, 2012; by FactsAreUseless

Anyone have any good research on the "cannabis use (heavy or otherwise) increases mental health problems" argument?

# ? Apr 16, 2014 01:11

white sauce: Apr 29, 2012; by R. Guyovich

Mirthless posted:

Considering that politicians are still voted into office by the public, yes, I do think public opinion ultimately matters to American politicians.

According to this study,"When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."

http://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/G...es%203-7-14.pdf

quote:

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business
interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens
and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide
substantial support for theories of Economic Elite Domination and for theories of Biased
Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.

# ? Apr 16, 2014 01:21

Nintendo Kid: Aug 4, 2011; by Smythe

ColoradoCleric posted:

Anyone have any good research on the "cannabis use (heavy or otherwise) increases mental health problems" argument?

That argument tends to be a misreading of the fact that smoking weed if you already have certain mental health issues can exacerbate symptoms (or simply be really unpleasant).

# ? Apr 16, 2014 01:25

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

Tight Booty Shorts posted:

You're right, it's stupid. Have a lovely article instead!

Mexicans?

Mexicans always try to steal US jobs.

Also great to see that US pot is following the successful path set by the wine industry, USA USA!

# ? Apr 16, 2014 01:25

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# ? Jun 1, 2024 04:03

Mirthless: Mar 27, 2011; by the sex ghost

ColoradoCleric posted:

Anyone have any good research on the "cannabis use (heavy or otherwise) increases mental health problems" argument?

The DSM was written by committee, and addiction medicine specialists are on that committee. Would you admit the primary driver for your employment (state enforced rehab) is harmless?

I hate to be :tinfoil:

guy but really.

Install Windows posted:

That argument tends to be a misreading of the fact that smoking weed if you already have certain mental health issues can exacerbate symptoms (or simply be really unpleasant).

This is true, I have bipolar disorder and have auditory hallucinations and paranoia when I'm manic. Weed makes that way worse. But it's not a long term effect by any measure and it certainly didn't cause my problems to coalesce into existence.

Tight Booty Shorts posted:

According to this study,"When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."

http://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/G...es%203-7-14.pdf

The part you bolded is important. "Independent Influence". You and I don't do anything by writing a letter to our congressmen, we have almost no individual influence. But as a large group our influence on policy is huge, since at the end of the day it's the public that decides whether or not somebody gets elected. There's no denying that big money is the primary driver of policy in this country, largely because they spend unbelievable amounts of cash influencing the average citizen to think the same way they do.

# ? Apr 16, 2014 01:36

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