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Question for those of you living in a country where marijuana is legal. What are the positive sides, what are the negatives?
If you could go back in time, would you vote for legalising again? Does it affect the country's illegal drug business , more/less?
It's sad to see a lot of the misinformation here that says there are no downsides to weed. In fact, weed has a ton of downsides that need to be considered in how marijuana is handled in a society.
If you are a visual/ audio learner, here's a well researched video on the downsides of weed, from a source that acknowledges their staffs personal biases lean towards legalization.
Kurzgesagt, "We Have to Talk About Weed
Basically, we need to recognize that due to having criminalized weed for so long, we are only now getting the research into the negative effects of weed, but as it's coming out we are seeing how weed is not all sunshine and rainbows.
THC potency has increased dramatically since the 60s, and that has led to increased risks of paranoia, psychosis, and panic attacks. It also increases the risk of Cannabinoid Hypermesis Syndrome, where ingesting weed will make you vomit, nauseous, and have horrible abdominal pain.
My roommate just got this and she is not having fun. Her doctor told her this may be a 6 month T-break, but it's also possible this is permanent, and best to avoid weed altogether.
I also am sad to see "weed is not addictive" being thrown around. Cannabis Use Disorder (weed addiction) is very real and a quick look up says 10% of users become addicted. Personally I consider myself stuck on a habit since I can control my use to keeping it after 8pm, but I still have trouble not getting high daily. I have a friend who is now 100 days sober, but when he had a relapse last year, it ruined his life.
That's not to say it's bad, I have another friend who needs weed to help him get through the day with his PTSD. We just need to recognize one person's medicine is another person's poison.
Most all of the major issues with weed tend to show up with people who began smoking in adolescence. I think a reason I'm somewhat I'm control and my other friend is not is that I started smoking at 22 in college, and he started at 16. I imagine if I waited until I was 25 I'd have no problem making it a weekend thing.
That said
My experience and the pain many have dealing with the health issues associated to weed are no where near comparable to the damage that criminalized weed has had on marginalized communities as weed has historically been used to target and oppress minorities by our US government. I also agree to the points that having a black market is FAR worse than having legal weed that needs regulation.
Personally I'm pro-legalization, but I think we need to be careful at how we are messaging weed to the youths and handling the negative consequences, as the myths of weed just being an innocent plant are super harmful.
I honestly agree 100%. While I don't smoke, I have a lot off friends that do and the amount of rhetoric I've heard about it's lack of downsides and addictiveness is baffling. I cant exactly say anything either, because they're clearly looking for a "yes" answer and anything else won't be accepted (I don't want to say some of them are addicted, but smoking it near-daily for years isnt a good sign)
I'm a medical student, so I've looked at quite a few studies, and they seem to align with what you're saying: that you're at a much higher risk of developing psychiatric disorders, as well as abdominal or lung diseases depending on your form of intake if marijuana is taken chronically
That's a bit of a false dilemma though. The two options aren't "it's a magical elixir with absolutely no downsides" and "people deserve to be locked in a cage and have their life ruined for possessing it". Plenty of legal things can cause harm. 35% of people are lactose intolerant, do we ban dairy?
Did you read the whole comment? OP finishes his comment addressing exactly what you question, they say the good outweighs the bad, and it should be legal.
I think that this is a very balanced and thoughtful take that I agree with. As someone who has been smoking daily for the better part of 4 years now, weed has helped a lot but it has also hurt me a lot. At my peak i could easily kill a quad a day, although now I'm down to a gram a day if that. I would've been in a much better position financially if I never started smoking, and I'm sure my health would've been a lot better. That being said, smoking has helped me through some very difficult times and has given me community. I started smoking in highschool but stopped until I graduated and started again right before college. I've stopped having my own supply at points (not stopped smoking altogether but gone mostly sober), but especially in this day and age it's very helpful to have it. It doesn't help that where I am, a lottttttt of people are cali sober (me included).
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Weed is no "addictive", but it can be habit forming. Addiction is very specific and we don't typically use it correctly in day day speech. You won't have physical withdrawal symptoms like opioid, alcohol, or caffeine.
I would love see a study on lo g term effects. We won't due to ethics. So far every study is either users have no long term side effects but it can make existing problems worse, or weed makes you try hard drugs and we should all know that is not real.
As someone who recently had to quit cold turkey from being a heavy daily user due to job change and a drug test (I had 6 weeks to be clean), I can confirm that physical withdrawal symptoms exist and are not pleasant. Includes night sweats turning into nightmares, upset stomach with loose stools, and loss of appetite. Lots of warm baths to combat the fatigue of withdrawal. Heightened paranoia due to the situation.
Would not recommend. If you're a heavy user and need to stop/T-break, taper down first, or work with a mental health provider.
Weed is addictive and has physical withdrawal symptoms.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7146100/
We need to treat weed like we do alcohol. It's not the devil but it isn't a saint either.