Canada - Marijuana now legal

[MrPlow]

As a former Canadian who lived in the Vancouver area, it's laughable that people think weed is "now" legal in Canada. It's been "legal" for a very long time, effectively speaking. Even back in 2001, we used to go to a weed store in downtown Van around lower Homer x Hastings. Canada has very, very robust clandestine markets.

It's also a false correlation to think that legalization leads to dirty cities. The cities were on that path the last 10 years for other reasons, mostly economic and hard drug use. Pot is probably closer to caffeine than even alcohol on the drug-hardness scale. LOL

I think the war on MJ over the decades has really worked wonderfully for those who pushed it, especially in the USA. Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, it's blatantly obvious that the war on MJ was always a front from competing markets against the hemp market, and as a plausible vehicle for targeting the "undesirable" ethnicities and hippies. Any country that allows tobacco and alcohol but not MJ, clearly has no interest in the health or addiction issues related to them. If it was a health issue, MJ would be more likely to be legal while tobacco and alcohol are not.

As someone who grew up going through the USA public schools in the 80's and 90's, it was drilled into us that using MJ was a sure-fire way for us to end up doing heroin in a ditch. It's sad that so many people are still brainwashed by this, much as I was as well. It took a long time to de-program that junk out of my mind and accept the facts of MJ being one of the safest drugs known to mankind vs. the effectiveness of what it offers.

I had an old-school (born in 40's) landlord who lived in the unit above mine. He would come to warn me every time he saw the group of college guys share a joint down the block. "Watch out! They're doing marijuana down there!". He thought of it like some zombie virus that would infect anyone who breathed the smoke. Terrified of it. He would also pound down a big bottle of hard booze almost daily.

 

[K.Aoi]

I'll just say that nobody is rushing to ban alcohol, and alcohol has killed more people than weed ever will. Also, weed is not the cause of homelessness, which is on the rise everywhere in the US. Fixing the underlying issues should be the main concern, not throwing more people in prison for something less harmful than going out and getting trashed at a bar, which is perfectly legal.

 

[Leo99]

I'll just say that nobody is rushing to ban alcohol, and alcohol has killed more people than weed ever will. Also, weed is not the cause of homelessness, which is on the rise everywhere in the US. Fixing the underlying issues should be the main concern, not throwing more people in prison for something less harmful than going out and getting trashed at a bar, which is perfectly legal.

I liked your post more before you edited it. A lot of the homeless have mental health disorders and self-medicate with drugs and/or alcohol. You're correct, homelessness is a symptom. Merely housing people doesn't fix the root cause of their issues.

 

[K.Aoi]

I liked your post more before you edited it. A lot of the homeless have mental health disorders and self-medicate with drugs and/or alcohol. You're correct, homelessness is a symptom. Merely housing people doesn't fix the root cause of their issues.

I would love to have left the original as it was but I wasn't able to. But yes, the lack of good mental healthcare for these folks is the real underlying cause (or one of, at least), not drug use itself.

 

[K.Aoi]

There's actually a really great documentary on youtube from DW Documentary that focuses on the fentanyl epidemic in Vancouver, that follows a lot of these folks, and they just get stuck in this hole, unable to get out, no matter how much they want to. It's really impactful and eye opening, I'd recommend giving it a watch.

 

[JHZR2]

I can’t stand the smell of marijuana.

Me either. And in the local area, I smell it on the roads and in the stores a LOT more than ever before. So many more people are doing it much more, in much more open places.

I never cared much for tobacco smoke, and especially breathing it after it was in somebody else’s lungs. Marijuana smoke to me is worse in that regard. Can’t stand it. And thus I can’t stand the folks intent on broadcasting about their love for smoking it, or the fact that they are. Very popular fad around here recently.

I really don’t care about it, I don’t smoke anything, really don’t drink more than a glass of wine or beer every so often. If others want to, ok fine, just don’t get the disgusting stench in my face. I find it worse than tobacco.

I have also noticed recently that the distribute and tax it model is failing. A few friends have cards or whatever, and they’ve indicated that the legal distributed route is so much more expensive than what they can get it for elsewhere. So of course they buy it elsewhere. And avoid the taxes. Which was much of what the whole thing was sold on...

 

[tombalas]

Back when the border was open and we would visit Montreal, the stink of pot smoke along Saint Catherine was pervasive. There was a dispensary right across from the Scotia Bank movie theater, and the local stoners would line up each morning to get their stuff. I'm all for letting people do whatever they want to do, but whatever type of pot that dispensary was dispensing, just smelled awful.

 

[K.Aoi]

Me either. And in the local area, I smell it on the roads and in the stores a LOT more than ever before. So many more people are doing it much more, in much more open places.

I never cared much for tobacco smoke, and especially breathing it after it was in somebody else’s lungs. Marijuana smoke to me is worse in that regard. Can’t stand it. And thus I can’t stand the folks intent on broadcasting about their love for smoking it, or the fact that they are. Very popular fad around here recently.

I really don’t care about it, I don’t smoke anything, really don’t drink more than a glass of wine or beer every so often. If others want to, ok fine, just don’t get the disgusting stench in my face. I find it worse than tobacco.

I have also noticed recently that the distribute and tax it model is failing. A few friends have cards or whatever, and they’ve indicated that the legal distributed route is so much more expensive than what they can get it for elsewhere. So of course they buy it elsewhere. And avoid the taxes. Which was much of what the whole thing was sold on...

There will always be a black market for this kind of stuff, but a lot of people will get it legally instead- the "Safety" aspect is a huge one. When you're getting something off the street, you don't know where it came from, what it is, if it's safe, etc. When you get it from a licensed, reputable dispensary like Berkshire Roots or others, you know what you're getting and that it won't kill you. That's a big deal for a lot of people.

 

[PandaBear]

If you want to fix opioid problem, start with doctors and drug companies that prescribe it for all sort of things. Ibuprofen is sufficient but doctors just write you a script for codine even if you don't ask for it.

There are way too many addicts who started out like this.

 

[Astro14]

That’s quite the stretch to associate legal marijuana and drug addicts, homelessness and panhandling. Denver has had homeless and panhandlers long before marijuana was legalized. I don’t know of any heroin users that started on pot and felt the need to switch to heroin. I know of plenty of heroin users that started on legal prescription drugs and have had their lives ruined or ended.

Denver has changed dramatically, even before the pandemic and social unrest.

I’m not attributing causation, but the simple fact is that downtown Denver is far different than it used to be.

I worked in Denver 1997-2002 and again 2014-2016.

Not the same city at all. Not even close.

 

[MrPlow]

Me either. And in the local area, I smell it on the roads and in the stores a LOT more than ever before. So many more people are doing it much more, in much more open places.

I never cared much for tobacco smoke, and especially breathing it after it was in somebody else’s lungs. Marijuana smoke to me is worse in that regard. Can’t stand it. And thus I can’t stand the folks intent on broadcasting about their love for smoking it, or the fact that they are. Very popular fad around here recently.

I really don’t care about it, I don’t smoke anything, really don’t drink more than a glass of wine or beer every so often. If others want to, ok fine, just don’t get the disgusting stench in my face. I find it worse than tobacco.

I have also noticed recently that the distribute and tax it model is failing. A few friends have cards or whatever, and they’ve indicated that the legal distributed route is so much more expensive than what they can get it for elsewhere. So of course they buy it elsewhere. And avoid the taxes. Which was much of what the whole thing was sold on...

The prices change with time in a fully legalized market. Trust me. Even in Washington state, which has absurd tax rates on pot, and the fact that the companies can't claim any expenses on their federal taxes, I can get an ounce of top-grade outdoor or greenhouse pot for less than $140. Usually street prices on such stuff would be in the $250+ range (USD, but same even in Canada regardless of exchange rates) for the end consumer. For people who don't know much about MJ, an ounce is a very large amount of pot and would last most people months or years, and even super heavy smokers would struggle to use that much in a couple weeks. I can get very high grade indoor stuff for less than $180 an ounce, which is a rather impossible price to reach on the streets for equal quality for an end consumer.

One thing I will agree on about legalizing MJ causing more homelessness, is that now many of the black market folks who didn't go into legal production, have no market left for street MJ, and have shifted focus over to heroin and other hard drugs. Heroin and other opioids are booming like never before.

 

[K.Aoi]

Denver has changed dramatically, even before the pandemic and social unrest.

I’m not attributing causation, but the simple fact is that downtown Denver is far different than it used to be.

I worked in Denver 1997-2002 and again 2014-2016.

Not the same city at all. Not even close.

This is true in a lot of cities as well though, and it's still largely attributable to the lack of good mental healthcare to help take care of these people that need it. I wish we'd look at re-institutionalization for those that need help, as the "community-driven care" model has clearly failed the people that need it most. Reopening mental asylums with proper oversight to prevent the abuse that happened in the 20th would go a long way I think to help reduce the problem as a whole. Sadly most states have been tearing down the old state hospitals for decades.

 

[MrPlow]

Denver has changed dramatically, even before the pandemic and social unrest.

I’m not attributing causation, but the simple fact is that downtown Denver is far different than it used to be.

I worked in Denver 1997-2002 and again 2014-2016.

Not the same city at all. Not even close.

I feel the same about Seattle. But, it's not the pot. Sucks to see our nice cities turning into Vancouver and San Francisco, which have been that way much longer than the other cities now going the same route.

 

[K.Aoi]

If you want to fix opioid problem, start with doctors and drug companies that prescribe it for all sort of things. Ibuprofen is sufficient but doctors just write you a script for codine even if you don't ask for it.

There are way too many addicts who started out like this.

This is definitely true, there was a story out there about how the DEA was trying to crack down about opioids being overprescribed, and the pharma companies involved were able to undercut them and render them toothless. They have their place (like when I had my broken fibula bolted back together a few months back) but they are prescribed all the time for things that they are totally unnecessary for.

 

[OVERKILL]

Me either. And in the local area, I smell it on the roads and in the stores a LOT more than ever before. So many more people are doing it much more, in much more open places.

I never cared much for tobacco smoke, and especially breathing it after it was in somebody else’s lungs. Marijuana smoke to me is worse in that regard. Can’t stand it. And thus I can’t stand the folks intent on broadcasting about their love for smoking it, or the fact that they are. Very popular fad around here recently.

I really don’t care about it, I don’t smoke anything, really don’t drink more than a glass of wine or beer every so often. If others want to, ok fine, just don’t get the disgusting stench in my face. I find it worse than tobacco.

My sentiments mirror yours.

The smell drives me nuts, and now that it is "legal" here, it's quite common to be behind a car (which is illegal, smoking and driving, it is the same as drinking and driving in terms of legislation, but people don't care) where this is all you can smell.

 

[JHZR2]

Denver has changed dramatically, even before the pandemic and social unrest.

I’m not attributing causation, but the simple fact is that downtown Denver is far different than it used to be.

I worked in Denver 1997-2002 and again 2014-2016.

Not the same city at all. Not even close.

I went to Denver a number of times right around when it was the forefront of legalization, and you could see the crowds it was drawing.

Seattle, while a pretty place, was a mess of drugs the last time I was there a few years (around Pike’s Place Market). I don’t recall It being that bad the time prior.

I see the jokes about marijuana in my local town FB group. No, it’s not a good look for grown adults with kids to be idolizing Snoop Dog songs and drug culture. What the heck are they doing to their kids?!?

 

[OVERKILL]

My sentiments mirror yours.

The smell drives me nuts, and now that it is "legal" here, it's quite common to be behind a car (which is illegal, smoking and driving, it is the same as drinking and driving in terms of legislation, but people don't care) where this is all you can smell.

Aye, the light shone on me today. Driving home from work, all I can smell is dope, for three blocks. Somebody in front of me must have just been HAULING on some fat gagger. Totally gross.

 

[Leo99]

I went to Denver a number of times right around when it was the forefront of legalization, and you could see the crowds it was drawing.

Seattle, while a pretty place, was a mess of drugs the last time I was there a few years (around Pike’s Place Market). I don’t recall It being that bad the time prior.

I see the jokes about marijuana in my local town FB group. No, it’s not a good look for grown adults with kids to be idolizing Snoop Dog songs and drug culture. What the heck are they doing to their kids?!?

It all started with Elvis shaking his hips.

 

[OVERKILL]

It all started with Elvis shaking his hips.

I thought it was the "dirty hippies"?

 

[SZR48207]

I went to Denver a number of times right around when it was the forefront of legalization, and you could see the crowds it was drawing.

Seattle, while a pretty place, was a mess of drugs the last time I was there a few years (around Pike’s Place Market). I don’t recall It being that bad the time prior.

I see the jokes about marijuana in my local town FB group. No, it’s not a good look for grown adults with kids to be idolizing Snoop Dog songs and drug culture. What the heck are they doing to their kids?!?

I do not believe it will be political to take the discussion in this direction, although I'm sure someone will be along to refute me.

As I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread, there is something very juvenile or unrefined about MJ/weed culture and you have also seen it. A simple visit to any "head shop" will show you all the dozens or hundreds of glass pipes in the shapes of Spongebob, Simpsons, Rick and Morty, etc. You can go on YouTube right now and find versions of those same cartoons where the characters are dazed potheads who just make weed jokes for 10 mins straight.

At least for now, hey it's a free world in some places and people can choose to smoke their bud out of a pipe shaped like Lisa Simpson's head, but there's a reason why alcohol and tobacco both have very strict laws about appealing to minors.

I personally have no problem with MJ as a personal choice enjoyed by responsible adults, but my advice to the MJ community as a whole would be to cut out the cartoonish shenanigans because it's only going to attract negative attention and be used against you. Do things with a bit more discretion and, for lack of a better term "class", and you'll be able to enjoy things in the current capacity for much longer.