Cannabis should not be decriminalised - AIBU?

Completely agree. And the inactivity it would cause...

Sounds like they started with a lot more problems than just cannabis, That is someone trying to deal with trauma!

Contextless school education, no opportunity for creativity, concrete existences in cities, both parents working and leaving their kids with care givers 5-6 days a week.

the norm for so many children these days is unacceptable and no doubt those children will struggle to grow up in society, getting into gangs and organised crimes is surely more likely.

alcohol is certainly the worst, it has the most effect on people’s behaviour than anything Thats been mentioned here. Gateway drug? Or often used to reduce inflammation, migraines etc. ya know what, it does bloody stink. But it’s certainly more medicinal than most recreational choices

I have no idea what points I was arguing about in May and I'm not scrolling back.

None of those points are relevant to tobacco?!

I use medical cannabis legally for an autoimmune disorder. It's the only medication that has calmed my flare ups. I use less than 1ml of oil. It's got massive potential to help many people as a pharmaceutical and I think it should be completely legalized with specialist shops and prescribers.

I have friends in a part of the States where you can buy it legally.

It means you know exactly what you're buying, and you're just as likely to buy edibles than smoke it (it's less of a faff), so less smell.

It gets taxed properly. Less weed dealers hanging around. Massively helpful (in the right quantity/quality) for pain, anxiety and sleep.

This country is bizarre, where alcohol is available in unlimited amounts, with all the crime, violence and health problems it entails. Yet people lose their shit about weed. Makes no logical sense.

remove profits from the dealers.

Which is why it won't happen. Those dealers pay good money to ensure it stays illegal and their profits aren't harmed. The irony that it's achieved by pressing the anti drugs buttons is - sadly - lost on them. Not much humour in crime.

It should, like alcohol used in moderation it is fine for many adults.
It'll take the Illegal temptation away from teenagers and remove profits from the dealers.

The gateway drug IMO is nicotine.
Look at the teenagers and young adults addicted to vaping nicotine.

The temptation comes from watching adults acting merry while under the influence of a substance, mostly alcohol, it influences the children's outlook on getting out of it.

Still a beautiful city. I love the smell of weed, haven't touched the stuff in 30 years and not remotely tempted, despite the proliferation of BC cannabis stores in my city.

I do not think that can be answered for everyone

I think we need to move away from thinking that people only drink or use drugs regularly to manage low mood/anxiety etc and accept that sometimes its as simple as enjoying getting a little drunk or high. Its an enjoyable experience that many like to repeat for no other reason than its enjoyable

Your friend is breaking the first commandment of growing your own cannabis.

• Don't Tell
• Don't Sell
• Don't Smell

And taxed. So everyone here is benefiting from the misery it causes.

But are they using cannabis due to their mental health conditions. ? Using it to blur the edges

Lol. My friend grows her own due to not getting decent stuff in the UK. And she was around in the 70s and 80s obv

“From my experiences at work it is a gateway drug for alot of the drug addicts”.

Yes, because most hardcore drug addicts started off smoking a bit of weed. That is NOT the same as all weed smokers eventually become smackheads.

From my former line of work I can assure you that alcohol is infinitely more damaging to society than cannabis is. Alcohol is responsible for a thousand times more violent offences than cannabis is, both domestically and in public.

Regulate it and you’ll lose the super strong illegally grown mutated skunk that we smell in public.
Decriminalise it and get rid of the growers and skanky dealers.
Tax it and put money back in the public coffers, like we do with cigarettes and alcohol.

YABU, OP.

Alcohol is the biggest gateway drug out there and that's legal.

There may well be an argument that as cannabis leads to more of a "high" than tobacco that although decriminalised, it still shouldn't be smoked indoors around children. That's not to say the drug itself is illegal, but that smoking it around children is a safeguarding concern. Even though smoking tobacco indoors around children is legal, it would still raise concerns with services say if they did a home check on a child and the parents had all the windows shut and the walls were yellow with the parents smoking fags on the sofa with the children next to them for example. It would likely be treated similarly, although I could see it being seeing as worse.

Just because something is decriminalised doesn't mean every single thing to do with it it decriminalised. It's legal to drink alcohol, it's not legal to drink and drive. It's legal to smoke tobacco and drive though. We can't know for sure what limits regarding children would be thought about. As it is, it's not illegal to put some beer in your 8 year old child's lemonade (I definitely had a few "shandies" as a kid) in the privacy of your home, although it is frowned upon by child's services I'd imagine.

https://today.ucsd.edu/story/smoking-cannabis-in-the-home-increases-odds-of-detectable-levels-in-children

Passive smoking tobacco smoke is fine within the law. Why would it be different for cannabis? If we can't police our streets there will be little intervention against this and why would there if it's seen as no different from smoking. There seems to be evidence in countries where cannabis is legalised of children having passively smoked it and it becoming quite common. We don't fully know what effect this has on behaviour and the developing brain. This is not to say this already doesn't happen in the UK. But if legalising cannabis were to happen we not effectively saying that's okay and it's on a par with smoking.

Is that not gateway because they then have dealer contacts?

Ie. Would it still be a gateway even if legal.

There are absolutely parents who allow their underage kids to drink.

I'd imagine they'd manage it the same way as booze - if you turned up to pick your kids up from school stinking of booze and drunk, it would be a safeguarding concern. Similarly if you turn up stoned.

There is the issue if second-hand smoke, that's the only real difference I see. You can limit intake the same as with booze - a few puffs or a very weak joint Vs a small glass of wine or couple of beers... Very different to being completely wrecked/drunk.

With cannabis legalized, I would assume (it doesn't seem to have been studied) that those who choose to smoke (rather than eat) it would feel more able to do so outdoors.

Neglect doesn’t get based on your use of drugs: it’s what happens when you fail to look after children that is criminal. Other countries manage on this basis, so too could the UK unless there was positive evidence that a child had so much exposure as to be impaired.

The "people I've know who smoke it all have terrible mental health" is a bit chicken and egg to me. It's well known that people who have mental health issues often use substances to cope or manage symptoms, or even just as an escape (they've also studied this with rats/mice and the more stressful/depressing their environment was, the more likely they were to choose drugged water over plain water). So is it the cannabis that messed up their mental health or are they using cannabis because their mental health is bad?

Either way, some people become dependent and spiral and do awful things, but that's the same with alcohol. Many people manage their intake just fine. I'm all for decrim.