Cannabis should not be decriminalised - AIBU?

Imagine this. Some poor tenant goes to a job interview reeking of their neighbours weed. Doesnt get the job The employer informs the Job Centre that they reeked of weed. Sanctioned!!!

But weed isn't a new drug. It's been around for decades, we know that people aren't going to stop using it and we know that driving it underground hasn't worked.

Where people can't buy alcohol, they make their own and poison or blind others. Where it's legal, we make drinks that have controlled levels of alcohol, we have broadly observed rules about who can consume it and we tax, tax, tax it. And, broadly speaking, it works.

@bombastix

Yes, they are anti social. A few of them make their money legally (seriously, go to an Asda kiosk at 7 am and smell the young lads dressed in hi visi vests and hard hats when they’re buying tobacco. Take a deep breath and tell me what you smell). Some of them make their money by burgling your houses. And many of them make their money by dealing. What are they going to deal if weed is legalised or decriminalised? Because they’re anti social enough that they aren’t suddenly going to become productive members of society. So they’ll either look for a way to under cut legal suppliers (which is going to have a bigger impact on some very vulnerable people) or they’ll deal skunk, or they’ll deal harder drugs.

It doesn’t matter what you legalise. Dealers are not going to go away. And unless you’re one of the aforementioned privileged Guardian reading, Shein boycotting smokers, they’ll carry on buying their weed in the cheapest place they can get it.

They are but when it comes to cannabis smoke my HO told me they cant do anything because they cant work out which flat its coming from.

Which successive governments have added more and more restrictions on.

If new drugs came on the market which caused as much harm as tobacco and alcohol, they would be banned. These are legacy drugs and we shouldn’t use them as an example of what to do going forward.

Housing Associations are increasingly designating properties as "non-smoking", which should make evictions far easier and give the HA much greater incentive to enforce (and expose the HA to liability from other residents if they fail to enforce).

In terms of suing, I'm thinking home owners, not tenants (as per the scenario in the link JenniferBooth provided). If someone owns a home, there's assets available to satisfy a judgment, if matters get that far.

Do tell what you mean by, "The PIP crowd"...

Very different country with a very different culture, but ok. Has Canada noticed a big increase in international drug dealers updating their CVs? Street dealers signing up for job training? Portugal doesn’t seem to have.

Has Canada disclosed how they’re getting that 75% figure? Assuming that those people who aren’t buying it legally aren’t likely to be forthcoming about it. Are they also measuring increases in other illegal drugs?

I do agree that decriminalisation would solve some issues. I just think it would create a load of different ones, particularly for people like me and @JenniferBooth who don’t have the luxury of living in an area where we don’t have to deal with it on a daily basis.

No idea. There's never been an alcohol ban in the UK.

I hate the smell of it too. I hate how normalised it’s become. I fear that decriminalising it would lead to even more people smoking it in public. There’s lots of evidence to support it is a gateway drug too, whilst not everyone that smokes it will go on to use harder drugs, it’s almost unheard of to find a class A user who didn’t use cannabis prior.

It’s harder to take away something; look at the out cry over the means testing of winter fuel
allowance for pensioners. it would be foolish to ban alcohol.
Fewer people are drinking though aren’t they (too expensive and drugs are cheaper?).

interestingly the guardian published an article on Portugal’s legalisation of drugs in Jan 2024:
75% of people believe their community has a drug problem and drug consumption among general population has increased by 5%.
There is still an illegal drug trade as criminals are still going to try and make money by undercutting official sources and outlets.

Visiting Amsterdam recently (bit of a dump in my opinion) there were lots of signs around urging people
to buy their drugs from licensed vendors, go figure.

I dont think so. Pre kids I smoked it and would have paid more for stuff I knew was safe and happily paid tax on it. You would know the strength you are buying and that you are not funding crime. Not all drug users have no morals.

there are lots of different strains. I’d like it legalised, taxed, and less smelly types available

Yes this. And far more crime is committed by pissed rather than stoned people.
How many people die due to alcohol/alcoholism compared to cannabis users a year?

I have a relative who suffers horribly with rheumatoid arthritis and is on allkinds of strong treatment that’s had a horrible effect on her and isn’t working much. Strong opiates don’t get rid of her pain, they’re addictive and have horrible side effects.
So sometimes she has edibles, they don’t get rid of her pain but they help, put her in a good state of mind when she’s suffering, she sleeps very well and no side effects. I’d sooner she does this than opiates and steroid injections they have done nothing but ruin her health.

People will always take it. I think it should be legalised and I’d say alcohol is the gateway drug, and the root to so many other evils and health problems.

I suppose the point is @WilfredsPies that while your neighbours smoke cannabis, this is perhaps something that is a further reflection of their antisocial behaviour and not the cause. It would neither make them better or worse it it were legal.

I’d make it medical. Routine cannabis smokers aren’t very productive so your neighbours must be making money somehow

I don’t have a problem with you doing that. I can’t smell it, you’re not bothering me, no skin off my nose whatsoever. It doesn’t change my opinion that I don’t think legalising it is going to make the problems associated with it go away.

I have a bit of cannabis oil before bed every night. After decades of insomnia, this is the most reliable and has the fewest side effects of anything ive ever used for that.
I don't see why anyone else should have a problem with me doing that.

In Canada, more than three quarters of cannabis is now bought from legal sources. It makes a big dent.

😂 Are you serious? Councils and HAs tend not to want to evict entire estates. And sue for what? 50p a week off their universal credit? That won’t even cover the scrubbing brushes I’d need to get the paint off my front door.

Sounds like a bring a similar level of opinion as you. I disagree the main issue is how 'smelly' the drug is and this can just simply be resolved by developing a new product line.

The issues are around health and mental health racism and stop and search, policing and overstretched budgets.

Resorting to telling people who have well reasoned opinions to smoke a spliff to 'relax' is surprising.

Most recent research is that it isn’t a gateway drug - this was on the radio earlier today and easy to Google.
I’m pretty neutral on the topic. It has costs and benefits, but other countries seem to manage it fine. But it’s a bit like the early prison releases….cant help but think it’s a way of conveniently lowering crime figures.

I hate the smell and think it causes mental health problems. But I'd prefer people bought it from shops like tobacco and alcohol. That it was regulated and taxed and the stuff you could buy was bred to stink less.

Okay - point still stands - unreasonable to call it a cannabis death.

And re persistent second hand smoke from neighbors - just as with tobacco smoke, you can report them to the council and, if that doesn't resolve it, sue.

Yep Thats EXACTLY what my flat is like

Reece Galbraith isnt the one who died Hes the one serving time for it

@JenniferBooth

Bloody awful, isn’t it? And these flats are like sweat boxes in the summer so not the nicest place to be.

@Digdongdoo I think the well off smokers with what they like to think of as a social conscience will. Guardian readers who shop in Waitrose and boycott Shein. My neighbours won’t give a flying fuck.