Smoking weed - what’s your take on it...

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I don’t know much about it but on balance think it should probably be decriminalised. However, it is addictive and it obviously can have a negative impact on people’s lives and mental health. It does seem very prevalent around my part of London - I feel like I can smell it in the street all the time when I am out and about.

Don’t mind it. Never seen a load of high yobs causing trouble and being noisy. Can’t say the same about people out drinking

It's also not as immediately toxic as alcohol. It's not that hard to die from alcohol poisoning, that's not the case for cannabis.

In the states in the US where it's been legalized for adult recreational use we haven't seen a significant health or mental health impact because people who wanted it had no problem buying it illegally. Even in states where it's been legalized the black market remains because without all of the regulatory compliance costs and taxes the street product is a lot cheaper than what you'd pay in a licensed dispensary.

I smoke it when I'm in Canada as the quality is better. I prefer it to alcohol. In the UK I don't.

I smoke it when I'm in Canada, too, Moose. Also prefer it to alcohol. My sister lives in Colorado where it's legal and she uses it for her lupus.

Watching those traffic police programmes, I see it does affect driving and they now have an on-the-spot test to see if someone has taken it so no, I don't think it should be decriminalised. (Especially as my neighbours smoke a very, very skunky version all day, every day - and drive).

Legalise it , tax it, treat it the same as alcohol eg age restrictions, location restrictions, licensed sellers only. Then clamp down on any street sellers/growers etc.

I wish it was legalised and there was a range available. I have always liked a smoke but these days it's so hard to find anything that's not reeking head fucky skunk. I just want the much weaker stuff that was available when I was a teen.

Interestingly enough a person I know who sells weed says he would love it to be legalised as paying legitimate taxes would be cheaper than paying off the police is now!

Reading back through this thread, most of the concerns people have raised are issues that legalisation and regulation would help with.

I thought MN hates smokers of any kind?

As PPs have said, I think it’s too dangerous for developing brains. I smoked loads of it when I was an adolescent. Ended up with psychosis when I was 19. Took years to recover and rebuild my life, battled ongoing severe depression, only to have postpartum psychosis and now back to rebuilding my life.

Yes alcohol causes more problems in terms of numbers, but nearly everyone drinks. Fewer people smoke weed, but a significant proportion of them end up with mental health problems. Crucially, when you stop drinking alcohol (after the initial dangerous withdrawal phase), you recover. With weed, you might stop smoking it in your teens but still be suffering from the MH problems it caused 20 years later.

Marijuana is legal in my state. We have a licensed store in town. I use the oil for edibles as it helps with my ongoing medical issues. I wouldn’t smoke it as I don’t care for cigarettes of any kind.

I think it should be legalised over here like in other countries, I like to occasionally have the odd smoke but can take it or leave it and I like the smell of it, give it 5 years and i think it will be easily bought from shops like cigs/alcohol etc .

I just want the much weaker stuff that was available when I was a teen.

You're unlikely to get it if it's legalized. In legal states here growers compete in part by offering high THC content. 20% THC is typical, 4-5% was what the street product had a few decades before. It's the selective plant cross breeding and intensive indoor growing that does it.

Oh I'm sure most pro sellers would go for the high THC stuff. But I know so many people who yearn for a nice mellow smoke, there would be such a market for it.

Would much prefer to be with weed smokers that drunks. I genuinely believe it should be legalised

I don't have anything against people smoking it until my neighbours started smoking it and made my whole house stink . Hate it coming through windows and air vents. Now let's add the best part... The boys smoking it are 16, 14 and 11!!! Yep 3 brothers sat in their garden while the mother is sat in the house.

Interesting how many times the word paranoid has been used on the thread. Apparently there isn't actual proof that cannabis causes psychosis but many MH units see lots of service users who do take cannabis and who suffer psychosis. Just because it hasn't been proven yet doesn't mean it doesn't cause MH issues.

i swing from wanting to decriminalising it to remove a lot of the issues around it to being quite scared about psychosis and the impact on the developing brain. perhaps taxes from it could pay for better mental health care and youth teams.

I also find the smell of skunk disgusting and would like to not have to smell it very often.

Interestingly enough a person I know who sells weed says he would love it to be legalised as paying legitimate taxes would be cheaper than paying off the police is now!

The people claiming they are opposed to any liberalisation/decriminalisation/legalisation on this thread look like raging anarchists compared to the dealers who desperately want and need for it to be illegal. Still, as long as there's as much money in selling drugs illegally as there is, it's no big deal to bung a few quid to the "right" candidate" every so often who will ensure drugs stay illegal. It's why prohibition in the US lasted so long.

Just because it hasn't been proven yet doesn't mean it doesn't cause MH issues

You could, of course, say that about anything, really. Even something that's one of mankinds earliest cultivated crops.

Bottom line is that it is illegal, we dont get to pick and choose the laws. Just because a number of people do something doesnt mean to say we should change the law if we did what else should we allow ? Drink/drug driving, theft, assault or shall we just go all the way and legalise everything ?

Bottom line is that it is illegal, we dont get to pick and choose the laws

unless you are some kind of zealot, laws are just a man made construct. Something people who decry "criminals" should bear in mind. All it takes to make a criminal in the UK is Royal Assent.

Ideally, laws should be based on logic and fact. And when they are not, they will be disregarded - with the addition danger that laws that are based on logic and fact will be disregarded into the bargain. The logical and factual argument for the prohibition of cannabis on the grounds of harm are very persuasive, until either the evidence is reviewed (and that's not by reciting the Daily Mails greatest hits) and/or you realise that alcohol and tobacco actually kill hundreds and thousands of people a year. (As do lots of things). If the banhammer is to be respected, it needs to be wielded without hypocrisy.

The people that hid Anne Frank were breaking the law. The people that killer her were obeying the law is a neat placard sized summary of what the law is.

It used to be legal for a man to rape his wife. It used to be illegal for women to vote. Used to be legal to refuse jobs to people based on their race, religion, gender, age. Used to be illegal to "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship". I could go on and on... my point is "but it's illegal we can't go changing laws" is a poor argument.

I’m glad the laws have changed in that regard, obviously. But I’m also glad marijuana is illegal

Obviously it should be legal. Can't believe it's not. But generally I think people who smoke pot are pretty disgusting. My husband smokes it on occasion, it's gross.

I have no patience for people who actually walk up and down the street smoking joints. Where's their self-respect?

"but it's illegal we can't go changing laws" is a poor argument.

Not just poor, but lazy and dangerous as it outsources peoples consciences to "the law".