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I hate how chemistry can land people in legal hot water due to overzealous government policies. While this example is not in the UK. It's illegal to own certain
by anfilt 7y ago
I hate how chemistry can land people in legal hot water due to overzealous government policies. While this example is not in the UK. It's illegal to own certain glassware without a permit in Texas for instance. The glassware is considered a drug precursor, like freaking glassware. Oh also federally the DEA treats Phosphorus as a type 1 precursor to meth. That's a freaking element! An element is illegal/regulated like that is just insane to me.
Anyways a low amount of explosives with no intent to hurt anyone should not be a problem. Even a large amount in a remote area that is away from other people and property should be fine.
- tines 7y agoIsn't U-235 an element?
- NikolaeVarius 7y agoIt's an isotope of Uranium. It's restricted but I'm pretty sure its not illegal to own a small amount of it.
- cwkoss 7y agoNot illegal to own uranium ore - I think the restrictions are only on the refined product
- eganist 7y agoIf we're being pedantic, pure uranium is literally perfectly refined uranium ore. Possession of weaponizable isotopes of pure elemental uranium is absolutely regulated. Pretty sure the same is true for some of the other particularly WMD-able elements, but I'm not about to google them.
- ThePowerOfFuet 7y agowww.duckduckgo.com
- anfilt 7y agoDon't you find the idea sad that you would have self censor what you would read on the internet to not become of interest or concern to your government.
- nraynaud 7y ago“It’s just an element” is not good enough as a discriminator, plutonium and polonium are elements, and I want them heavily regulated. Now, I a bit skeptical of putting Phosphorus into the drug law, it has too many uses and not too many inherent ills.
- jlokier 7y agoElemental white phosphorus has some quite nasty dangers associated. "Phossy jaw" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phossy_jaw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phossy_jaw "'The Devil's element': the dark side of phosphorus" https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2017/oct/31/the-devils-element-the-dark-side-of-phosphorus https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2017/oct/31/the-dev... "White phosphorus 'burns to the bone'" https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-368800/White-phosphorus-burns-bone.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-368800/White-phosph...
- 3pt14159 7y agoIn D&D there is a certain type of spell called Power Word Kill which works slightly differently based on the version of D&D you're playing with, but the effect is that it essentially kills a single individual with a single word. I'm not saying phosphorus should be legal or illegal, but at some point "it's just a packet I sent on the internet" or "it's just a PDF I sent to someone overseas" or "it's just an element" misses the point. In most democratic countries there are procedures for getting what you need if you what you're doing is fundamentally good. Nuclear power plants get uranium. Science researchers get viruses. Anti-virus vendors get malware. A certain degree of limiting the power of individual actors is wise.
- monksy 7y ago<Cia Joins The Chat>
- sneak 7y ago> A certain degree of limiting the power of individual actors is wise. Unless you’re the individual and you aren’t malicious, you just want some glassware. I think your approach that people should be kept in a sandbox until they can prove to the state that they are “fundamentally good” is a terrifying one.
- chickenpotpie 7y agoThere has to be some line where we say that an item is too dangerous for any random individual to own. Glassware should be unregulated, but if someone wants a nuclear bomb, I want to know who they are and what they plan on doing with it.
- sneak 7y agoDo you know the names of the people in your own country who have nuclear weapons? Do you have access to the information about what they intend to do with them? Is it, perhaps, illegal for them to even tell you?
- 7y ago
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- throwaway0a5e 7y agoFree states write laws that criminalize harmful actions. Police states write laws that criminalize possessing things that could be used harmfully.
- gamblor956 7y agoBy that definition, there are no free states except for Somalia, as nearly all countries except for the US ban private ownership of firearms.
- floren 7y ago> nearly all countries except for the US ban private ownership of firearms. Man that's gonna surprise all the legal gun owners in Canada, the UK, Sweden, and so on.
- monksy 7y agoOr most the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_of_gun_laws_by_nation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_of_gun_laws_by_nation
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago>here are no free states except for Somalia, You touch on an good point: enforcement. So far in human history people have been mostly tolerant of laws that were incompatible with their way of life because resources available for enforcement has been the bottleneck and most laws go unenforced unless people really want them enforced. For example, anyone who wanted alcohol during prohibition could get it, it was just a little more expensive and lower quality. Sure alcohol was illegal but it wasn't considered immoral by most so you only had to hide your use of it from law enforcement, not from society in general. We seem to be entering an age (at least in the west) where thanks to technology the bottleneck is politicians and police willingness to face backlash from the public. I'm not going to speculate on what the future holds but I fear that it will not be good if people grow accustomed to the government ratcheting up enforcement of laws that are on the books but currently rarely used.
- ggffryuuj 7y agoI was surprised to learn about the glassware. When I learned that mdma therapy for ptsd wouldn’t be available for years and would cost 15k even with insurance, I dusted off my old organic chemistry book. I can’t believe I’ve been made to do this in order to get medical treatment.
- Zenbit_UX 7y ago99% of people would just find a street dealer or buy off the dark web. You're the 1% that the laws are actually established for. > I can’t believe I’ve been made to do this in order to get medical treatment. No one made you break bad and then brag about it on the internet... Fabricating your own controlled substances is exactly why certain types of glassware are illegal.
- ggffryuuj 7y agoI haven’t done it yet so I’m not bragging. And how am I gonna take a street drug that’s dirty, tainted with other drugs and also there’s no way to know what dose you are taking which is critical to the treatment? And I’m not getting anything off the dark web because I don’t want to go to prison and also want know what I’m taking. Making single dose quantities is harmless and it’s pretty much impossible to be caught. And nobody cares anyway because I’m not distributing it or even using it in public. The number of people who do this are in the double digits and offer no threat to society. What the fuck is wrong with you.
- qtplatypus 7y agoUranium-238 is just an element as well. However that is very highly regulated and I think is a very good thing for it be.
- masonic 7y agoU-238 is natural and non-fissile.
- qtplatypus 7y agoI meant to write 235