8 ms·
There was a clear winner on election night: Marijuana
- bitwize 6y agoWeed is fine and all, but let's not overlook the other decisive victory, for right to repair!
- mtmail 6y agoNot overlooked, just in a different discussion thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24987691 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24987691
- lolc 6y agoIt's realy weird to see healthy direct-democratic decisions on a state level right along a national election where voters are compelled to choose the "less bad" of two candidates unfit for office.
- pstuart 6y agoOregon took it to the next level.
- ada1981 6y agoAmazing work there. Full Decrim and therapeutic use of mushrooms. And Dc decriminalized mushrooms.
- draw_down 6y ago4 more years!
- dheera 6y agoI really wish there were also laws about not doing it in public spaces. I don't care if people do it in their own spaces, but when the smell wafts out onto the sidewalk, it makes me nauseous.
- monocasa 6y agoEvery legal state I know of has laws around outlawing public consumption.
- Wowfunhappy 6y agoAt least it isn't hazardous like cigarette smoke. I really wish cigarettes were completely banned in public spaces. If you want to destroy your own lungs on your own property, fine. But I shouldn't have to breath it in.
- shreyansj 6y agoAdd gasoline/diesel powered automobiles to that list please.
- brokenmachine 6y agoThis is the standard strawman argument that antisocial smokers who don't care about others right to peacefully enjoy relatively clean air make. Fact is, cars have a lot of other utility, and if it was possible to make a car that doesn't make smoke cheaply and without any other negatives, the whole car industry would go that way, legislation would happen and no more smoky cars would be made. Smoking however has no other utility beyond, "screw you, I smoke wherever I want regardless of others comfort/health, and if you don't like it then you have go somewhere else".
- shreyansj 6y agoWhile I am not an antisocial smoker myself, I disagree with complete ban on public smoking as the parent comment suggested. Designated areas for smoking, sure! There are ways to make cars that don't make smoke cheaply (Nissan Leaf, Chevy Bolt etc) and the argument about "without any other negatives" is really debatable when compared with manufacturing process of any other car.
- brokenmachine 6y ago
- dcolkitt 6y agoI think it would make a fascinating poli sci case study about why almost all cannabis legalization came from popular referendum instead of legislation. What is it about cannabis that makes it so much more amenable to direct democracy compared to representative democracy. Polls show that overwhelming majorities in most states support legalization. Yet elected representative have been extremely reticent to move policy in that direction. Two thirds of Americans support legalization, yet neither of the major party candidates for president do.
- cultus 6y agoDrug prohibition benefits established power structures. It's the same reason why neither major party wants to enact universal healthcare, despite being generally acknowledged as more efficient in terms of care for the cost.
- ggm 6y agoDoes this mean states could enact universal healthcare from referendum, or are they barred from incurring tax raising consequences?
- munk-a 6y agoThey absolutely can enact universal healthcare, and some have tried in the past. Vermont famously(?) did this with Green Mountain Care - the problem is that when it comes to healthcare you end up needing to pay the same outrageous market prices for healthcare that insurance drives but without any of the wink and nod discounts that HCPs and Payers exchange to keep things moving - along with a lot of market players working actively to extort as much money as possible from your system. Universal healthcare is difficult due to the inability to actually nationalize health care providers without having your state's system overburdened by everyone from neighboring states which you're quite limited in restricting due to federal interstate commerce requirements. Also the federal government would probably come down hard on you.
- mjn 6y agoSome have at least moved incrementally in that direction by referendum. Maine, Missouri, and Oklahoma voters opted in by ballot initiative to ACA's Medicaid expansion, after their respective state governments had decided not to expand Medicaid. That's admittedly easier than designing an entirely state-level system.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- option 6y agoI am in favor of legalizing and regulating marijuana. But I’d also like to see tax dollars from it to be used on educating public on its danger, much like we do for tobacco. A personal story - when I was a teenager, a friend of mine smoked weed, thought that he can fly and jumped from the roof of 9 story building. He was 15. Just a warning that this is not all just fun and games.
- rStar 6y agoa personal opinion -> your friend had other problems.
- sowbug 6y agoYeah, cause and effect might be reversed in parts of this story.
- bigbubba 6y agoYou'd probably faint if you heard a tenth of the stupid shit people do after drinking alcohol. And yes, it includes people jumping off buildings.
- option 6y agoso what’s your point? it is all safe and no harm whatsoever?
- pacamara619 6y agoNo, he's just telling you that your anecdote is sad but does not at all reflect the impact cannabis has on most people, while the effects of alcohol are widely known, studied and quantified. We know how many people die of alcohol poisoning and we know how many die from cannabis overdose (0). We also know quite well how many die while doing stupid shit drunk and how many (much much less) people die while doing stupid shit high on pot.
- rStar 6y agocannabis kicked down the door and psilocybes are about to stroll on through. clever fungi.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- softwaredoug 6y agoIt’s heartening to know there are some issues that don’t become political footballs.
- Shivetya 6y agowell to a point they have, the politicians kicked the can down the field and the people got it on the ballot. the politicians really don't want a connection regardless of their personal views. there are quite a few hot button issues that could be solved by referendum but I tend to think we only need those when we face a legislature that is not listening
- nashashmi 6y agoSome people voted yes despite never consuming because it was persecuting a certain race of individuals. That’s not how laws should be formed in this country.
- Etheryte 6y agoOut of sincere curiosity, how did you come about this knowledge of what reasons people voted for or against this?
- nashashmi 6y agoI asked people who opposed marijuana on religious grounds of never intoxicating the mind. And they were young and inclined towards social justice. And they told me. I asked a hospital doctor who said the same after witnessing Newark communities and voted to legalize.
- Kaze404 6y agoDo you have to consume a substance to be in favor of it being legal?
- leetcrew 6y agocare to elaborate? that sounds like exactly the way laws ought to be formed in this country: people placing justness over the impact to their personal lives.
- mdifrgechd 6y agoSo people should only want things they personally like to do to be legal?
- rsynnott 6y ago... People shouldn’t vote for things that they don’t personally use? I mean, I don’t use golf courses or fax machines, but I probably wouldn’t vote to ban them if the question was asked.
- psyc 6y agoThis seems absurd to me, since by that logic I shouldn’t support gay marriage. Put another way your view kind of discounts the quality of compassion.
- dboreham 6y agoInteresting to see people on social media with one breath talk about how mask wearing should be up to the individual, with another that legalizing weed is a terrible move that will lead to the breakdown on society. Personally I really do not like the smell so I would like a "freedom from skunk smell" bill passed too.
- porknubbins 6y agoWith decriminalization the smell is everywhere around parks too which bothers me the most when I’m trying to enjoy fresh air. I wish they’d go ahead and switch to vapes or something that smells less. Even tobacco was better or carries less.
- issamehh 6y agoI'm on the opposite side of this. Tobacco is the absolute worst lingering smell. It's not even a close comparison and never was. I think combustion should be less widespread for sure. I don't think we'll see mass switches to vaping without legality though. Even now you can get flower vaporizers but it seems not all that many people know about them.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Balgair 6y agoMy state has been legal for a few years now. The smell and prevalence in public places had a bit of an uptick when it was first legalized. But a few years on, it's not really different than before. The people that smoke it still smoke it, and the people that don't still don't. At least anecdotally.
- brokenmachine 6y agoNo way does pot smell worse than tobacco. Cigarettes have the worst, most acrid smell that carries the furthest. Just horrible, like burning plastic or something. Just my own opinion, of course.
- tomohawk 6y agoMore correctly: the big businesses that are pushing Marijuana https://world.wng.org/2018/08/going_to_pot https://world.wng.org/2018/08/going_to_pot
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- buzzert 6y agoNobody seems to talk about marijuana being a “gateway drug” anymore, even though it’s still true. I’ve witnessed friends in college become addicted to weed (yes, psychological addiction is still addiction) and their futures have suffered as a consequence. I believe we need to discourage drug use as a society, not give up and let it become accepted. If that means instilling fear that one could be arrested with possession, then let it be.
- amanaplanacanal 6y agoUnfortunately, for most people, the side effects of being convicted are much worse than the side effects of smoking.
- mhh__ 6y agoThat and the racial and class politics behind who gets convicted. (UK) I know some rich people who have some plants growing right outside their kitchen, if I tried that where I live I'd get shafted without question.
- toyg 6y agoYou can discourage while still having it legal. In fact, it's easier to detect people with problems if it's legalized, since they lose the incentive to hide the habit and it becomes easier for them to seek help when they feel like it. It's also easier for them to come clean and resume a normal life; otherwise, once you're tainted with felony, all the incentives are to fall back even worse on substance abuse. If there is one thing we've learnt from the heroin years, is that these things have to be faced in the open, and that addicts are sick people, not bad people. You don't send sick people to jail, you send them to a hospital.
- Reelin 6y ago> that these things have to be faced in the open, and that addicts are sick people, not bad people. You don't send sick people to jail ... and not all users of <substance> are addicts. Recreational use shouldn't be lumped in with addiction, nor should it be persecuted.