5 ms·

Finally! The risk of getting an unclean drug from some street dealer is far higher than the risk from the substance itself. The key is legalization and regulati

Finally! The risk of getting an unclean drug from some street dealer is far higher than the risk from the substance itself. The key is legalization and regulation and quality control. This is true to alcohol as well. Alcohol is ethanol (C2H5OH). When created unskillfully also you get methanol (CH3OH), which is really poisonous. A controlled, regulated market here is far safer. Like with alcohol there is risk of abuse with psychedelics, but IMHO that risk is smaller than the risk of bad products from the black market. Note that I am not talking about opiods. Those are very additive.

snarf21 6y ago
I agree that random drugs have more dangers. I've been watching with interest what has happened with pot in CO. For people who don't like to break the law, it has worked and been safer. However, it has come at a cost. All that testing and quality control and middlemen adds cost. Now buying the quality legal pot is way more expensive so people are going back to the black market. This is the big challenge. For the middle class people who want an occasional fix, legalization works out great for everyone. For the poor and desperate, not so much. I don't know how to solve it.
- ckosidows 6y ago
  Isn't this a product of other states driving demand for illegal cannabis? If all states legalized, wouldn't the demand plummet and increase the price of illegal pot?
  - snarf21 6y ago
    I'm not sure. There can be other reasons too like not wanting to be tracked by the government (depending on your job/career). Also, the city of Denver has a 20+% tax on weed sales. This causes a lot of variability in cost.
ravenstine 6y ago
> This is true to alcohol as well. Alcohol is ethanol (C2H5OH). When created unskillfully also you get methanol (CH3OH), which is really poisonous. A controlled, regulated market here is far safer. This is a misconception. Alcohol has to be adulterated for it to even approach having enough methanol to be harmful. The only methanol most homebrewers and moonshiners will get is in whatever was added to the wort in the first place, usually fruits or juice, but this is not enough to be harmful, not by a longshot. Even when it's distilled, it's in such sparse amounts that the ethanol acts as an antidote. The stories of methanol poisonings from the prohibition era were a combination of crooked dealers stretching bootleg liquor with wood alcohol, people making stills from car parts(containing methanol among other things), and authorities adulterating bootleg liquor to discourage buyers. If you've got a still made of copper or stainless steel, and you didn't pour antifreeze directly into your wash, you'll be fine. Now still explosions is a whole other thing, and is a better argument from a safety perspective. Homebrewers have even less to worry about; it's so insanely safe that they couldn't keep it illegal any longer.
- kortex 6y ago
  There is absolutely enough methanol in badly distilled hooch from high pectin mash to cause organ damage and death. Yes, even in this day and age. Sauce: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5028366/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5028366/

snarf21 6y ago

I agree that random drugs have more dangers. I've been watching with interest what has happened with pot in CO. For people who don't like to break the law, it has worked and been safer. However, it has come at a cost. All that testing and quality control and middlemen adds cost. Now buying the quality legal pot is way more expensive so people are going back to the black market. This is the big challenge. For the middle class people who want an occasional fix, legalization works out great for everyone. For the poor and desperate, not so much. I don't know how to solve it.

ckosidows 6y ago
Isn't this a product of other states driving demand for illegal cannabis? If all states legalized, wouldn't the demand plummet and increase the price of illegal pot?
- snarf21 6y ago
  I'm not sure. There can be other reasons too like not wanting to be tracked by the government (depending on your job/career). Also, the city of Denver has a 20+% tax on weed sales. This causes a lot of variability in cost.

ravenstine 6y ago

> This is true to alcohol as well. Alcohol is ethanol (C2H5OH). When created unskillfully also you get methanol (CH3OH), which is really poisonous. A controlled, regulated market here is far safer. This is a misconception. Alcohol has to be adulterated for it to even approach having enough methanol to be harmful. The only methanol most homebrewers and moonshiners will get is in whatever was added to the wort in the first place, usually fruits or juice, but this is not enough to be harmful, not by a longshot. Even when it's distilled, it's in such sparse amounts that the ethanol acts as an antidote. The stories of methanol poisonings from the prohibition era were a combination of crooked dealers stretching bootleg liquor with wood alcohol, people making stills from car parts(containing methanol among other things), and authorities adulterating bootleg liquor to discourage buyers. If you've got a still made of copper or stainless steel, and you didn't pour antifreeze directly into your wash, you'll be fine. Now still explosions is a whole other thing, and is a better argument from a safety perspective. Homebrewers have even less to worry about; it's so insanely safe that they couldn't keep it illegal any longer.

kortex 6y ago
There is absolutely enough methanol in badly distilled hooch from high pectin mash to cause organ damage and death. Yes, even in this day and age. Sauce: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5028366/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5028366/