5 ms·

Except see Chicago, where its also legal, and arresting black people for marijuana related crimes continues unabated. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/break

Except see Chicago, where its also legal, and arresting black people for marijuana related crimes continues unabated. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-marijuana-legalization-parallel-worlds-20210415-4hydfuinvje27mtctklm7dq4r4-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-marijuana-le...

refurb 5y ago
”Most arrests involve possessing or attempting to sell amounts over the legal limit of 30 grams. I mean, they are breaking the new marijuana laws. Is this wrong? If I try and make my own moonshine and sell it I’ll go to jail too.
- wolverine876 5y ago
  Will you? It depends on the law, the resources law enforcement dedicates to moonshine enforcement, the attitude toward you of the individual officers, and your personal power - including your ability to afford a good lawyer. And much of that is strongly correlated with race.
- quickthrowman 5y ago
  Making your own moonshine can kill people via methanol poisoning. Weed can’t kill you. What’s your point again? Hundreds of thousands of pounds of weed are sold via the black market every year, yet nobody dies[0]. You could also never be caught for moonshining, I know drug dealers who have sold for years without any police contact. [0] People died from consuming THC carts that were tainted with Vitamin E acetate. Otherwise, weed products have not killed anyone ever.
  - leetcrew 5y ago
    > People died from consuming THC carts that were tainted with Vitamin E acetate. Otherwise, weed products have not killed anyone ever. there are also concerns about microbial contamination with weed that is improperly grown/processed. this is exactly why weed ought to be legal but regulated. people engaged in grey market sales are performing an end run around the new safety regulations.
    - lupire 5y ago
      Is microbial contamination of weed more dangerous than contamination of vegetables?
      - leetcrew 5y ago
        I dunno, probably depends on the microbe? there are also laws that apply to produce growers over a certain (very low) revenue threshold, if that's what you're getting at. but anyways, that's kinda besides the point. if people are growing stuff for their own consumption, I don't really care how safely they do it. I'm all for people distilling whiskey at their own risk. but if you're going to make money selling stuff to other people, it should be as safe as is reasonably possible. somehow I get the idea that random dudes selling flowers/concentrates/cartridges aren't looking that deeply into their supply chain. people died recently from what should be a fairly harmless plant.
      - ineedasername 5y ago
        With vegetables they are part of a regulated legal industry that has the ability to perform nation-wide awareness initiatives & recalls if there is some form of contamination. And events like that also represents a significant financial loss to the producers, which itself acts as a form of accountability above & beyond regulatory penalties that might apply. Basically, it doesn't matter if microbial contamination of weed isn't any more dangerous than for vegetables because current agricultural products have a remediation process in place to mitigate the danger, a process that doesn't exist for unregulated weed.
dgfitz 5y ago
> Black and brown people are left out of the windfall and continue to be arrested for selling weed illegally. I would hazard a guess that if they were instead selling bootlegged booze illegally they would also be arrested. I’m not clear what point you’re trying to make.
- refenestrator 5y ago
  I hear you, but: 1) Selling bootleg booze has health/quality risks that selling weed doesn't. You don't see crackdowns on people selling other plants without a license. 2) Legalizing possession and then only giving licenses to well-connected people who are excellent at getting paperwork through the system is, well, a lot better than nothing but doesn't really solve the whole problem.
  - OJFord 5y ago
    Why does the business of selling cannabis need to be so accessible? If someone wants to do it, they can put in the work to 'get the paperwork through the system'; if they just want it to be available to them and their friends, well, now it is, because someone else has put in that work. I don't really see the issue? (But then, I'm glad to live in a country that hasn't legalised it, so what do I know.)
    - refenestrator 5y ago
      In most states the licenses are extremely hard to get, it's not a matter of just 'putting in the work'. They're effectively out of reach for your standard weed dealer.
      - ineedasername 5y ago
        A standard weed dealer is not on the same level as the person that would get the license. A standard dealer is part of a very large organization. They're the equivalent of a person working a cash register. I expect it's extremely hard for someone who starts out working the register at a McDonalds to become a franchise owner. That's not to say that getting a license isn't harder than starting a fast food franchise, but the metric of difficulty we use here shouldn't be the typical weed dealer. Probably a better comparison would be an entrepreneur trying to start a liquor store. Even then, it makes sense to me that as society tries to figure out the best way to do this, it goes carefully & with a lot of scrutiny to figure out how to do it right. It's not the sort of thing that should have a "move fast & break things" approach.

refurb 5y ago

”Most arrests involve possessing or attempting to sell amounts over the legal limit of 30 grams. I mean, they are breaking the new marijuana laws. Is this wrong? If I try and make my own moonshine and sell it I’ll go to jail too.

wolverine876 5y ago
Will you? It depends on the law, the resources law enforcement dedicates to moonshine enforcement, the attitude toward you of the individual officers, and your personal power - including your ability to afford a good lawyer. And much of that is strongly correlated with race.
quickthrowman 5y ago
Making your own moonshine can kill people via methanol poisoning. Weed can’t kill you. What’s your point again? Hundreds of thousands of pounds of weed are sold via the black market every year, yet nobody dies[0]. You could also never be caught for moonshining, I know drug dealers who have sold for years without any police contact. [0] People died from consuming THC carts that were tainted with Vitamin E acetate. Otherwise, weed products have not killed anyone ever.
- leetcrew 5y ago
  > People died from consuming THC carts that were tainted with Vitamin E acetate. Otherwise, weed products have not killed anyone ever. there are also concerns about microbial contamination with weed that is improperly grown/processed. this is exactly why weed ought to be legal but regulated. people engaged in grey market sales are performing an end run around the new safety regulations.
  - lupire 5y ago
    Is microbial contamination of weed more dangerous than contamination of vegetables?
    - leetcrew 5y ago
      I dunno, probably depends on the microbe? there are also laws that apply to produce growers over a certain (very low) revenue threshold, if that's what you're getting at. but anyways, that's kinda besides the point. if people are growing stuff for their own consumption, I don't really care how safely they do it. I'm all for people distilling whiskey at their own risk. but if you're going to make money selling stuff to other people, it should be as safe as is reasonably possible. somehow I get the idea that random dudes selling flowers/concentrates/cartridges aren't looking that deeply into their supply chain. people died recently from what should be a fairly harmless plant.
    - ineedasername 5y ago
      With vegetables they are part of a regulated legal industry that has the ability to perform nation-wide awareness initiatives & recalls if there is some form of contamination. And events like that also represents a significant financial loss to the producers, which itself acts as a form of accountability above & beyond regulatory penalties that might apply. Basically, it doesn't matter if microbial contamination of weed isn't any more dangerous than for vegetables because current agricultural products have a remediation process in place to mitigate the danger, a process that doesn't exist for unregulated weed.

dgfitz 5y ago

> Black and brown people are left out of the windfall and continue to be arrested for selling weed illegally. I would hazard a guess that if they were instead selling bootlegged booze illegally they would also be arrested. I’m not clear what point you’re trying to make.

refenestrator 5y ago
I hear you, but: 1) Selling bootleg booze has health/quality risks that selling weed doesn't. You don't see crackdowns on people selling other plants without a license. 2) Legalizing possession and then only giving licenses to well-connected people who are excellent at getting paperwork through the system is, well, a lot better than nothing but doesn't really solve the whole problem.
- OJFord 5y ago
  Why does the business of selling cannabis need to be so accessible? If someone wants to do it, they can put in the work to 'get the paperwork through the system'; if they just want it to be available to them and their friends, well, now it is, because someone else has put in that work. I don't really see the issue? (But then, I'm glad to live in a country that hasn't legalised it, so what do I know.)
  - refenestrator 5y ago
    In most states the licenses are extremely hard to get, it's not a matter of just 'putting in the work'. They're effectively out of reach for your standard weed dealer.
    - ineedasername 5y ago
      A standard weed dealer is not on the same level as the person that would get the license. A standard dealer is part of a very large organization. They're the equivalent of a person working a cash register. I expect it's extremely hard for someone who starts out working the register at a McDonalds to become a franchise owner. That's not to say that getting a license isn't harder than starting a fast food franchise, but the metric of difficulty we use here shouldn't be the typical weed dealer. Probably a better comparison would be an entrepreneur trying to start a liquor store. Even then, it makes sense to me that as society tries to figure out the best way to do this, it goes carefully & with a lot of scrutiny to figure out how to do it right. It's not the sort of thing that should have a "move fast & break things" approach.