31 ms·

Mississippi is 37th state to legalize medical marijuana

154 points by DocFeind 5y ago

labster 5y ago
So, how long until we get a proper hemp paper industry? As the legal issues wane, it seems like the only remaining obstacles to higher quality paper at a lower price are industrial process and marketing issues. Seems like an industry ripe for disruption.
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago
  > the only remaining obstacles to higher quality paper at a lower price are industrial process and marketing issues Why is hemp paper competitively lower priced and cheaper than normal paper? Could that also apply to cardboard?
  - chana_masala 5y ago
    Probably the time investment. It takes a lot longer for trees to be ready for harvest.
- Synaesthesia 5y ago
  It still needs as much or more chemical processing as wood pulp, I'm not convinced it's that advantageous.
- PeterisP 5y ago
  IDK, in countries where industrial growing of (low-THC) hemp is a thing and hemp gets used for manufacturing products, it is not "higher quality paper at a lower price", it's still a niche product for specific uses (e.g. as cigarette paper) because it's not cheaper. IIRC growing/harvesting/processing of the fiber is quite similar to linen, and so the resulting product costs are comparable to linen cloth, not wood pulp paper; industrial hemp gets used in ropes and bags but gets only limited application as paper even if it's fully legal to try.
  - rbanffy 5y ago
    High-THC cigarette paper would be a very successful product in a number of markets.
    - netizen-936824 5y ago
      There is almost no THC in hemp fiber to speak of. Any THC in papers would need to be added during manufacturing
      - rbanffy 5y ago
        I'm very sure some enterprising person will think of a way to do it ;-)
        kasey_junk 5y ago
        You can get thc infused rolling papers. But most of them create the paper traditionally or with nationally legal hemp, then infuse them with thc extracts from completely different plants. That is to say, there is no correlation with hemp paper and thc infused paper. They come from different plants and as a consumer you want them to because the different plants can be specialized to their purpose.
        netizen-936824 5y ago
        This is actually why I like the hemp farm bill and the proliferation of cannabinoid isolates. I can now mix-n-match my cannabinoids to create different effects, its absolutely wonderful. I'm not beholden to any specific 'strain' or chemovar
- h2odragon 5y ago
  Processing hemp for fiber is an absolute bitch; and the market for the fibers isnt big enough to create a market for the processing equipment which could make the fiber cheaper and grow that market and... Dunno what might kick it off make it viable: new boll weevil, perhaps.
bobsmooth 5y ago
Oh wow.
turndown 5y ago
>There are also those who really want a recreational marijuana program that could lead to more people smoking and less people working, with all the societal and family ills that that brings. Well, it's still Mississippi.
- encryptluks2 5y ago
  Wow, they really want to keep the liquor, tobacco and pharmaceutical industry going as long as they can. There are a lot of professional workers that smoke marijuana, business owners, successful artists, etc. The devil's lettuce might not be for everyone, but how can these people be anti-vaccine mandate (pro-choice) while still trying to prevent marijuana legalization?
  - dqv 5y ago
    My understanding, from knowing someone close to these political circles, is that there is a conflict between the religious faction and the individual-liberty faction. So whenever that gets resolved, we will see further movement on that front. >The devil's lettuce might not be for everyone It’s not for me. Neither is alcohol. Doesn’t mean I think it should be illegal. I don’t get why other people have this attitude about keeping things illegal simply because they don’t personally get enjoyment out of it.
    - kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
      Other peoples's enjoyment has a tendency to stink up the place. I can smell some homes from the opposite side of a four lane road.
      - dqv 5y ago
        That’s not any different than loud cars or smelly food. The smell of barbecue smoke gives me a headache, but I don’t demand that we outlaw barbecue.
      - noitpmeder 5y ago
threatofrain 5y ago
How do people rank hemp vs cotton in clothing?
- rbanffy 5y ago
  Higher. Sorry. Couldn't resist.
  - justbaker 5y ago
    I hear the market is growing.
    - rbanffy 5y ago
      Users have a certain hunger for more products.
pmoriarty 5y ago
When will we start seeing legislation forbidding employer discrimination against legal cannabis users in the form of drug tests? No one cares if you've had a drink over the weekend, on your own time, as long as it's not affecting your on-the-job performance. Some companies have parties where alcohol is served, and going for drinks after work is quite common. Yet so many companies require you to take drug tests before you get hired (and some have regular on-the-job drug tests), to prove you haven't used cannabis in the last 30 days -- even in states where it's legal, and even if you have a prescription for it. This is obvious discrimination, and I hope one day the law recognizes it as such and forbids it.
- IceyEC 5y ago
  Pennsylvania seems to have started pushing towards that in the middle of last year: "On Aug. 5, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania held for the first time that Pennsylvania's Medical Marijuana Act (MMA) allows an employee to sue his or her employer for taking an adverse employment action based on the employee's status as a certified user of medical marijuana."[1] 1: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/state-and-local-updates/pages/penn-medical-marijuana-act-allows-employees-to-sue.aspx https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/...
- mschuster91 5y ago
  The key issue we have is that there are somewhat accurate-ish tests to check for acute and past alcohol usage, as well as defined impairment levels, but for THC we have neither breathalyzer-style tests nor impairment level standards. FWIW it's not even clear if blood should be tested for active THC, for byproducts or waste products. That makes dealing with MJ impairment a bit of troublesome for companies... I agree that there should be no mandatory drug testing for a lot of employers that currently require one, but everything involving machinery should be allowed to have stricter standards.
  - _fat_santa 5y ago
    I get it for machinery, but I got tested when I got a SWE job a few years ago at a BigCo. Like yes I get that you have a portion of your workforce on the ground and you need to drug test them, but come on I'm some dude sitting in his living room coding, I don't think safety is applied the same way in my "workplace"
Lapsa 5y ago
Meanwhile, I know a feller who got sentenced for 5 years. Growing and selling. Nothing spectacular - couple plants at a time I think.
mrtweetyhack 5y ago
qwerty456127 5y ago
By the way in some countries where medical marijuana has been legalized it still is practically impossible to get a prescription (because all doctors are radically conservative and don't believe in medical marijuana) and even for those lucky to get it prescribed it can be 2-5 times the price of high quality black market weed.
- thematrixturtle 5y ago
  Australia is the poster child of this, and it's not because of "radically conservative doctors", it's because the government makes both doctors and patients jump through a series of narrow hoops to qualify. https://www.auscannabisclinics.com.au/find-medical-cannabis-doctor/ https://www.auscannabisclinics.com.au/find-medical-cannabis-...
  - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
    Australia is also a fairly conservative country in many respects, so these requirements (which are definitely conservative sounding) don’t surprise me.
- stronglikedan 5y ago
  > it can be 2-5 times the price of high quality black market weed. Only the refillable prescription containers are 2-5 times the price. ;-)
rendall 5y ago
For those not familiar with US society, this is huge. Mississippi is generally regarded, true or not, as a conservative state, perhaps even reactionary. Its government was a staunch defender of slavery, the later Jim Crow laws which mandated racial segregation, Negro voting disenfranchisement; the last to repeal alcohol prohibition; still frequently challenging abortion rights; among other such. Mississippi is kind of a belle weather for how Southern conservative governments will lean. That Mississippi of all places legalizes marijuana means that it will probably be legalized in all 50 states within a year or two.
- locallost 5y ago
  Mississippi burning finally has a nicer meaning.
- fastball 5y ago
  That first sentence sure has a lot of unnecessary hedging. Just looking at prez elections, Mississippi hasn't gone Democrat since Jimmy Carter.
  - rendall 5y ago
    I knew someone would complain about that post no matter what I wrote, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I also wanted to honor and acknowledge the non-reactionary political and social forces working and living in Mississippi.
    - rendall 5y ago
      ... and another winner: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30191586 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30191586
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  > That Mississippi of all places legalizes marijuana means that it will probably be legalized in all 50 states within a year or two. They did not legalize marijuana. At least not in the context of what legalizing marijuana means in 2022, which I think should be that you can walk into a marijuana store and buy marijuana like other states. The important part being that cops can still bust you for simply having marijuana or buying marijuana, or even suspecting marijuana. Which was the big problem in the first place.
websap 5y ago
Now do Texas. Once Texas legalizes Marijuana, there will be no reason for tech people to not move to Austin.
- imglorp 5y ago
  The state government is an impediment to many considering it.
- TulliusCicero 5y ago
  No, there’ll still be plenty of reasons, even if they have medical marijuana.
  - rbanffy 5y ago
    Still, it's an island of sanity in the middle of Texas.
    - beepbooptheory 5y ago
      It absolutely is not. It used to be, I guess. Yes, people there, generally, are less overtly racist and bigoted, and there is some cool infrastructure, but it trades in rural isolationist prejudice for tech-tainted delusional world building, at the cost of its once beautiful community and culture. Austin is scary, I have never lived in a city that so clearly feels like it has a mind of its own, that changes so much and so explicitly that when you go back to visit your old home, it is literally unrecognizable, everything it once was just poofs away in a year. After living in a number of cities since, I understand just how weird Austin is, but not in the way it was "weird", wants to be weird. Its now like if a Stepford wife was a city: some totally flawless shell wrapped around a void. Its like if a Tesla car was city, which is perhaps a more apt similie, where it rides off its popular sentiment alone while the internals are shoestring, or at least questionable. It trades in explicit Texas politics for extreme and swift gentrification, and a, at this point, willful neglect of social services for the communities they've, in part, helped displace. There is little love in Austin now, no matter how many granola eating hippies can still afford the rent. Most of that place is gone, or quickly dissapearing. Give me Houston, which has comparable politics in the inner city, and the best museums and food in the state. Give me San Antonio, even, which is a more humble, but at least human place, and that does have better breakfast tacos than Austin. But Austin is gone. I dont think the enthusiasm and attention it gets is going away anytime soon, and people will continue to move in, and it will get "cooler" in the eyes of every google employee that resides there. And property investment will continue to churn, like crude oil in a Kitchenaide. But it has gone crazy, and I see no hope in it going back, its too big to fail, and that is maybe the whole problem.
grapescheesee 5y ago
In a parallel world, plants containing caffine are an illegal drug.
- marcodiego 5y ago
  Imagine what sugar and alcohol could do.
  - moron4hire 5y ago
    Sugar being a controller substance was an episode of Sliders.
    - grapescheesee 5y ago
      Interesting I have never heard of the show. I should have since it was 1995-2000. Would you recommend? It made perfect sense as a reference! Thanks.
      - moron4hire 5y ago
        I loved it as a teenager, but it's... aged poorly. IDK, maybe that's not fair. I am sure my standards have improved quite a bit since then. Certainly, if you like campy, cheesy sci-fi and don't mind some community-theater grade acting in the first few episodes, it'll be right up your alley. It's not as bad as, say, Tremors (same era, shlock sci-fi), but it's also not a prestige series like Star Trek. It's probably somewhere between Stargate and Farscape in terms of quality.
        pessimizer 5y ago
        If you stop watching after season 2, it's still fun.
        krapp 5y ago
        From what I remember, it started out promising, but very quickly devolved into cartoonish camp where every parallel world had a silly theme like "Halloween world" or "America is still British wot" world. And then there was plot arc about Cro-magnons trying to take over the multiverse.
tmitech 5y ago
Seems a bit overdue, given the US Government has been growing Cannabis in Mississippi FOR OVER 50+ YEARS NOW. https://news.olemiss.edu/federally-funded-marijuana-turns-50/ https://news.olemiss.edu/federally-funded-marijuana-turns-50...
- throwanem 5y ago
  I got to tour that place in high school! Lived across the street for a while from the guy who ran it, too. They were hardcore evangelicals, his son tried to burn my D&D books one time. Fascinating place, definitely worth the visit, don't lean on the fence and remember they'll walk you past sniffer dogs on the way out.
whalesalad 5y ago
Cannabis should be regulated no differently than tomatoes and cucumbers. It's great to see this baby step, but unfortunately a lot of medical states still gatekeep access way too aggressively. Everyone deserves access to this medicine. The rigid control framework ends up making it hard for producers too, and ultimately only the wealthiest investment groups are typically able to license/survive. Support your local caregiver.
- ricardobayes 5y ago
  You surely mean CBD? THC is known to have adverse effects, it's definitely not the same as a cucumber. "Acute and chronic use of cannabis is associated with different harmful effects on central nervous system and peripheral system including hyperemesis syndrome, impaired coordination and performance, anxiety, suicidal/tendencies, psychotic symptoms and mood disorders, cannabis withdrawal symptoms, exacerbation of psychotic disorders, neurocognitive impairment, cardiovascular, neurological, respiratory, cerebrovascular, peripheral vascular diseases (Thomas et al., 2014; Karila et al., 2014), pneumomediastinum, pneumothorax, pneumopericardium, bullous lung disease, increased risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, desquamated interstitial disease, and appearance of brown pigmented macrophages (Milroy and Parai, 2011)." source: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2019.01481/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2019.0148...
  - lioeters 5y ago
    Unless they meant the devil's cucumber, otherwise known as "zombie cucumber".. > Datura intoxication typically produces delirium, hallucination, hyperthermia, tachycardia, bizarre behavior, urinary retention, and severe mydriasis with resultant painful photophobia that can last several days. Pronounced amnesia is another commonly reported effect. > The onset of symptoms generally occurs around 30 to 60 minutes after ingesting the herb. These symptoms generally last from 24 to 48 hours, but have been reported in some cases to last as long as 2 weeks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium
  - imglorp 5y ago
    Those effects are FAR FAR less than alcohol or tobacco. Alcohol causes some 40k/yr deaths (US) from liver alone, plus some 10-20k road impairment deaths, while lung cancer around 140k/yr. Yet even states with MMJ treat it as some terrible danger where you need guarded stores, special certification, and mountains of laws, while any schmuck can buy the actual dangerous stuff with only an age check. The substance is not the threat; the legislatures are.
tiku 5y ago
Next stop, Bitcoin as legal tender.
kingsloi 5y ago
Does anyone know if a state hasn't legalised medical marijuana, can medicinal marijuana (such as Marinol) be used in an ICU setting? I've heard marijuana is sometimes given to children diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome after their 3rd surgery (Fontan) to encourage them to eat. I've also heard medical marijuana is sometimes given to children diagnosed with Kabuki syndrome (and other syndromes) to help with seizures. Would these two cases only be allowed/legal in states that have legalised medical marijuana?
- ricardobayes 5y ago
  I'd say so since hospitals wouldn't stock it as it's an illegal substance in this case.
- realce 5y ago
  Marinol and other FDA approved synthetic cannabanoid-based medications are legal to prescribe in all 50 states.
  - kingsloi 5y ago
    Ah, I didn't know it was synthetic. I'm still confused with marijuana being a schedule I substance. > no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States but there's a FDA approved medicine, so surely there is accepted medical use, because you've approved one/many?
    - realce 5y ago
      American drug policy is written, interpreted, and implemented by profiteers and that's just the end of the logic.
willsi 5y ago
As someone originally from Mississippi: We're finally not last in something!
- mplanchard 5y ago
  Did you see they also changed the flag? Never thought I’d see the day. When I was a teenager growing up there, there was a big conversation about the flag (don’t remember why), and it seemed at the time impossible that it would ever change.
  - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
    They changed it last year. Now it’s a flower.
    - mplanchard 5y ago
      Yeah, a magnolia (the state tree and flower). So much better!
      - pmoriarty 5y ago
        For some context: "The flag of Mississippi features a white magnolia blossom surrounded by the words "In God We Trust" and 21 stars, on a red field with a gold-bordered blue pale. It was adopted on January 11, 2021 and replaced the previous flag that displayed the Confederate battle insignia in the upper left hand corner, which had been retired on June 30, 2020." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Mississippi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Mississippi
  - charlieflowers 5y ago
    They had to be forced. But it’s a fantastic milestone for sure.
_moof 5y ago
*Sidelong glance at federal government.* Any day now, folks.
- parkingrift 5y ago
  You need only glance directly at the President. No other authority is needed to change the schedule. AG works at the pleasure of the President.
  - x86_64Ubuntu 5y ago
    Even if the AG is told to start the rescheduling process, a "study" has to be done to enable it. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2015/02/13/how-to-reschedule-marijuana-and-why-its-unlikely-anytime-soon/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2015/02/13/how-to-resc... The only entity that can end prohibition altogether is Congress. When they setup the drug laws, they made them so that there would be a massive chain of signoffs, and so that any single unreasonable person could stop the whole thing.
    - parkingrift 5y ago
      This flowchart makes it seem way more difficult than it actually is. The USAG and the Secretary of HHS both serve at the pleasure of the President. Biden cannot unilaterally reschedule marijuana but he can tell the USAG and Secretary of HHS to do what it takes to reschedule it. Biden pretending he can't make this happen is equivalent to Tim Cook pretending he can't get Jeff Williams to do something. Everyone ultimately responsible for changing the schedule ultimately reports to Biden.
hobomatic 5y ago
You can buy THC gummies and THC vapes in certain Alabama gas stations now as well. I have no idea how this works legally though because it was only relatively recently legalized for medical use here. Must be something to do with some CBD-adjacent regulation that snuck in during COVID.
- parkingrift 5y ago
  I would guess it’s delta-8 thc derived from hemp. Skirting some loopholes. Some states have already started clamping down on it.
  - hobomatic 5y ago
    That's probably it. I don't know enough about the product or THC chemistry pharmacology to say, but I've talked to some users who say they got a THC high from them, one of which was my mother who thought it was a cbd product when she bought them.
- _fat_santa 5y ago
  It's usually either CBD or Delta-8. It's legal because of the Farm Bill a few years back that legalized hemp, making CBD and D8 legal in the process. Just to be clear though, this stuff won't get you high like weed. You might feel a little more relaxed because of the CBD but that's about it.
  - hobomatic 5y ago
    The stuff I am talking about lists a percentage of THC on the packaging and people are buying it almost exclusively to get high. I was dubious at first too, but I have talked to several people who have used them and they say they are getting a THC high, and the packaging even communicates the THC content. But I have no reciepts. It could be an entirely illegal Enterprise given the proprietor.
  - wtf242 5y ago
    delta 8 will definitely get you high just like weed
cullinap 5y ago
"There are also those who really want a recreational marijuana program that could lead to more people smoking and less people working, with all the societal and family ills that that brings." lol

154 points by DocFeind 5y ago

So, how long until we get a proper hemp paper industry? As the legal issues wane, it seems like the only remaining obstacles to higher quality paper at a lower price are industrial process and marketing issues. Seems like an industry ripe for disruption.

JumpCrisscross 5y ago
> the only remaining obstacles to higher quality paper at a lower price are industrial process and marketing issues Why is hemp paper competitively lower priced and cheaper than normal paper? Could that also apply to cardboard?
- chana_masala 5y ago
  Probably the time investment. It takes a lot longer for trees to be ready for harvest.
Synaesthesia 5y ago
It still needs as much or more chemical processing as wood pulp, I'm not convinced it's that advantageous.
PeterisP 5y ago
IDK, in countries where industrial growing of (low-THC) hemp is a thing and hemp gets used for manufacturing products, it is not "higher quality paper at a lower price", it's still a niche product for specific uses (e.g. as cigarette paper) because it's not cheaper. IIRC growing/harvesting/processing of the fiber is quite similar to linen, and so the resulting product costs are comparable to linen cloth, not wood pulp paper; industrial hemp gets used in ropes and bags but gets only limited application as paper even if it's fully legal to try.
- rbanffy 5y ago
  High-THC cigarette paper would be a very successful product in a number of markets.
  - netizen-936824 5y ago
    There is almost no THC in hemp fiber to speak of. Any THC in papers would need to be added during manufacturing
    - rbanffy 5y ago
      I'm very sure some enterprising person will think of a way to do it ;-)
      - kasey_junk 5y ago
        You can get thc infused rolling papers. But most of them create the paper traditionally or with nationally legal hemp, then infuse them with thc extracts from completely different plants. That is to say, there is no correlation with hemp paper and thc infused paper. They come from different plants and as a consumer you want them to because the different plants can be specialized to their purpose.
        netizen-936824 5y ago
        This is actually why I like the hemp farm bill and the proliferation of cannabinoid isolates. I can now mix-n-match my cannabinoids to create different effects, its absolutely wonderful. I'm not beholden to any specific 'strain' or chemovar
h2odragon 5y ago
Processing hemp for fiber is an absolute bitch; and the market for the fibers isnt big enough to create a market for the processing equipment which could make the fiber cheaper and grow that market and... Dunno what might kick it off make it viable: new boll weevil, perhaps.

bobsmooth 5y ago

Oh wow.

turndown 5y ago

>There are also those who really want a recreational marijuana program that could lead to more people smoking and less people working, with all the societal and family ills that that brings. Well, it's still Mississippi.

encryptluks2 5y ago
Wow, they really want to keep the liquor, tobacco and pharmaceutical industry going as long as they can. There are a lot of professional workers that smoke marijuana, business owners, successful artists, etc. The devil's lettuce might not be for everyone, but how can these people be anti-vaccine mandate (pro-choice) while still trying to prevent marijuana legalization?
- dqv 5y ago
  My understanding, from knowing someone close to these political circles, is that there is a conflict between the religious faction and the individual-liberty faction. So whenever that gets resolved, we will see further movement on that front. >The devil's lettuce might not be for everyone It’s not for me. Neither is alcohol. Doesn’t mean I think it should be illegal. I don’t get why other people have this attitude about keeping things illegal simply because they don’t personally get enjoyment out of it.
  - kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
    Other peoples's enjoyment has a tendency to stink up the place. I can smell some homes from the opposite side of a four lane road.
    - dqv 5y ago
      That’s not any different than loud cars or smelly food. The smell of barbecue smoke gives me a headache, but I don’t demand that we outlaw barbecue.
    - noitpmeder 5y ago

threatofrain 5y ago

How do people rank hemp vs cotton in clothing?

rbanffy 5y ago
Higher. Sorry. Couldn't resist.
- justbaker 5y ago
  I hear the market is growing.
  - rbanffy 5y ago
    Users have a certain hunger for more products.

pmoriarty 5y ago

When will we start seeing legislation forbidding employer discrimination against legal cannabis users in the form of drug tests? No one cares if you've had a drink over the weekend, on your own time, as long as it's not affecting your on-the-job performance. Some companies have parties where alcohol is served, and going for drinks after work is quite common. Yet so many companies require you to take drug tests before you get hired (and some have regular on-the-job drug tests), to prove you haven't used cannabis in the last 30 days -- even in states where it's legal, and even if you have a prescription for it. This is obvious discrimination, and I hope one day the law recognizes it as such and forbids it.

IceyEC 5y ago
Pennsylvania seems to have started pushing towards that in the middle of last year: "On Aug. 5, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania held for the first time that Pennsylvania's Medical Marijuana Act (MMA) allows an employee to sue his or her employer for taking an adverse employment action based on the employee's status as a certified user of medical marijuana."[1] 1: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/state-and-local-updates/pages/penn-medical-marijuana-act-allows-employees-to-sue.aspx https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/...
mschuster91 5y ago
The key issue we have is that there are somewhat accurate-ish tests to check for acute and past alcohol usage, as well as defined impairment levels, but for THC we have neither breathalyzer-style tests nor impairment level standards. FWIW it's not even clear if blood should be tested for active THC, for byproducts or waste products. That makes dealing with MJ impairment a bit of troublesome for companies... I agree that there should be no mandatory drug testing for a lot of employers that currently require one, but everything involving machinery should be allowed to have stricter standards.
- _fat_santa 5y ago
  I get it for machinery, but I got tested when I got a SWE job a few years ago at a BigCo. Like yes I get that you have a portion of your workforce on the ground and you need to drug test them, but come on I'm some dude sitting in his living room coding, I don't think safety is applied the same way in my "workplace"

Lapsa 5y ago

Meanwhile, I know a feller who got sentenced for 5 years. Growing and selling. Nothing spectacular - couple plants at a time I think.

mrtweetyhack 5y ago

qwerty456127 5y ago

By the way in some countries where medical marijuana has been legalized it still is practically impossible to get a prescription (because all doctors are radically conservative and don't believe in medical marijuana) and even for those lucky to get it prescribed it can be 2-5 times the price of high quality black market weed.

thematrixturtle 5y ago
Australia is the poster child of this, and it's not because of "radically conservative doctors", it's because the government makes both doctors and patients jump through a series of narrow hoops to qualify. https://www.auscannabisclinics.com.au/find-medical-cannabis-doctor/ https://www.auscannabisclinics.com.au/find-medical-cannabis-...
- seanmcdirmid 5y ago
  Australia is also a fairly conservative country in many respects, so these requirements (which are definitely conservative sounding) don’t surprise me.
stronglikedan 5y ago
> it can be 2-5 times the price of high quality black market weed. Only the refillable prescription containers are 2-5 times the price. ;-)

rendall 5y ago

For those not familiar with US society, this is huge. Mississippi is generally regarded, true or not, as a conservative state, perhaps even reactionary. Its government was a staunch defender of slavery, the later Jim Crow laws which mandated racial segregation, Negro voting disenfranchisement; the last to repeal alcohol prohibition; still frequently challenging abortion rights; among other such. Mississippi is kind of a belle weather for how Southern conservative governments will lean. That Mississippi of all places legalizes marijuana means that it will probably be legalized in all 50 states within a year or two.

locallost 5y ago
Mississippi burning finally has a nicer meaning.
fastball 5y ago
That first sentence sure has a lot of unnecessary hedging. Just looking at prez elections, Mississippi hasn't gone Democrat since Jimmy Carter.
- rendall 5y ago
  I knew someone would complain about that post no matter what I wrote, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I also wanted to honor and acknowledge the non-reactionary political and social forces working and living in Mississippi.
  - rendall 5y ago
    ... and another winner: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30191586 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30191586
lotsofpulp 5y ago
> That Mississippi of all places legalizes marijuana means that it will probably be legalized in all 50 states within a year or two. They did not legalize marijuana. At least not in the context of what legalizing marijuana means in 2022, which I think should be that you can walk into a marijuana store and buy marijuana like other states. The important part being that cops can still bust you for simply having marijuana or buying marijuana, or even suspecting marijuana. Which was the big problem in the first place.

websap 5y ago

Now do Texas. Once Texas legalizes Marijuana, there will be no reason for tech people to not move to Austin.

imglorp 5y ago
The state government is an impediment to many considering it.
TulliusCicero 5y ago
No, there’ll still be plenty of reasons, even if they have medical marijuana.
- rbanffy 5y ago
  Still, it's an island of sanity in the middle of Texas.
  - beepbooptheory 5y ago
    It absolutely is not. It used to be, I guess. Yes, people there, generally, are less overtly racist and bigoted, and there is some cool infrastructure, but it trades in rural isolationist prejudice for tech-tainted delusional world building, at the cost of its once beautiful community and culture. Austin is scary, I have never lived in a city that so clearly feels like it has a mind of its own, that changes so much and so explicitly that when you go back to visit your old home, it is literally unrecognizable, everything it once was just poofs away in a year. After living in a number of cities since, I understand just how weird Austin is, but not in the way it was "weird", wants to be weird. Its now like if a Stepford wife was a city: some totally flawless shell wrapped around a void. Its like if a Tesla car was city, which is perhaps a more apt similie, where it rides off its popular sentiment alone while the internals are shoestring, or at least questionable. It trades in explicit Texas politics for extreme and swift gentrification, and a, at this point, willful neglect of social services for the communities they've, in part, helped displace. There is little love in Austin now, no matter how many granola eating hippies can still afford the rent. Most of that place is gone, or quickly dissapearing. Give me Houston, which has comparable politics in the inner city, and the best museums and food in the state. Give me San Antonio, even, which is a more humble, but at least human place, and that does have better breakfast tacos than Austin. But Austin is gone. I dont think the enthusiasm and attention it gets is going away anytime soon, and people will continue to move in, and it will get "cooler" in the eyes of every google employee that resides there. And property investment will continue to churn, like crude oil in a Kitchenaide. But it has gone crazy, and I see no hope in it going back, its too big to fail, and that is maybe the whole problem.

grapescheesee 5y ago

In a parallel world, plants containing caffine are an illegal drug.

marcodiego 5y ago
Imagine what sugar and alcohol could do.
- moron4hire 5y ago
  Sugar being a controller substance was an episode of Sliders.
  - grapescheesee 5y ago
    Interesting I have never heard of the show. I should have since it was 1995-2000. Would you recommend? It made perfect sense as a reference! Thanks.
    - moron4hire 5y ago
      I loved it as a teenager, but it's... aged poorly. IDK, maybe that's not fair. I am sure my standards have improved quite a bit since then. Certainly, if you like campy, cheesy sci-fi and don't mind some community-theater grade acting in the first few episodes, it'll be right up your alley. It's not as bad as, say, Tremors (same era, shlock sci-fi), but it's also not a prestige series like Star Trek. It's probably somewhere between Stargate and Farscape in terms of quality.
      - pessimizer 5y ago
        If you stop watching after season 2, it's still fun.
      - krapp 5y ago
        From what I remember, it started out promising, but very quickly devolved into cartoonish camp where every parallel world had a silly theme like "Halloween world" or "America is still British wot" world. And then there was plot arc about Cro-magnons trying to take over the multiverse.

tmitech 5y ago

Seems a bit overdue, given the US Government has been growing Cannabis in Mississippi FOR OVER 50+ YEARS NOW. https://news.olemiss.edu/federally-funded-marijuana-turns-50/ https://news.olemiss.edu/federally-funded-marijuana-turns-50...

throwanem 5y ago
I got to tour that place in high school! Lived across the street for a while from the guy who ran it, too. They were hardcore evangelicals, his son tried to burn my D&D books one time. Fascinating place, definitely worth the visit, don't lean on the fence and remember they'll walk you past sniffer dogs on the way out.

whalesalad 5y ago

Cannabis should be regulated no differently than tomatoes and cucumbers. It's great to see this baby step, but unfortunately a lot of medical states still gatekeep access way too aggressively. Everyone deserves access to this medicine. The rigid control framework ends up making it hard for producers too, and ultimately only the wealthiest investment groups are typically able to license/survive. Support your local caregiver.

ricardobayes 5y ago
You surely mean CBD? THC is known to have adverse effects, it's definitely not the same as a cucumber. "Acute and chronic use of cannabis is associated with different harmful effects on central nervous system and peripheral system including hyperemesis syndrome, impaired coordination and performance, anxiety, suicidal/tendencies, psychotic symptoms and mood disorders, cannabis withdrawal symptoms, exacerbation of psychotic disorders, neurocognitive impairment, cardiovascular, neurological, respiratory, cerebrovascular, peripheral vascular diseases (Thomas et al., 2014; Karila et al., 2014), pneumomediastinum, pneumothorax, pneumopericardium, bullous lung disease, increased risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, desquamated interstitial disease, and appearance of brown pigmented macrophages (Milroy and Parai, 2011)." source: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2019.01481/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2019.0148...
- lioeters 5y ago
  Unless they meant the devil's cucumber, otherwise known as "zombie cucumber".. > Datura intoxication typically produces delirium, hallucination, hyperthermia, tachycardia, bizarre behavior, urinary retention, and severe mydriasis with resultant painful photophobia that can last several days. Pronounced amnesia is another commonly reported effect. > The onset of symptoms generally occurs around 30 to 60 minutes after ingesting the herb. These symptoms generally last from 24 to 48 hours, but have been reported in some cases to last as long as 2 weeks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium
- imglorp 5y ago
  Those effects are FAR FAR less than alcohol or tobacco. Alcohol causes some 40k/yr deaths (US) from liver alone, plus some 10-20k road impairment deaths, while lung cancer around 140k/yr. Yet even states with MMJ treat it as some terrible danger where you need guarded stores, special certification, and mountains of laws, while any schmuck can buy the actual dangerous stuff with only an age check. The substance is not the threat; the legislatures are.

tiku 5y ago

Next stop, Bitcoin as legal tender.

kingsloi 5y ago

Does anyone know if a state hasn't legalised medical marijuana, can medicinal marijuana (such as Marinol) be used in an ICU setting? I've heard marijuana is sometimes given to children diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome after their 3rd surgery (Fontan) to encourage them to eat. I've also heard medical marijuana is sometimes given to children diagnosed with Kabuki syndrome (and other syndromes) to help with seizures. Would these two cases only be allowed/legal in states that have legalised medical marijuana?

ricardobayes 5y ago
I'd say so since hospitals wouldn't stock it as it's an illegal substance in this case.
realce 5y ago
Marinol and other FDA approved synthetic cannabanoid-based medications are legal to prescribe in all 50 states.
- kingsloi 5y ago
  Ah, I didn't know it was synthetic. I'm still confused with marijuana being a schedule I substance. > no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States but there's a FDA approved medicine, so surely there is accepted medical use, because you've approved one/many?
  - realce 5y ago
    American drug policy is written, interpreted, and implemented by profiteers and that's just the end of the logic.

willsi 5y ago

As someone originally from Mississippi: We're finally not last in something!

mplanchard 5y ago
Did you see they also changed the flag? Never thought I’d see the day. When I was a teenager growing up there, there was a big conversation about the flag (don’t remember why), and it seemed at the time impossible that it would ever change.
- seanmcdirmid 5y ago
  They changed it last year. Now it’s a flower.
  - mplanchard 5y ago
    Yeah, a magnolia (the state tree and flower). So much better!
    - pmoriarty 5y ago
      For some context: "The flag of Mississippi features a white magnolia blossom surrounded by the words "In God We Trust" and 21 stars, on a red field with a gold-bordered blue pale. It was adopted on January 11, 2021 and replaced the previous flag that displayed the Confederate battle insignia in the upper left hand corner, which had been retired on June 30, 2020." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Mississippi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Mississippi
- charlieflowers 5y ago
  They had to be forced. But it’s a fantastic milestone for sure.

_moof 5y ago

*Sidelong glance at federal government.* Any day now, folks.

parkingrift 5y ago
You need only glance directly at the President. No other authority is needed to change the schedule. AG works at the pleasure of the President.
- x86_64Ubuntu 5y ago
  Even if the AG is told to start the rescheduling process, a "study" has to be done to enable it. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2015/02/13/how-to-reschedule-marijuana-and-why-its-unlikely-anytime-soon/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2015/02/13/how-to-resc... The only entity that can end prohibition altogether is Congress. When they setup the drug laws, they made them so that there would be a massive chain of signoffs, and so that any single unreasonable person could stop the whole thing.
  - parkingrift 5y ago
    This flowchart makes it seem way more difficult than it actually is. The USAG and the Secretary of HHS both serve at the pleasure of the President. Biden cannot unilaterally reschedule marijuana but he can tell the USAG and Secretary of HHS to do what it takes to reschedule it. Biden pretending he can't make this happen is equivalent to Tim Cook pretending he can't get Jeff Williams to do something. Everyone ultimately responsible for changing the schedule ultimately reports to Biden.

hobomatic 5y ago

You can buy THC gummies and THC vapes in certain Alabama gas stations now as well. I have no idea how this works legally though because it was only relatively recently legalized for medical use here. Must be something to do with some CBD-adjacent regulation that snuck in during COVID.

parkingrift 5y ago
I would guess it’s delta-8 thc derived from hemp. Skirting some loopholes. Some states have already started clamping down on it.
- hobomatic 5y ago
  That's probably it. I don't know enough about the product or THC chemistry pharmacology to say, but I've talked to some users who say they got a THC high from them, one of which was my mother who thought it was a cbd product when she bought them.
_fat_santa 5y ago
It's usually either CBD or Delta-8. It's legal because of the Farm Bill a few years back that legalized hemp, making CBD and D8 legal in the process. Just to be clear though, this stuff won't get you high like weed. You might feel a little more relaxed because of the CBD but that's about it.
- hobomatic 5y ago
  The stuff I am talking about lists a percentage of THC on the packaging and people are buying it almost exclusively to get high. I was dubious at first too, but I have talked to several people who have used them and they say they are getting a THC high, and the packaging even communicates the THC content. But I have no reciepts. It could be an entirely illegal Enterprise given the proprietor.
- wtf242 5y ago
  delta 8 will definitely get you high just like weed

cullinap 5y ago

"There are also those who really want a recreational marijuana program that could lead to more people smoking and less people working, with all the societal and family ills that that brings." lol