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Germany unveils bill to legalize cannabis
- bhaak 3y agoThe much more surprising move is that they've just passed legislation to reduce bureaucracy for setting up photovoltaic installations. Reducing bureaucracy!
- faraggi 3y agoI think both are related ;)
- stop50 3y agoWe have an law that prohibits conplicated laws and one that limits the maximum amount of traffic signs in an area.
- henvic 3y agoI live in The Netherlands. Two months ago, I received a fine notice because I drove a bit too fast and had a €80 fine to pay. I paid the fine the same day or week I received it. Today I received a registered mail from somewhere in Germany. Because I had just been back from Germany again, I was worried I sped up by accident again, even though I don't remember this happening! Guess what? They actually sent me a registered letter informing me I paid the fine I had received previously. Which I paid for on-line. On their website. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- reaperman 3y agoThat's actually kind of nice. In case their computer system gets borked, you have positive affirmation/defense.
- aliwerjt 3y ago[flagged]
- TylerE 3y agoGerman factory workers have been drinking beer at lunch forever.
- bill_joy_fanboy 3y agoBeer is okay. Therefore, weed is okay. I follow your logic.
- TylerE 3y agoAt low to moderate doses, there really isn't much difference. Precision is much more about the engineers rather than the line workers, anyway.
- ofrzeta 3y agoIt was the norm when I did vacation work like 40 years ago. You had vending machines with beer in the factories as well. Today there's usually a ban on alcohol in factories.
- mbg721 3y agoThere was a recent thread that pointed out that the engineering in German cars is precise, but not very robust; BMWs are always in the shop. Presumably they could still be precise, only more slowly.
- c4mpute 3y agoThey are precise in a different way: Parts are no longer engineered to last forever, or at least a long time, as they used to be (you can still see 90s era mercedes taxis driving around, some even after their second 6-digit-odometer wraparound). Now they are made in such a way to precisely last as long as required for the manufacturer to make the maximum amount of money. Meaning that parts will fail after the warranty period, but then quickly, often and with the maximum amount of damage.
- Simulacra 3y agoGermany has also legalized prostitution.
- c4mpute 3y agoThis will be a disaster. Not for the usual drugs-are-bad-hmkay reasons but because the bill is completely weird, rife with stupid ideas that just won't work or create new problems. First, there is no simple way to get cannabis. You cannot just go into any shop, only a select few cities or regions will be allowed to have shops, and that is only for a limited "evaluation period". I predict that after this evaluation period, there just won't be anymore shops. You could participate in a cannabis growing club that is intended as a communal kind of homegrowing, but there are very strange regulations around that such as "at least 200m from any school/kindergarten". Because maybe kids only sneak into greenhouses that are within 200m of their school? Which leaves homegrowing, but the security requirements for the fentanyl in my medicine cabinet are less than for my future potted plants. So they decriminalized cannabis but gave the police reason to snoop around in homes and just fine the same people for different "crimes", such as insufficiently armored windows in front of their indoor garden. Then, the law will conflict with EU laws. But the government didn't even try to change EU laws, they are just waiting to maybe be sued by the commission. Which will then end in the law being invalidated by the EU courts. They also added taxation, with the argument that this will generate income to offset the supposed health problems that legalization would create. However, since the only viable thing is to homegrow, which isn't taxed (yet), tax income will be minimal and just add to the overall tax bureaucracy, maybe even resulting in a net negative income for the state. There were ideas of creating a cannabis industry, similar to what California did. However, since there won't be many shops, requirements around security are extreme and customers are driven to homegrow, there won't be any industry to speak of. Maybe just a little to illegally (because trade is forbidden there, as is exporting from Germany) supply the Netherlands and other neighboring countries. Since there won't be any scale and costs will be high, illegal cannabis will still be cheaper overall. I personally suspect that this law is set up to fail by the people writing it. E.g. the minister of health, Lauterbach, was never a fan of the idea (to say it mildly), yet was forced to write this law since it fell into the realm of his ministry. Others in the coalition, especially in the SPD, are of a similar opinion and only go along because their other partners, FDP and greens, demanded legalization. When the next government in 2 years is a SPD/CDU coalition (current polls look that way, would be a repeat of most of the Merkel governments), this law will, after "thorough evaluation of the results", be abolished again.
- 3y ago
- phoehne 3y agoThe real pushback is that it doesn't produce disturbing hallucinations that shake your soul to its core, leaving you in a state of existential angst.
- tamimio 3y agoAnytime a government legalize a drug or even alcohol, you know they are trying to sedate the society from questioning and maybe eventually revolting.
- pixelpoet 3y ago> a drug or even alcohol Those are not two separate things.
- tamimio 3y agoTechnically, yes, but socially, not really, a lot will find it ok to drink alcohol on weekly basis but frown upon the fact someone did a drug, soft or hard.
- mandmandam 3y agoCannabis is far less harmful than alcohol; it's not close. It's not a technicality, it's reality. Most of my social circles feel the same way. I have pity for those who swallowed that propaganda, but they can shove their frowns. That attitude is enabling real harm and needless suffering, like the alcohol they need to function. In short, I wonder why anyone cares about their opinion. It's not based in reality.
- karaterobot 3y agoCongrats! I'm from Washington. It's been legal here for a while, and society has not collapsed yet, so I have every hope Germany will also survive this cataclysm.
- bill_joy_fanboy 3y agoThey won't. Birth rate in Germany is ~1.5-ish. The West seems to be dying by a thousand cuts. This is yet another cut.
- bad_alloc 3y agoQuestion: Where do educated people frequently move to? > The West seems to be dying by a thousand cuts. This is yet another cut. Which system in your opinion is superior and will replace it?
- bill_joy_fanboy 3y ago[flagged]
- esperent 3y ago> People may move to the West, but that doesn't make them Westerners Actually it usually does, it just takes one or at most two generations. Source: many non-white friends who are pretty much as European as I am, stretching over a period of my forty years of life. That's what makes western culture strong - it's capable of integrating people from other cultures without breaking.
- rainworld 3y agoThat's what makes western culture strong - it's capable of integrating people from other cultures without breaking. Romans thought so too.
- 3y ago
- jhack 3y agoIf only the opposition were this concerned about the harmful effects of far more dangerous drugs like alcohol.
- kgbcia 3y agoAfter legalization here in Canada, I didn't see an increase in crime or substance abuse which the critics said would happen.
- brailsafe 3y agoYou'd probably need to be more specific for this statement to be accurate. After legalization of marijuana, crime related to its use or distribution have not increased, but crime related to substances of other kinds and abuse of those other substances has definitely been a huge problem that's been increasing in the years since legalization, but it's probably unrelated. So it would be true enough to say legalizing weed was not a bad thing, but not as true to say there hasn't been increases in crime or substance abuse.
- stmichel 3y agoWell Germany has to burn whatever it can get its hands on to get energy now...