Question for those of you living in a country where marijuana is legal. What are the positive sides, what are the negatives?

If you could go back in time, would you vote for legalising again? Does it affect the country’s illegal drug business , more/less?

  • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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    16 hours ago

    Legalization has only positives

    People who need something, to get through the day, will always seek for some kind of crutch.

    When the legal range of available products (sorry, just learned, that the word “Sortiment” doesn’t have a nice English equivalent) aren’t helping ones issue, they’ll look for other sources.
    But unregulated sources can bring multiple problems with it.

    First off, and the thing, I care about most:
    we’d/we do hurt people looking for some kind of help.
    Either by directly reducing their sources of crutches to untrustable and dangerous ones, with a product that’s very probably not clean and could damage the user in unintended ways, they aren’t aware about. We need to provide a safety net for people with problems, and not stigmatize those who try to help themselves.
    And I’ve never met an addict, that was just an addict for the sake of it, or the feeling of the first time was so great - ok, maybe once I did.
    But in every other case, the only ones getting hooked are the ones, that finally felt good with themselves for once in their life, when they somehow introduced some drug into their system.
    And that’s why many of them say, it was that feeling of the first time, they always try to reproduce.
    For a normal happy person, heroin wouldn’t make much of a difference.
    But if you’re feeling unloved and alone, hurt and abused, when you’re feeling lost and don’t know what to do, than end yourself.
    Well then, then heroin (or whatever helps your cause) will give you a new perspective of life.
    This escape from overwhelming, oppressive, suffocation problems is it, why people get hooked on drugs.

    There is just nothing wrong with recreational use, as long as it’s just about boosting a good time or even better, use mind altering drugs in a ritual setting, to change your perspective on things and learn (again) that love and your lives ones are the center of your life - or discover, that there was always one thing, that you wanted to do. Doesn’t matter, if it gives you more options and happiness in life, it wasn’t bad.
    Bad it is for the people who cling to it, because only on it, they feel like functioning normal.

    Those people have actual drug problems, and even with crystal meth the statistics say, that only a few percent (we’re talking 1-2%) get addicted.
    (At least that’s, what I saw and remember - proof me wrong) And we have to keep in mind what social stigma fucking crystal meth has!
    The group of people doing it (and show up on those statistics) are mostly people, that are already looking for such experiences and have stepped over the border of social tolerance, but look for their own thing (either enjoyment or escape/help)
    And there is pretty much no one, who ever just started with meth (or other hard drugs, like heroin) . In the most cases there was at least alcohol and probably cigarettes/nicotine involved - there are absolutely always exceptions, but that doesn’t change much, what needs to change in our social system.
    As tragic, as those exceptions are, those usually happen in groups, where people with problematic drug use already gather.
    So, solving the problem of the mass, should also help to reduce those sad exceptions.

    Ok, I’ve started a bigger second point, but the only thing left I have are those few words, trying to start describing an idea:
    “Then we need to look into the individual”

    Well,… I hope the first point is sufficient, and if I ever remember what I wanted to say else, I’ll come back here ;⁠-⁠)
    So kids, you see, don’t abuse drugs, else you won’t remember shit… - although my mother has the same problem, and never in her live did anything illicit.
    So I can’t say with confidence, that we can talk about causation.

    But, what hurt my mind most, were social traumata (e.g. a Burnout), and drugs (and many exercises like meditation) exceptionally helped my mental state and ability to handle life and work despite my handicap.
    As I said, as long as I actively work on a problem and use drugs in a ritual state, they are helping me.
    As soon as I need them just to get through the day, then I’m having a problem, I’m trying to avoid.

    I know, this is mostly about me, but talking with other users, I’ve mostly seen the same mindset.

    • Shanmugha@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      I second your message in many ways. First off, I am not a user… well, count alcohol in, on special occasions like a birthday, but even a thought of drinking two glasses of wine more frequently than once in a month or two reminds me I am not going to feel well. Anyway, main reason is I know full well that if I am not able to deal with my life as is, no substance is going to help, and as for discovering how fun life can be - there are other methods, far less destructive

      Now about how substances are used by other people: drink/smoke to make it through painful day(s) - I get how it works, but in the end again, not a solution. Same goes for situations where drugs are prescribed as painkillers - I can trust that physical pain can be that acute and exhausting

      And actual regular drug usage - now this is a sure sign something in life of that person has gone completely off-track, and giving them more suffering (social stigma and criminal charges) won’t help. We need to look at individual, we need a different kind of society where no one gets so desperate as to use chemicals in order to have some break from the suffering that their life has become, and we sure as hell don’t need this batshit insane “you are going to jail for even buying some small amount of weed” idiocy

    • shoo@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      with crystal meth the statistics say, that only a few percent (we’re talking 1-2%) get addicted.

      Couldn’t find the numbers on meth specifically but I’m highly skeptical.

      70% of users who try an illegal drug before age 13 develop a substance abuse disorder within the next 7 years compared to 27% of those who try an illegal drug after age 17.

      25.4% of illegal drug users have a drug disorder.

      I’d argue that any form of self medication is inherently unhealthy, and free access to legal substances doesn’t fix that. Some people are able to navigate it responsibly but it’s not possible for most people.

      The human brain is a complex soup of chemicals and electrical impulses, altering it with a substance won’t result in an objective self assessment of the effects.

      Taking your example, plenty of normal and reasonably happy people get addicted to opiods. The first experiences are on such a different scale to regular chemical pleasure your brain generates that it alters your perception of normal feelings.

      If you ask someone to compare that high to normal life before or after, they’ll tell you they never experienced “true” happiness before.

      There are real, observable, permanent changes to brain structure from drug use. I don’t think that type of change should be taken lightly with personal experimentation. It should have the same scrutiny and medical guardrails that we give other permanent body choices.

      For anyone interested, some reading on heroin’s impact on the brain