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Tag: legal marijuana

  • Shootings up in NYC

    Shootings are up 20 percent this year. Bratton is blaming marijuana. I doubt it. But maybe. I’m certainly willing to consider the idea. Most liberals, I find, never ever consider the idea that their advocacy might have unintended consequences, like more young black men getting murdered.

    That said, Bratton pointed to drug dealers getting killed. That was illegal last year and remains illegal this year. So I’m not certain how not arrested people for small scale marijuana possession really changes anything. (For public safety or Broken Windows, that is. It certain matters for the guy getting arrested or not.) If the increase is as Bratton describes it, these killings seem more like old-fashioned Prohibition killings than decriminalization killings.

    But… it could be that criminals are more brazen in response to less aggressive policing. And maybe some robber smoking a joint last year would have gotten stopped by the po-po. But not so in 2015. I’m not saying that is the reason. But it’s possible.

    Here’s the story in the Times. Worth reading if you’re into this kind of thing.

  • If only our cities were more like Amsterdam!

    If only our cities were more like Amsterdam!

    This comes from the The Netherlands Embassy in Washington, D.C.:

    Initiative 71 became law today, legalizing marijuana in Washington, D.C. under certain circumstances. Mayor Muriel Bowser said this week that the District will not become “like Amsterdam,” as though being “like Amsterdam” would be a bad thing. City Hall even refers to Amsterdam in their official Q&A. To give the people of Washington, D.C. an educated view of how D.C. compares to Amsterdam, the Netherlands Embassy in Washington offers this Q&A about Dutch marijuana laws and policies and an infographic.

    Click through for the Q & A. Here’s the infographic. It’s odd, our American tendency, to take something that works well enough in other countries — be it drug policy or health care — and simple assert that it’s a horrible system best avoided.

  • This is what rational drug policy looks like

    This is what rational drug policy looks like

    The other day my wife and I visited a friend from way back who now works in a coffee shop. Actually a famous one, the Bulldog, which is soon to celebrate it’s 40th anniversary.

    Mostly I just love how a legal and regulated drug trade becomes, well, boring.

    There actually is a worker on duty who is registered by the city as a drug dealer. Along with having to get a standard cafe operator’s license, the city A) checked his criminal background and B) made sure his money is legit. That’s it. They also gave tips in the standard cafe license class (along with, you know, the usual: keep hot, hot, and cold, cold, and don’t cross-contaminate) on how to run a business and keep accounts and deal with labor issues. Here, as long as you play their game, they actually want you to succeed.

    What’s odd about the coffee shop business is that the business is legal, the drugs they sell are legal in all but name, but the store is only allowed to have 500 grams (1 lb) of weed in stock at any given time (that’s strange, but whatever). So they constantly get re-upped. And at that point in the supply trade, from the guy supplying the coffee shop and up the wholesale ladder, the drugs are illegal. Odd. Also, I think, now there has to be a dedicated drug dealer. Years ago you could order coffee and a joint from the same guy. Now, or at least here, one employee makes the coffees and handles all the business except the drugs. The other sells the drugs. Whatev… It works for the Netherlands. And yes, no tobacco smoking inside a business. That’s illegal.







    This looks a lot better than prohibition, even Dutch prohibition.

  • Pot is in the news

    From the LA Times:

    Tucked deep inside the 1,603-page federal spending measure is a
    provision that effectively ends the federal government’s prohibition on
    medical marijuana and signals a major shift in drug policy.

    The
    bill’s passage over the weekend marks the first time Congress has
    approved nationally significant legislation backed by legalization
    advocates. It brings almost to a close two decades of tension between
    the states and Washington over medical use of marijuana.

    Also, I think more significant, as as reported by USA Today:

    Marijuana use among teens declined this year even as two states,
    Colorado and Washington, legalized the drug for recreational use, a
    national survey released Tuesday found.

    Of course we can’t be certain till we try it, but all evidence (seen in the
    US, Portugal, and the Netherlands) seems to show that ending
    prohibition does not increase drug use. This is a big deal because the effect of prohibition versus regulation (ie: legalization) on drug use really is the core issue related to people’s support of the drug war.

    If ending the drug war lowered drug use — and it’s a big “if” but it’s certainly a possibility — would you still support the war on drugs. Is the war on drugs worth fighting for it’s own sake simply because drugs are wrong? Even if that same drug war causes more people to take and be harmed by drugs?

    If you can’t conceive of how ending the drug war could reduce drug use, consider these factors, in no particular order:

    1) Kids love doing what they’re not supposed to do.
    2) Peer pressure is stronger when you’re doing something illegal. To protect yourself, there’s greater pressure to implicate everybody.
    3) Drugs can be dangerous. Honest education is better at reducing harms than “just say no” and cracked eggs on a frying pan.
    4) I’ve yet to meet anybody who says they would love to try heroin, if only it were legal and regulated. People do or don’t take drugs for many reasons, the law seems pretty low on the list. 

    5) Prohibition doesn’t actually work. Drugs are not hard to get.

  • “Will police have more free time once pot becomes legal?”

    Good question! And it’s answered by Ted Hesson in his good article in Fusion.net.

    Spoiler alert: No.

    Second spoiler: I’m quoted.

    Third spoiler: I curse (yet again).

  • The black-market pot trade in Colorado

    One would expect to see illegal weed sales diminish in states with legalized marijuana. It hasn’t happened overnight. But I suspect it will. From USA Today.