Comment by Confiks | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Confiks | Hacker News Reader

I think it's a mistake to legalize cannabis and continue to treat it like any other consumer product, opening the floodgates to gratuitous advertisements and dubious health claims. Instead, the sale of cannabis (and perhaps other drugs) should be treated as a public health issue, where the sale is permitted as long as it isn't advertised and proper information is given about the product.

The Netherlands partly has this system, where cannabis sale is 'tolerated' for shops with permits, and where advertisements are forbidden. The system is far from ideal, but I think better than complete (de)criminalization. Additionally, the discussion about drugs is very open thanks to a number of publicly funded organizations. They do not hesitate to also note the positive sides of certain drugs, which all the more encourages a conversation about the responsible use of drugs.

Portugal has gone even further in decriminalizing other (more addictive) substances [1] with fairly good results.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radic...

As long as you are also willing to do the same with alcohol, which I would absolutely argue is a much more damaging drug to both the individual and society at large.

Can you cite any research that would support your argument that alcohol is much more damaging to the individual?

https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/alcohol-poisoning-deaths/inde...

https://www.promises.com/resources/overdose/many-people-died...

Alcohol is just generally a more toxic chemical. People don't get cirrhosis of the liver from smoking too much marijuana. I think if you really wanted to dig into the subject, you'd also find the alcohol is also more addictive and that driving under the influence of alcohol tends to be more dangerous that driving under the influence of cannabis.

The problem is, criminalization of pot does far more harm to society than decriminalization.

So, while there might be downsides of decriminalization, the downsides of criminalization far outweight the former.

Confiks isn’t arguing it should be criminal, though. Just saying it should be “tolerated”, but not the same way a lot of other products are - they mention disallowing advertisements, and restricting who can sell it.

This is actually pretty similar to how cigarettes are treated in Canada (and many countries). Restricted sales, legal ages to purchase, product covered in discouraging warnings, lots of restrictions around advertisements, tonnes of places you aren’t allowed to smoke (not just inside, but anywhere remotely close to doorways), etc. Basically sends the message “we think smoking is negative, but it’s better to tolerate it in a highly regulated way than to make it illegal.”

Can you name an area that has legalized cannabis and fallen victim to this flood of dubious health claims that you fear?

Do you see this as worse than our current system of criminalizing it and sending SWAT teams into dispensaries?

Is advertising cannabis legal in anywhere in the US? I haven't spent much time in the states where pot is legal but I certainly haven't seen any. Contrast this to traveling in Germany where the cigarette ads shocked me as an American - it felt so backwards.

It's on billboards across california.

> Is advertising cannabis legal in anywhere in the US?

I see cannabis dispensery ads pretty much everywhere here in San Francisco, on Buses, bus stands, billboards, even on the taxi cab top cone thingys....

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