Reeferendum

[tee rex]

New Zealand will have one in 2020. To coincide with the election, which means higher turnout, so expected to pass. Here's a copy and paste summary of the main proposals:

"Cannabis consumption, sale, and purchase for recreational use would be made legal for 20-year-olds and over, but would be kept tightly regulated by the Government.

Only licensed premises would be allowed to sell it and it could only be consumed either on licensed premises or in private homes - so smoking a joint on the beach would still be against the law. All advertising of cannabis products would be banned. Online sales would be prohibited.

A small amount of home cultivation would be allowed - but only for use, not for sale, kind of like home brewed beer. The licensed premises would be supplied by commercial growers. Only seeds could be legally imported and only with good reason by licensed entities." (ends)

So going well beyond decriminalisation. Feel free to pick at the loopholes or share anecdata from other jurisdictions (people have been saying "Canada" a lot), and then I'll pass your wisdom off as my informed comments elsewhere.

[Ginger Yellow]

It's really quite something how the momentum behind decriminalisation in the UK, which seemed pretty strong in the late 90s, seemingly completely* stalled midway through Blair's term and if anything went backwards under the Tories with some of the most wideranging prohibition law in the Western world, all while decriminalisation and even legalisation was happening in lots of other ostensibly culturally similar places.

* I mean, I suppose there was a bit of liberalisation around pharmaceutical uses of derivatives, but nothing like the "medical marijuana" loophole that some US states had.

[ursus arctos]

Aren't BAT among the Tories' BFFs and largest donors?

The tobacco companies have been funding a lot of the opposition here, but it is harder to frustrate progress in 50 states than one federal entity (though their fervent opposition is one reason why Federal law is still very strict).

[Snake Plissken]

I seem to remember either the Health Secretary or the Home Secretary of the time (Blunkett? Reid?) going against all advice and putting cannabis back as a Class A drug due to easy headlines in the papers. I think the head of one of the advisory committees - a Professor or Doctor who knew his stuff - resigned over it.

[ursus arctos]

Likely David Nutt, who was sacked.

[WOM]

Nice headline, that.

[Nocturnal Submission]

How are things working out in Canada?

[Ginger Yellow]

going against all advice and putting cannabis back as a Class A drug due to easy headlines in the papers.

B from C, no?

[Snake Plissken]

Look. Apart from the Home Secretary, the re-classification, the way he left the job and the timing - I got the rest right.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Ignore them, mate. Pedantic nitpickers.

[Amor de Cosmos]

How are things working out in Canada?

Way cool man... [cough]

After all the fuss a year ago the realities have included a stock market bubble and burst in marijuana futures and, currently, a massive lack of legal product. This is partly due to individual provinces figuring out, who, where and how it can be bought. Here in BC the government is cracking down on the quasi-legal "clinics" which were on almost every retail block before legalisation but have yet to offer alternatives. This will change eventually but as of now the only sure fire way to score is on-line.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Interesting. Any unexpected consequences so far?

[Amor de Cosmos]

None that have been particularly noticeable. The latest new is that anyone who's been convicted of simple possession in the past can go online and get their record expunged.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Have you ever been busted, John?

[Amor de Cosmos]

No, nor do I know anyone who has, either here or in the UK. Which, when I think about it seems pretty strange, considering how routine toking up was, in my teens, twenties and thirties.

[ursus arctos]

At least in this country, there were (and are) two distinctly different enforcement regimes depending on the colour and income level of the user.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Yup, that never really existed here in BC to the same extent. In the UK when I lived there 60s/70s, stop and search was common, happened to me several times (once I was taken to Notting Hill station and they took my trousers away for three hours.) A bigger fear was having stuff planted on you. There was one cop at Notting Dale station who was notorious for it. Blacks and "Hippies" were fair game back then.

[Bored Of Education]

It's just grown up, isn't it?

[Flynnie]

When I was home for Christmas, it was pretty remarkable how little has noticeably changed. The only change is you can smoke a blunt on the streets as if you were smoking a cigarette with zero cares.

the cannabis situation in the UK is functionally absurd, you smell so much weed smoking through South London that the grown up thing is to just make it legal.

[Lang Spoon]

Same Dublin. Not really smoking for close to a year almost sensitizes me more to the aroma in the streets. Fuckin evil PD (Thatcherite) politico Harney passed a law criminalizing all psychoactives from Salvia to Smoke, from coke to ephedrine around 2010 but. So corrupt bacon faced Gardai have a ready made charge against street life they dont like the colour or class of.

[Amor de Cosmos]

One of the main discussions here is how/if to legislate "edibles." Partly to keep them away from kids, mainly because they're pretty much undetectable and take longer to kick in. There's a particular concern, for example, about driving after ingestion.

[Amor de Cosmos]

When I was home for Christmas, it was pretty remarkable how little has noticeably changed. The only change is you can smoke a blunt on the streets as if you were smoking a cigarette with zero cares.

the cannabis situation in the UK is functionally absurd, you smell so much weed smoking through South London that the grown up thing is to just make it legal.

The pressure from police forces and the Law Society probably tipped the balance here. Weed possession offences were just clogging up the courts and costing serious money, isn't that also the case in the UK and Ireland?

[Lang Spoon]

In Ireland I was never lifted myself despite heavy smoking from 2001 to 2018. Though I've had friends lifted for a joint's worth, even as late as 2015, cos culchie fuck knuckle guards were making their quota of arrests undercover in Stephens Green.

im also white and middle class (the middle class bit prob being the vital factor with the filth in Ireland).