AP: Sessions to end policy of federal nonintervention in state legal weed

[UglyCasanova]

Or he could have directed them to reschedule it thus saving countless Americans and their families from having their lives ruined by being arrested over something so insanely trivial. Trump too. And Bush and Clinton...

 

[imported_tajmahal]

And how many deaths were caused by it? What you call tap dancing, educated people call being accurate.

Fatal accidents caused by people being under the influence of marijuana. Are you trying to claim they have never happened? seriously?

 

[Jhhnn]

Or he could have directed them to reschedule it thus saving countless Americans and their families from having their lives ruined by being arrested over something so insanely trivial. Trump too. And Bush and Clinton...

Obama was not King. He never had the power to dictate that it be done. Don't pretend that he did.

 

[imported_tajmahal]

CHS is rare, seen in only extreme users of marijuana, not associated with dying and completely reversible with cessation.

As for deaths related to marijuana its extremely hard to establish direct consequence causes as opposed to ethanol, cigarette use, etc. I suppose there are some indirect deaths that occur (ie burning down a house by accident or maybe trauma from falls) but the numbers are low enough to where data on it is extremely hard to find despite the prevalence of use. This actually is also a consequence of current laws (if something is illegal it can be hard to study it well).
Regardless for all these sorts of things the acceptable number of deaths (or pollution, or cases of herpes, or car accidents, or heck trolls on anandtech) is not zero. The reason why the acceptable number is never zero is the cost to society to maintain that zero number usually is so extreme either financially or legislatively or etc that it's self defeating. Imagine what we would have to do as society for example to eliminate ALL pollution? We basically would need to essentially wipe out most of humanity and regress technologically back to the Stone age. Society instead needs to ask is what is the right amount of bad things ? What is an ok amount that we are allowed to live with? This is true of pollution or gun deaths and smoking complications and marijuana use. However currently it is clear to me we are definitely over policing MMJ and paying too much as a society.

Again, I support the legalization of marijuana for recreational use, it's taxation and it's moderate regulation. But there's also the price that stoned people driving cause fatal accidents and stoned people driving fall asleep and that stoned people in general contribute to accidents, fatal or not. To me it's worth the cost of those lives, but don't pretend there isn't a cost.

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

 

[UberNeuman]

Fatal accidents caused by people being under the influence of marijuana. Are you trying to claim they have never happened? seriously?

How many fatal accidents have happened with people with unsecured guns.

 

[imported_tajmahal]

How many fatal accidents have happened with people with unsecured guns.

Why not bring cigarettes into it too?

lol

 

[UberNeuman]

Why not bring cigarettes into it too?

lol

So, you're okay with death by gunfire....

 

[Grooveriding]

As far as recreational drugs go, alcohol is a hard drug, the high is intense, debilitating and it's a fairly addictive drug if you abuse it. Addicts suffer from a physical, as well as mental addiction. Marijuana is a 1 on the scale of things, I'd put alcohol around a 6 based on my university adventures. It's not even a close comparison.

 

[umbrella39]

I'd be interested in the stats that support the number of fatal accidents caused by people being under the influence of marijuana vs cigarette smoking fatalities. The point of the author who always brings up the smokes is to compare them to gun death fatalities... I mean if we are comparing apples to oranges...

 

[imported_tajmahal]

So, you're okay with death by gunfire....

So, you're okay with death contributed to by marijuana...................

 

[UberNeuman]

So, you're okay with death contributed to by marijuana...................

I am.

 

[imported_tajmahal]

I am.

as am I and also deaths by gunfire.

You got balls UberNeuman.

 

[Jhhnn]

Again, I support the legalization of marijuana for recreational use, it's taxation and it's moderate regulation. But there's also the price that stoned people driving cause fatal accidents and stoned people driving fall asleep and that stoned people in general contribute to accidents, fatal or not. To me it's worth the cost of those lives, but don't pretend there isn't a cost.

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

The societal price of not legalizing is obviously much higher.

 

[imported_tajmahal]

The societal price of not legalizing is obviously much higher.

Is that how you're going to justify those lost lives to yourself?

OK.

 

[Jhhnn]

Is that how you're going to justify those lost lives to yourself?

OK.

Your concern trolling is duly noted.

 

[umbrella39]

Again, still waiting for a list of lives lost to marijuana... or even some sort of proof that making it legal would all of a sudden make people start consuming it more and driving while they are at it. As if there are pockets of just waiting in the wings for legalization pot smokers that will flood the roads with their illegal pot driving ways...

 

[UberNeuman]

Again, still waiting for a list of lives lost to marijuana... or even some sort of proof that making it legal would all of a sudden make people start consuming it more and driving while they are at it. As if there are pockets of just waiting in the wings for legalization pot smokers that will flood the roads with their illegal pot driving ways...

We are witness to the dismantling and deconstruction of GOP wedge issues of the past. The GOP has nothing to offer moving forward - that pot is any issue in 2018 is the last clinging to something that has no value going ahead.

 

[Jhhnn]

Is that how you're going to justify those lost lives to yourself?

OK.

More to the point Taj- If you're truly a legalization advocate as you claim, how do you justify it?

 

[imported_tajmahal]

More to the point Taj- If you're truly a legalization advocate as you claim, how do you justify it?

Collateral damage.

 

[Jhhnn]

Collateral damage.

Therefore your question to me was dishonest in the first place. If the benefit doesn't outweigh the harm there's no reason to do it & inflict collateral damage.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Is that how you're going to justify those lost lives to yourself?

OK.

Yes, That's how we should justify decisions in general - how many lives will be lost if we maintain B, how many will be saved if we choose A; if A > B do A.

Why wouldn't we do it that way?

 

[ch33zw1z]

Theres no definitive link betweeb MJ and vehicle accidents and lives lost. The concern trolling and faux outrage is nothing new.

we accept yearly losses by the hundreds of thousands in USA from just alcohol and tobacco. pretending like all of a sudden we need to be concerned about MJ is merely attempt to duhvert, and will only slow the process to legalization and the subsequent science to finding a generalized intoxication guideline and more immediate testing to confirm MJ was ingested in a recent enough instance to attribute to an accident.

But anyways, get them potheads!!

 

[brycejones]

Is that how you're going to justify those lost lives to yourself?

OK.

Please be specific about the number of projected additional deaths with legal pot vs. the current situation. Its been legal in CO for several years now so I'm sure you can dig some info on it. Or is this just another tajbot assertion without evidence?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Fatal accidents caused by people being under the influence of marijuana. Are you trying to claim they have never happened? seriously?

No, we were speaking of CHS. I'm sure there have been deaths where mj contributed but, you can't legislate against stupid else you'd be long gone.

 

[fskimospy]

WTF are you talking about? His acceptance of legalized cannabis set off a cascade of legalization efforts. Putting it in terms of States' Rights & personal freedom sweeps away the argument of scheduling & medical benefit entirely. Administratively creating an enforcement regime to accommodate it was a stroke of political genius.

That's the long game & we're winning. We wouldn't be had he asserted the supremacy of federal law. He could have readily thwarted retail marijuana at the time, but not now. It's too late, & I'm sure he figured it would be.

Obama could have rescheduled it if he wanted to but he chose not to. That was shitty. Trump is of course way worse on marijuana than Obama was but that doesn’t make Obama good on it.