Agree - plus tobacco.
If marijuana is banned due to harm, then plenty of other substances should be banned. And vice versa.
So downvoted because popular opinion? π
this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2024
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Unpopular Opinion
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I'm glad you agree, but yea I guess I shouldn't expect this to be an unpopular opinion on Lemmy, the niche small unpopular website on the internet.
I think most people, even outside Lemmy, are in favor of legalization. There's just a lot of old people in charge of the laws who are against it because of years of "Reefer Madness" propaganda crap.
Like, Ohio had a ballot initiative not long ago to legalize it recreationally and, after it passed, their legislature tried to knee-cap it (unsuccessfully, I believe).
I absolutely agree but because of selfish reasons - I'm so tired of smelling marijuana smoke on park walks. I'm so tired of smelling cigarrette in the streets. I'm so tired of drunk people being stupid and framing alcohol as something cool and the only way to socialize.
thankfully public intoxication (drunkenness) is illegal. Hopefully someday marijuana and cigarette smoke and fumes will be illegal in public also. Even when I'm driving I can smell this from drivers in cars all around me and it gets into my vehicle and it's ridiculous.
That's fair. What makes this unpopular for me is that the solution to the 'bad for health' argument should be decriminalization and social health services, not criminalization.
Is this an unpopular opinion?
I agree, and am in favour of decriminalisation of marijuana, but I will present the argument against as I think it's more nuanced than some people will make out.
Alcohol is a substance that is indelibly intertwined with our culture and rituals. Our socialising at bars, pubs and clubs; our celebrations (champagne!); and our meals (taking a bottle of wine to dinner with friends). Marijuana, by contrast, is in the UK a relatively new introduction. It doesn't currently serve the same social function.
If each were to do the same level of damage and carry the same risk, it wouldn't make sense to spend your political capital trying to ban alcohol (look at how prohibition turned out!) as it's simply too deeply ingrained in our culture to try. But you could seek to prevent marijuana from reaching the same level of cultural necessity through stigma and criminalisation.
From a public health perspective, this would make sense; less cost to health services from related health conditions. So you don't decriminalise, and at the same time take reasonable steps to try to reduce the harm to public health caused by alcohol.
Where I think this argument falls down is in the criminalising aspect. Does it truly prevent weed from reaching that status, and are your disincentives targeting the right people? To me it seems far more sensible to treat people as adults and educate them on the health risks of both alcohol and the devil's lettuce.
Downvoting because I completely agree.
I'm glad that the moderator of an extremely liberal niche community on an unpopular website agrees.
Oh, I don't see it as a political thing. My mom was an alcoholic. That shit wrecks families and communities.
You're making two different arguments here. There are plenty of reasons for why people are against Marijuana besides health.
You know what they mean. If a reason to ban marijuana is due to health concerns, then it's only consistent to be against alcohol for the same reason.
If you're against marijuana for other reasons, then consistency still matters, but doesn't apply for alcohol maybe.
"Health concerns" is too broad of a term IMO. The health effects of Marijuana versus alcohol are completely different. What might be an important issue for one person could be irrelevant to another.
I'm for making both illegal
There's no inconsistency at all when you recognize that it's really about racism
I am? Alcohol does way more damage. I greatly enjoy now being somewhere where alcohol is not the normal. A day or night out is not just drinking plus something.
As for smoking, vaping, whatever stop that shit too. I wish it was legal so that everytime your stank wafts over me, I can just spray you with vomit powder. Because basically it's the same thing. You want to stink yourself up, fine. You want to do it in public, or so it gets in my house, etc then I get to stink you up with something you find repulsive as well.