Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday January 02 2018, @12:08AM   Printer-friendly
from the first-sale-at-4:20 dept.

California launches legal sale of cannabis for recreational use

California will launch the world's largest regulated commercial market for recreational marijuana on Monday, as dozens of newly licensed stores catering to adults who enjoy the drug for its psychoactive effects open for business up and down the state.

It becomes the sixth U.S. state, and by far the most populous, venturing beyond legalized medical marijuana to permit the sale of cannabis products of all types to customers at least 21 years old.

Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Nevada were the first to introduce recreational pot sales on a state-regulated, licensed and taxed basis. Massachusetts and Maine are on track to follow suit later this year.

With California and its 39.5 million residents officially joining the pack, more than one-in-five Americans now live in states where recreational marijuana is legal for purchase, even though cannabis remains classified as an illegal narcotic under U.S. law.

The marijuana market in California alone, which boasts the world's sixth-largest economy, is valued by most experts at several billion dollars annually and is expected to generate at least a $1 billion a year in tax revenue.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday January 02 2018, @04:03AM (3 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday January 02 2018, @04:03AM (#616606) Journal

    If you look at the breakdown (the more detailed second graph), it includes categories such as "drug specific mortality" and "crime".

    Basically, alcohol comes way ahead because of people drinking and driving. Drunk people also commit a lot of crimes that they may never have intended to commit, people on a nicotine buzz, not so much.

    As far harm to the user only, alcohol makes a lot of people do things that cause them nearly immediate injury. You can also die of alcohol poisoning if you drink way too much or pour it up your ass or whatever. Not really the case with tobacco. Long term, alcohol causes cirrhosis, and it has been linked to cancer [soylentnews.org] as well.

    You might disagree with the specific findings, but it should be considered a starting point towards using a "multicriteria decision analysis" (instead of an "asinine decision analysis" like we have today). There are very big differences between drugs on the left side and right side of the graph. We have drugs on Schedule I that will never cause nearly as much harm as alcohol, even if people were "abusing" it as much as possible.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday January 02 2018, @06:23AM (2 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 02 2018, @06:23AM (#616641) Journal

    OTOH, tobacco has been used in highly dangerous ways. E.g.

    Back around 1500 the AmerInds had an working anesthetic, and the Europeans didn't...you take a cigar (I don't know the details) and slowly insert it into the patients rectum until they pass out, then you remove it some (but not entirely?). But you've got to be VERY careful, because the anesthetic dose is quite close to the fatal dose. I don't know how well this worked, but it's supposed to have been considerably more effective and controllable than alcohol.

    --
    Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by anubi on Tuesday January 02 2018, @08:12AM

      by anubi (2828) on Tuesday January 02 2018, @08:12AM (#616657) Journal

      ... you take a cigar (I don't know the details) and slowly insert it into the patients rectum until they pass out, then you remove it some (but not entirely?)....

      You know, I will never see a cigar smoker in the same way again.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:28PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:28PM (#616729)

      Sometimes I wonder how things like this were discovered. Then I think it's probably better not to ask such questions.