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Leafly.com reports:
[On Thursday] the United States' capital, Washington D.C. (not to be confused with the state of Washington, which debuted its retail stores last week), officially decriminalizes cannabis. Under the new law, police officers can no longer demand identification from people caught possessing up to one ounce of cannabis, nor can they arrest people if they simply smell cannabis on them. Instead, they will confiscate any "visible contraband" and issue a ticket with a fine of $25.
Possession of amounts greater than one ounce can still result in arrest and being charged with a crime, but this is still a small victory for D.C. residents, especially blacks, who are being penalized and face having their lives ruined over a small amount of cannabis. Now how's about you look into legalization next, Nation's Capital?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Saturday July 19 2014, @09:04AM
Outlawing nature is always a no-win situation. Making weed (produce), or any other naturally growing plant, a controlled substance is futile in the long run. When considering that those cravings forbidden, especially those that are of personal nature, will make them more desirable. I am glad to see that /some/ common sense is emerging. If there is a problem, then criminalizing cannot ever solve the problem. Now, at least, you can look at the problematic cases and deal with them in a sensible way without someone slamming down the door.
I'm just waiting for more common sense to prevail. However, I am not entirely convinced that common sense was the driving factor here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 19 2014, @03:12PM
> Making weed (produce), or any other naturally growing plant, a controlled substance is futile in the long run.
It isn't about naturally growing. It is about human nature. Meth, X/Molly, LSD, etc aren't even close to be "naturally growing" but the problems with them are fundamentally the same as with pot. It is human nature to want to get high. That's the "nature" that prohibition always fails at.
Just like copyright is guaranteed to fail now that the internet has removed all practical barriers to information exchange. It is human nature to want to share cool ideas. Trying to prohibit sharing is also a losing fight. A long painful fight with lots of collateral damage, but a losing fight nonetheless.
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Sunday July 20 2014, @01:39AM
I'll be a pedant and note that LSD [wikipedia.org] is derived from ergotimine [wikipedia.org] which is a byproduct of a rye fungus. Regardless, the dose and effect of LSD is such that it generally regarded as a synthetic drug.
1702845791×2
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 20 2014, @05:40AM
ergotimine
It's thought by some that that's the stuff that caused those chicks to freak out in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1600s. [wikipedia.org]
(Eating moldy rye bread got them executed for "witchcraft".)
There was an outbreak of ergotism in France as recently as 1951 (also on that page).
-- gewg_