As a pre- and post-legalization smoker, I always thought this was a naive view. Having to deal with a sketchy flaky street dealer (not to mention finding one to begin with) is absolutely going to turn a lot of people off of smoking. And speaking from experience, waiting on an empty street corner for 20-30 minutes for your dealer to show up (because he's always late) gives you a lot of time to introspect and question your choices...
It is really nothing like walking into a clean retail store with regular business hours, display cases, and pretty young cashiers. The street dealer situation makes you feel like a lowlife piece of shit who has a lot of growing up to do; the legal retail situation makes you feel like a yuppie walking into an Apple Store. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this new option led to 2 or 3 times as many people smoking. And to me, that's completely fine (really, good for me since it makes it more socially acceptable).
I think the smokers who believed that legalization didn't offer a more appealing purchasing option for a ton of people must be the 24/7 stoners who only have other 24/7 stoners as friends and can't imagine not having immediate access to weed.
We have no idea of the prevalance of this kind of person. There's no research.
(I am in favour of legalisation.)
So yes, that's all anecdotal, but at least in my circles I have seen over the past 30 years that (semi)legalizing indeed helps a lot; because there is a 40-50 year trackrecord in countries like NL, there must be someone who researched it and has data about the actual effects of legalization and 'gedoog' (semi-legalization) strategies?
Portugal is the most common example of how harm reduction policies help to decrease mortality and usage, a better informed population where drugs aren't taboo makes their usage be lower and more responsible.
I have some Dutch friends, most don't really smoke weed as often, usually on a special occasion. Harder drugs usage is also more responsible, most of them test their drugs before consuming, don't overdo it. Openness and information invites responsibility.
That said I applaud them. That's a very respectable level of restraint and community-mindedness (I swear that's a word).
That was me. Although not because I was afraid of getting caught, but simply because the effort and logistics of attempting to get ahold of a consistent supply of quality weed without getting ripped off was not worth it.
(I am in favour of legalisation.)
You're totally right that those people exist and there are 'many' of them. I'm going off conversations that have occurred and caused certain cities, especially in the Peel and Halton regions, to ban stores.
Honestly the real number of people who feel a type of way about legalisation doesn't even matter that much, especially when decisions like this are up to already elected representatives and not handled by referendum. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and this is a fundamental issue with the implementation of democracy in the west. For issues that most people don't consider a hill to die on (or, at least, both sides) elected representatives don't end up voting in line with actual public opinion. A prime example of this fact is that legalization only happened in 2018 and not 20 years earlier.
(I am against legalisation; I don't live in Canada.)
For me it is completely easy to believe. Cannabis is not addictive enough for me to go to the trouble of getting it illegally.
Yep, I agree.
But we need to talk not just about what happens today, but what happens in the future. If cannabis is normalised and legally available will that increase the use of cannabis?
I think use of cannabis will increase in Canada after legalisation and I doubt anybody will disagree or project a decrease. I think a bigger question is whether public opinion will continue to trend favourably in light of current medical knowledge which seems to think that cannabis causes less harm than alcohol thus making it a better way to waste time and/or ease general existential angst on the weekends.
While I don't think more people getting stoned is necessarily 'win' for Canadian society, I think if it diverts them from other more harmful forms of impairment (alcohol or 'hard' drugs) it probably is.
Up until now it was mostly conjectures, and very biased observations only (not only because of preconceptions, but also because the smoking population was so fringe). Even if it ends up there’s tons of unpredicted critically bad side effects, at least we’ll be out of the boogyeman phase and will have solid evidence of what’s good and wvat’s bad.
You are the boogeyman to the people who oppose legalisation. One of the rare people who didn't smoke simply to obey the law and are now getting stoned because it's legal. :P
I think the people who rarely smoked are the most happy, because they are not worried about a minor price increase but also appreciate the convenience and legal acceptance.
I am personally happy with legalisation and, as someone who no longer smokes but realises the relative lack of harm from consuming cannabis (especially as compared to alcohol), think it is the morally right thing to do.
Despite my own beliefs, public opposition to the rollout is still significant and definitely worth mentioning especially in a Reuters article that will be propagated everywhere.