The Shrine

Your headline's misleading Sine... they're not legalizing use of drugs, they're de-criminalizing possession up to "to carry up to 5 grams (0.18 ounces) of marijuana, 500 milligrams (0.018 ounces) of cocaine and tiny quantities heroin and methamphetamines." There's an important difference between legalizing possession and legalizing usage.

And how many millions would every state in the US save if we did the same thing?

Many, many millions. Mexico tried this a few years ago and the DEA under Bush "leaned" on the country enough to get it repealed IIRC. My guess is that Obama's administration will let this one go, however. A step in the right direction...

Shit, they're desperate to get those drug cartels under control somehow. I bet you there will be decriminalization in five years if this bill goes over well in Mexico. They NEED to cripple those guys or else the whole country is gonna get reduced to a warzone.

Not that it isn't already, but...

Decriminalize pot and you severely damage the bigger cartels. Pot is a $36B market in the U.S. (Cocaine, by comparison, is something like $70B, but it still shows how significant pot is.)

I mean, it would make California so much safer I couldn't even tell you. The Mexican Mafia runs it out here, and those guys are no good for the most part. I wouldn't be surprised if pot is something like 25-30% of their total revenue. This coast smokes weed these days.

Tessian wrote:Your headline's misleading Sine... they're not legalizing use of drugs, they're de-criminalizing possession up to "to carry up to 5 grams (0.18 ounces) of marijuana, 500 milligrams (0.018 ounces) of cocaine and tiny quantities heroin and methamphetamines." There's an important difference between legalizing possession and legalizing usage.

I'm not familiar with Mexican law, but in the US, there is no law for "using" drugs. Possession and selling are the whole of the law. There is also DUI, but other than that, nobody can bust you for "being high".

So, usage is already legal. Mexico made personal possession legal. Thus, Mexico legalized personal usage. You could smoke a joint in front of a cop, and there's not much he can do about it.

Also, I predict that marijuana will be legal in the US within Obama's reign. Everybody is talking about how stupid the laws are, and California is practically giving the DEA the finger in civil protest.

Replay wrote:Decriminalize pot and you severely damage the bigger cartels. Pot is a $36B market in the U.S. (Cocaine, by comparison, is something like $70B, but it still shows how significant pot is.)

I cannot trust numbers that come from the DEA, nor any other illegal activity. Pot is big, and it will save billions in jail costs and produce taxes. That's all we need to know.

Someone on Fark linked this Time article... it was quite interesting.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... d=tsmodule

If Obama has a 2nd term then we might see marijuana legalized... but I doubt it. Still too much opposition, and remember these are federal laws. California can talk about it all they want, but state law doesn't trump federal law... if this was something states could legalize on their own then we'd almost definitely see some states doing it in the next few years... but if it's got to be done federally I wouldn't count on it.

SineSwiper wrote: So, usage is already legal. Mexico made personal possession legal. Thus, Mexico legalized personal usage. You could smoke a joint in front of a cop, and there's not much he can do about it.

I would not advocate for trying this. No, it may not TECHNICALLY be legal, but just like in the U.S., the cops mostly do what they want to and have a tendency to "forget" about laws that they don't agree with on occasion. Did you catch the recent article about how some small Texas town's cops have been more or less robbing people who came to buy cars with cash under the pretext that they were "money launderers", because who else would have that much cash on them? (Tenaha, Texas, I think it was.)

Also, just for reference, if the Mexican police were to actually take you away for violating some local statute about pot, or just for violating their own sense of control and power (more likely), the average survival time for a white person in a Mexican prison is about six weeks or so.

SineSwiper wrote: Also, I predict that marijuana will be legal in the US within Obama's reign. Everybody is talking about how stupid the laws are, and California is practically giving the DEA the finger in civil protest.

Yes, we are. And a good job too. The finger to the lot of them. Santa Cruz in particular has been trying to be able to successfully flip off those assholes for years.

Tessian wrote:If Obama has a 2nd term then we might see marijuana legalized... but I doubt it. Still too much opposition, and remember these are federal laws. California can talk about it all they want, but state law doesn't trump federal law... if this was something states could legalize on their own then we'd almost definitely see some states doing it in the next few years... but if it's got to be done federally I wouldn't count on it.

You don't seem to understand exactly what California is doing. It's not just passing a medical marijuana law. There's entire counties dedicated to growing the stuff. Head shops are everywhere. People are acting like there is no federal law to stop them (minus the whole medical card thing, which is really easy to get).

We might even see it legalized near the end of this term.

It's not quite as out-there as all that, but it's getting close. There are definitely a lot of people who smoke in parking lots without too much fear of repercussion...and the cops in L.A. won't do much to you these days over anything less than an eighth of weed.

There ARE counties where marijuana is the primary means of revenue - Humboldt and Mendocino are the famous ones. But it's actually been like that for awhile. It's just that more people know about it now.