One of the few things that UK government is so far behind on. Why it's not legalised, regulated and taxed in the UK is beyond me.

It's been legal in Canada for a few years now and so far we've not descended into chaos. I personally don't care for it but I'm glad people who want to use it can do freely.

It was part racism that made it illegal

“Plant-based drugs were demonized and linked to race-based policies. For smoking opium, it was Chinese-Canadians and the fear of the mixing of races – that women would be corrupted by Chinese men, or Black men [with cannabis], and abandon their family [to] have a life of crime and addiction.

And because of competition with the cotton industry

Cannabis was legal up until 1934 in the United States. In fact, cannabis sativa was a common household plant (my great grandmother used to have one in her living room). Hemp, a form of cannabis low in THC, was used to make rope, clothing, fabric, etc.. It is a wonder plant. Cannabis is disease resistant, drought resistant, UV light resistant (property of THC), and can grow just about anywhere. However, it contains a psychoactive compound called THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). This is where Harry J. Anslinger comes in. He was the first head of the Federal Bureua of Narcotics from 1930–1962. In 1930 the talks of a “narcotic act” began because heroin and other powerful opioids where becoming a problem in American society. The original list of narcotics included just narcotics. Unfortunately, Anslinger was heavily lobbied by cotton companies to add in marijuana to the act. Why you might ask? Hemp is a trillion times better than cotton and they knew it. It was killing the cotton industry so they lobbied Harry Anslinger to make it illegal for made up reasons. Harry J. Anslinger in his plea to add marijuana into the act…

“launched a nationwide media campaign declaring that marijuana causes temporary insanity. The advertisements featured young people smoking marijuana and then behaving recklessly, committing crimes, killing themselves and others, or dying from marijuana use. The propaganda campaign was a success and all states signed on.”


Tobacco was already culturally appropriated by the European settlers and has been commercially produced since the 1800s.

Health issues are the last reason why things get regulated :/

Not sure if it's directly related, yet

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36443110/
This suggests that medical cannabis was an economic substitute for alcohol in Canada, and that the country's 2017-2018 alcohol sales were roughly 1.8% lower than they would have been without legal medical cannabis.

https://globalnews.ca/news/6574008/drink-less-alcohol-cannabis/
He found a way out, though, after Canada legalized recreational cannabis. He started replacing much of his alcohol consumption with marijuana. He now describes himself as an “ex-low-level alcoholic.”

And alcohol consumption is still declining, while Cannabis consumption has grown

On a volume basis, sales of alcohol declined 1.2% to 3,141 million litres in 2021/2022, which is equivalent to 9.5 standard alcoholic beverages per week per Canadian of legal drinking age. This was the first decline since 2013/2014 and the largest decline in over a decade.

Alcohol is still plenty deadly and the pandemic only raised alcohol related deaths
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/alcohol-deaths-pandemic-1.6712273

And sadly people will always use irresponsibly no matter what the substance is
https://globalnews.ca/news/9941455/cannabis-related-traffic-injuries-canada/

Since 2010, the rate of total traffic injury emergency room visits that involved cannabis increased by 475.3 per cent, according to the study.

During this same time period, the researchers found the rate of total traffic injury emergency room visits that involved alcohol increased by 9.4 per cent.

(Pandemic related likely)

“Cannabis-involved traffic injury visits were increasing pre-legalization, and the period of market commercialization may have resulted in further increases in such visits,” the authors stated in the study.

The study also found that younger adults, particularly males, had an “increased risk of cannabis-involved traffic injuries.”

Almost half of the cannabis-involved traffic injury emergency visits also had alcohol involvement, the study found.

I also wonder is some effect of more attention / more measuring of weed consumption had an affect on these stats, yet it's no surprise that smoking weed + alcohol consumption is a deadly combination when operating a motor vehicle.

TIRF’s national fatality data shows that from January 2016 to October 2018, 21.5 per cent of drivers killed in collisions in Canada tested positive for cannabis use, he said. However, from October 2018 to the end of 2020, this figure rose to 26.4 percent, according to Brown.

“Another consideration is that most drivers that test positive for cannabis — among the drivers that are killed — most of them had also been consuming alcohol,” he said.


Anyway with legalization also came campaigns to inform the public of the dangers

I think your intro is a little incorrect. Smoking Tobacco kills a lot of people. It's not the nicotine that gives you cancer, though...

You need to compare Nicotine and THC. In any case, you should not inhale the smoke from stuff that is lit on fire.

Better yet, find something else to do?

It depends. One of my Fortnite buddies says he sometimes hits a bit of the reefer action before he gets on. He said the results are varied when I asked him about this ("wouldn't that fuck with your reaction time, tho?" Yes, I literally asked him that. ), he said sometimes it impairs his reaction time, but others, it makes him feel "in the zone" and he balls when we're playing in parties together.

I'm also friends with someone who smokes cigarettes and have played in several Trio/Squad matches with her (granted, I literally friended her just a few days ago and have considerably less playing time with her, but the point remains). Guess which one coughs and hacks like crazy and sounds like they (occasionally) have trouble breathing on the mic?

This professor (who I remind you is a renowned multi-award-winning intellectual) gives a little insight as to why:

It might also be that making the far safer drug illegal makes them too much money (cops have literally gone on record saying this) and/or Big Tobacco has such a strong stranglehold on the federal government with all the money they're raking in that they're "weeding out" legalized marijuana (no pun intended), which is why they continue to list it as a Schedule 1 drug with no medical use whatsoever (less than cocaine and meth even, which is, of course, a load of bullshit if I've ever seen one) despite all evidence of its medicinal breakthroughs. That's another speculation.

Recently, the HHS recommended it be relisted as a Schedule III drug, but I have a sick feeling the DEA won't comply and continue to stick their fingers in their ears at any and all pro-cannabis findings. They've ignored all evidence of it being a medicinal drug that's not addictive up to this point (which is why weed is listed as a Schedule I drug and Cocaine a Schedule II on the DEA Controlled Substances list, which is baffling in and of itself), why stop now? That's also speculative.

But he's not wrong when he says tobacco is much deadlier than reefer and they're not even comparable as far as which one takes the bigger toll on your body (lungs?). That's not speculative at all. Tobacco actually kills people, weed has never killed anyone. In fact, research says it's almost impossible to OD on it.

It's legal in the States that matter in the USA. It would be nice if some of our southern states would wake up, so I don't have to worry about flying with it if I need a winter escape.

Legalize All of it. End prohibition.

No I am against the legalization as I find stoners very annoying and I want less of them in the world.

I don't smoke, but a drug that has never killed anyone should not be fucking illegal. Adults shouldn't be punished for consuming the safer substance if they so please. I know a few of those people myself and they don't sound like they're having lung problems at all (in fact, cannabis can actually help cure lung cancer). The same can't be said for the few cigarette smokers I know personally, though.