Interestingā¦ Thatās kinda the same mechanism Mass is using to increase the cigarette age to 21.
I dunno how I feel about this. ON the surface level, thereās ācigarettes badā, but on the other handā¦ I dunno. It seems weird that we have weed and tobacco passing each other going oposite directions.
[quote=āNeito, post:83, topic:977, full:trueā]It seems weird that we have weed and tobacco passing each other going oposite directions.
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Iām very happy with this because, unlike tobacco, weed doesnāt hurt OTHER people much. It is often ingested in a way that makes no smoke or permanent awful smells. We can easily make a rule forcing people who do choose to smoke it the old fashioned way must do so in a private place. Tobacco makes poisonous near-permanently smelling clouds of death and cancers everyone the fuck up. Also litter.
My big question is how. do we get the alcohol train moving in the same direction as tobacco? I feel like itās going the opposite way. Do we need a vaping-esque alcohol alternative? Much like tobacco, and unlike weed, alcohol has a lot of harm to society such as drunk driving, aggressive people, vomit all over the place, etc.
Make public drunkness a crime. If thatās what you want, thatās how you get it. Is that really what you want though? No more wine with dinner? Basically prohibition all over again?
Alcohol seems to have a fairly inelastic demand so my supposition of your endgame seemsā¦ implausible.
If the answer to your tobacco to weed thing is āgive people access to the drug I find less objectionableā then the answer would be find a sufficient replacement drugā¦ and that gets into weird places, but hey maybe itās possible.
Do you honestly think stoned driving is any less dangerous than drunk driving? Weed is still a mind altering substance and I wouldnāt want anyone under its influence to be operating any potentially dangerous heavy machinery such as a car, train, airplane, fork lift, etc.
The main reason why drunk driving is a bigger problem than stoned driving up until now is because, being legal, it was much easier for people who abuse alcohol to acquire it.
Iāll concede that in the foreseeable future, drunk driving will still be a bigger problem than stoned driving in areas where weed is legal if only because its historical stigma will result in far fewer people partaking of it than of alcohol. However, if we were to objectively measure how much being high affects your ability to operate a car vs. being drunk, I think no rational personal would want anyone under the influence of either to be driving.
On the flip side, yeah, stoned people typically donāt get aggressive or vomit all over the place, so Iāll also concede that point to you.
Also due to car culture. People drink in bars. They have to drive to said bars. They have to drive home from said bars. Thus, they drive drunk.
With the other substance, people arenāt driving to bars to consume it.
Careful, some capitalist may be listening.
Driving while high is definitely a bad idea. No question. But imagine you are forced to get in one of two taxis. One has a stoned driver and one has a drunk driver. Anyone here want to get in the drunk car?
Also, with the aforementioned rules about doing it at home, there is not much reason to drive while high.
Faced with that choice, Iām fukken walking.
I donāt think anyone should be totally prevented from, or punished for, possessing or using tobacco, cannabis, alcohol, or psychedelics. The behavior while using these substances is what needs to be regulated. Annoying someone with your cigarettes outside a smoking area, drunk and disorderly, freaking out on acid because you didnāt do it in a controlled environment, etcā¦ should have consequences.
If thereās any universal benefit to Uber/Lyft, thereās no excuse now to say āOh, I canāt find a ride homeā after drinking. You can install something on your phone, have someone pick you up, and take you back home. Even if you leave your car at the bar, you can easily head back. Even in small towns who might not offer a taxi services, there will be drivers there who can help pick you up.
Seconded. I wouldnāt get into the car with either of them due to equal fear of death.
You say that, but more than once, Iāve been in a small town - or even a mid-sized town, like Maryborough - and after a certain time, itās almost impossible to get any sort of ridesharing. Itās not worth their time to hang around late-night like that. That said, Taxis still exist and are perfectly serviceable - but most of the time in that situation, I just walk anyway.
Well, not yet they arenāt. They have ācoffeeshopsā that serve it in some parts of the world, after all. Itās only a matter of time until someone decides to do something similar here ā perhaps once it gets legalized at the federal level so that the issues of handling large amounts of cash for payments are solved.
Those cars will straight-up ignore you and drive away if you look too drunk. I watched this game play out countless times in Philly.
I got a ride home from high school once (I had a flat and didnāt want to deal with it just yet) who, I realized about halfway home, was super high. I was pissed, and gave him a good talking to. (And again the next day to make sure he remembered).
Butā¦ He basically drove 20MPH the whole way. Slowed at every intersection (regardless of if there was a stop sign) to look both ways, was hyper meticulous about traffic lights, etcā¦ Iām not excusing his bullshit, and I walked the rest of the way home that day.
But the dude was a safer driver stoned than he EVER was sober.
Yep. Theyād rather make up an excuse or lose a tiny bit of rating than clean some drunk idiotās puke out of their backseat.
If you do throw up an Uber/Lyft (I had a friend did once in the same car), the driver can and will often give a heavy fine to whoever is paying. Theyāll make up for the costs and time.
Do the normalized taxi services like Yellow Cab guarantee to pick you up no matter what? Donāt they have policies on drunk/intoxicated/stoned patrons?
I think this has more to do with said personās particular reaction to weed at that time than anything that can be said about the population as a whole, or even his reaction to weed some other time he was high.
Different people react differently to mind-altering substances, and an individual may react differently at different times. Back when I was a heavier drinker (my later years of college) and before I learned my lesson (though fortunately I never drove when drinking), I found that my reaction to alcohol varied with my mood at the time I started drinking. If I was in a good mood when I started drinking, alcohol tended to make me even more outgoing, gregarious, etc. If I was in a foul mood when I started drinking, I tended to get more depressed and somber.
The fact is you have no way of knowing how any person will behave when stoned, just like you have no idea how any person will behave when drunk. You gave the example of your stoned acquaintance happening to drive much more slowly and safely relative to when he was sober. Well, occasionally drunk people tend to slow down too. Sometimes you can tell when someone is drunk not because theyāre flooring it down the interstate and weaving between lanes, but because theyāre doing 20 MPH in a 50 MPH zone, not that different from your experience.
Individual reactions vary, so youāve got to regulate to prevent the most dangerous possibilities, whether itās from alcohol or weed.
Oh, and since you mentioned people donāt go to bars to get high, they often do get high as part of other social functions such as going to a friendās house for a party. That may still involve getting into a car afterwards. In fact, Iād be inclined that itās consumption of alcohol at a private location, as opposed to a public one like a bar or restaurant, thatās more likely to result in drunk driving. I believe most locales have strict regulations against bar owners knowingly allowing people who are noticeably intoxicated then operate a motor vehicle, and they often have regulations against serving people who are also extremely intoxicated. No such regulations exist when youāre going over to your buddyās house to toss back a few cold ones.
Finally, Iām not anti-weed. I donāt partake myself, but I did vote to legalize it in Massachusetts. I just am anti anyone using it irresponsibly.
Oh yeah, but by the time you get the detailers in, that stain has already set, and the smell is forever. Especially if you park it outside on a hot day. Doesnāt matter who pays for it, you gotta get on that shit IMMEDIATELY, and itās a disgusting and annoying job.