• rustyfish@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    A population that old and conservative loves shit like that. Also, the government urging young people to instead drink more alcohol sounds like something straight out of the Soviet Unions playbook.

    • gencha@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Drunk people might accidentally get pregnant and help with the population. Really an obvious move

    • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
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      4 months ago

      We definitely have issues with alcoholism here. I think part of it is that a ton of small businesses (as well as larger ones) are ones that survive on alcohol revenue. I remember when I lived in the US, a lot of bars and breweries would fight legalization claiming it would hurt their business. I think they are stuck in the mindset that no one will leave the house or something, but that’s just speculation on my part.

    • systemglitch@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Alcohol leads to fucking and they need more babies. From a logic perspective it makes perfect sense.

      No one smokes weed then gets overly horny.

        • griD@feddit.org
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          4 months ago

          Indeed, especially for women in my limited experience. Hmm, do I want to really commit SuicideByWords by mentioning a small sample size?

        • Frog@lemmy.ca
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          4 months ago

          Yes.

          Also alcohol is a depressant. That’s how “whiskey dick” happens.

          Also alcohol is leading cause of overdose. How are more dead people going to make babies?

          • HandBash@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            It would be hard to quantify the effect but you also have the alcohol induces risky behavior aspect that would lead to more births though. Somewhat balancing your impotence and toxicology effects at least. Overall probably still a net negative.

      • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Man, high sex is so good though. For me, it’s like I get tunnel vision around the sensuality, enveloped by sexual desire, where the only thing that exists is my partner, and for that time we are purely sexual beings. Every touch elicits goosebumps, every nerve at attention, like my entire body is a sexual organ in the throes of hedonistic pleasure. I never feel more connected to my partner, and for some reason it also lends itself really well to aftercare; like, once we’ve cleaned up and/or caught our breath, I just want to cuddle and continue to feel the safety and comfort of their warmth.

        Truly the best kind of sex imo

      • rustyfish@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I can only talk for myself but never in my life did I have sex more crazy, borderline fucked up, as that one time me and my partner smoked weed before jumping in the sheets.

        Alcohol on the other hand turns me into a useless sack of meat. Literally the end times for any boner of mine.

      • limonfiesta@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        If alcohol consumption fixed declining birth rates, Japan wouldn’t have an aging population and Russia wouldn’t have been facing a demographic collapse even before the Ukraine invasion.

        This isn’t about boosting sex, it’s about being a conservative policy counterweight to opening the door to legalizing medicines derived from cannabis.

        My guess is that it’s a result of an internal NJP compromise between center right and hard right factions: only agreeing to allow liberalized medical cannabis policy, if the law also increased the scope of, and penalties for, recreational uses.

        But that’s just my assumption based on my limited understanding of Japan’s post-war uniparty government.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        The original propaganda against weed, called Reefer Madness, was all about how black men would smoke weed and then literally couldn’t stop themselves from raping white women because they got so horny.

        (I guess I have to point out that of course that isn’t true)

      • Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de
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        4 months ago

        I wouldn’t be so sure about that… Sex on psychedelic substances is quite an experience, compared to alcohol which numbs.

          • Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de
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            4 months ago

            Ok, I was not precise in my wording – but THC clearly is a psychoactive substance through which people can observe profound experiences and have intense physical and emotional perceptions.

      • CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Yeah, they have some nice things going for them but Japanese culture still very patriarchal and conservative overall

          • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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            4 months ago

            That plus a massive amount of inherent isolationism plus an extreme birth shortage and an already very aged population.

            The writing is on the wall in many ways unless major, unprecedented changes were to be made. Japan in a hundred years will be unrecognizable without them.

    • Blackout@fedia.io
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      4 months ago

      They are some of the most repressed puritans. I would always try to get my friend to leave work early (in reality on time) so we could do something but they will not stand up for themselves. Have to put in the minimal 10hrs per day in a 40hr workweek or you are a slacker.

  • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    amid increasing concerns that the lack of a ban on use is promoting drug abuse by young people.

    This fucking backwards ass notion of weed as a “gateway drug” needs to die. Their reasoning for calling it that shows their idiocy, in that it’s called that because it’s cheap and harmless, so they think it will lead to people believing other drugs are similar. Imagine branding something as dangerous because it’s (Checks Notes) cheap and harmless.

    Although from personal experience, I’d say that weed is a gateway drug of sorts, in that if you’re addicted to something far more dangerous (like alcohol), using weed can act like a “gateway” to sobriety.

    • yeehaw@lemmy.ca
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      4 months ago

      And yet alcohol shall not be banned.

      What are they thinking?

    • krashmo@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      In my experience weed can be a gateway drug when you have to buy it from a drug dealer. As an analogy, lots of people end up buying something other than what they went into Target to buy.

      • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works
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        Also a criminal record can fuck your life in a myriad of ways, if like me you fall in love with someone from another country and you both have weed charges neither country will let you live together even decades later destroying what’s probably your only chance at happiness.

        These rules are needlessly cruel and absurd.

    • Shard@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Welcome to Japan, where everything, especially their mentality is fatally stuck in the glory days of the 1970/1980s.

      Even today they still use fax and computer usage is the office middling and general computer literacy is abyssal.

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      It’s Japan. If anything is promoting drug abuse, it’s the work culture.

    • Maeve@kbin.earth
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      4 months ago

      It’s not entirely harmless, but more harmless than a lot of OTC medicines.

    • tatterdemalion@programming.dev
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      It’s not harmless. It’s linked to mental illness and increased stress. People need to stop spreading this myth.

      EDIT: I know that people are down voting because weed is incredibly popular and rarely does harm, but that doesn’t mean you should propagate the myth that it’s harmless. Your personal experience should not speak for everyone.

      Weed can easily cause intense anxiety and paranoia if the user takes more than they can handle. This is just as true for someone who is trying it for the first time as it is for someone with a long history of use.

      If you have ever had panic attacks or heart palpitations, the combined increase in heart rate and anxiety may trigger a panic attack. It’s also habit-forming enough that people who’ve had panic attacks will keep using it despite knowing they are risking a really stressful experience.

      • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        You’ll need to cite your sources on that, though the APA style guide doesn’t have a citation format for “conservative grandparents with dementia.”

          • Dasus@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            “Someone’s asking for sources on wild claims, quick, let me google some correlations!”

            If you look at the link between alcohol and mental health disorders, cannabis is way safer, and there’s not even a direct causal link to what would cause these correlated issues with cannabis use, unlike with alcohol, where there’s a clear causality.

            • tatterdemalion@programming.dev
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              Someone’s asking for sources on wild claims, quick, let me google some correlations

              You say that like it’s a bad thing. What else am I to do when someone asks for sources? I’ve read similar research in the past and went to find it again.

              If you look at the link between alcohol and mental health disorders

              That’s whataboutism.

              • Dasus@lemmy.world
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                I’ve read similar research in the past and went to find it again.

                Correction, you’ve googled similar studies before. I’m pretty sure you haven’t read them. There’s literally nothing there except sampling bias and weak correlations.

                You can do that for literally anything

                That’s whataboutism

                No, it isn’t. It’s not “what about alcohol” as in “let’s not talk about cannabis, but talk about alcohol instead”.

                It’s a “you don’t understand the actual risks involved, you don’t understand that you’re linking things you think they prove something (even without reading them) that confirms the bias that has been programmed into you, so here’s some context to make it more understandable”

                The context being objective science not having found any causality with mental health disorders and cannabis, and honestly, not even proper correlations.

                If this was about the dangers to mental health, then those dangers would be objectified, and alcohol would be considered more dangerous and prohibited. If for some reason the prohibition of cannabis doesn’t come from objective science, but pure political shitcanery, then it wouldn’t care at all about the objective facts of any of the risks, but it would pretend toeven going so far as to completely make shit up

                Which is exactly what is happening here, and you’re perpetuating it. Probably without realising it, but you are.

                • tatterdemalion@programming.dev
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                  4 months ago

                  There’s clearly no convincing you. By all means, continue to spread the myth that cannabis can do no harm to anyone, and eventually the wrong person will believe you.

      • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        if you’re into that, just wait till you hear about alcohol and cigarettes! Anxiety, paranoia and panic attacks seem fine compared to Cirrhosis, COPD, Emphysema, Cancer, Stroke, Renal Failure, Kidney Failure, and Fatty Liver Disease. All of them painful, all of them deadly.

        But god forbid people smoke some weed 🙄 They might in very rare occasions get a temporary increase in anxiety!

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          More whataboutism. We’re talking about weed. And I’m not making the blanket statement that no one should smoke weed. I’m saying it does have health risks that should not be ignored.

          Also it’s offensive that you would trivialize the suffering that people go through in a panic attack.

  • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
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    4 months ago

    This is worse than you think. Most countries don’t criminalize use, only possession. Criminalizing use like Sweden does likely means that even having cannabis in your system is illegal and could lead to fines, criminal record, and jail time. It’s insanely backwards.

    • Kokesh@lemmy.world
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      Sweden is nuts. When I moved here, I was shocked. It’s really backwards. Everyone drinks here, but weed is something like heroin to them. They should all smoke weed.

      • Plopp@lemmy.world
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        As a swede: Word. It’s backwards as fuck here. The previous government didn’t even want to investigate whether or not to decriminalize, because doing so (investigate, mind you) would “send the wrong signals”. Yeeah fuck science and people’s lives when you have “signals” to worry about.

        • griD@feddit.org
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          4 months ago

          There is a rather new, more or less scientific-oriented party around in all our EU countries, you might want to look into their platform (VOLT). Not affiliated btw, but they sparked my interest.

      • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        When I traveled through Europe, I left Netherlands on a train, and ended up in Sweden with a couple hash joints left. I found a secluded area near train tracks to smoke, and even then it’s like I could feel the illegality of it. It was made worse by the fact that everyone walks or bicycles there, so random passerbys kept coming along making me feel tremendously exposed. 1/10 would not recommend.

        On the other hand, smoking a hash joint and chatting with friendly strangers in the weed cafe’s of Amsterdam was sublime, 10/10 definitely recommend.

        • Kokesh@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          First week after we moved here - article in local newspaper: Schoolboy caught with drugs scandal. Those frs did drug tests and he had some THC in him. 17 year old. I remember thinking where the F did we move to…

          • Plopp@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            All of this crap stems from one individual named Nils Bejerot, who was the anti drug guy for the government back in the day (he also coined the term Stockholm Syndrome, and was against comic books because he thought they would make children grow up to become violent). He considered drug use to be an infection in society that could spread from person to person, and the only way to stop the infection is a zero tolerance policy and to make society fear drugs. And oh boy did all that propaganda work. Still today, 36 years after his death. Through that lense, the article you mention “makes sense”. It’s incredible the effects one person can have.

      • Iceblade@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        No thank you, and I’d really like it if people stopped smoking it in public places. Many marijuana users seem to have very little regard for other people. Absolutely reeks of it at many central stations, on the subway, commuter trains and busses. Quite literally makes me sick. At least most tobacco users have the decency to not ruin enclosed public spaces for the general populace.

        • ClamDrinker@lemmy.world
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          I hate public smokers with a passion. But you must realize that you have effectively zero exposure to people that contain their smoke by doing it at home or using a method without smoke production. And there could be a lot more of those.

          The last line is especially golden for me since I live in the Netherlands so we have plenty of weed being smoked but the vast vast majority of public smoke hinderance is from tobacco smokers. If they decide to smoke in public they have absolutely no shame and will literally do it at places like bus stops and just outside restaurants. Weed smokers rarely do that here. So if I were to believe you it seems to just be correlated to people with shitty attitudes rather than the substance.

          But there’s no denying that if everyone would drop alcohol for weed, it would be better. Not because weed is harmless but because alcohol is pretty terrible health wise.

          • Iceblade@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I was complaining about smoking in public places. Precisely because of health reasons smoking in and around public spaces was limited a few years ago. I’m rather sensitive (asthma & more) and I much more often smell weed than tobacco in these types of areas. At the central station almost always. One of the many reasons I’m glad to be able to avoid public transit nowadays. Besides how the smoke of tobacco and weed affects me, I also find the smell nauseating.

            Besides, to me it seems pike almost every category of drug users have an excuse for why theirs is “less bad”. Most often with alcohol it’s “well it’s only an issue of people drink too much”. Fact is that almost all drug usage affects peoples behaviour and becomes a nuisance in public spaces.

            • ClamDrinker@lemmy.world
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              I feel you in avoiding public transit. That’s where my hate comes from as well. And yes, many people that do these things have have excuses. Because they need to, to justify doing their business in a place where their habit unavoidably harms and frustrates other people. I hate the fact we still allow that so readily as society. Or at least we should restrict it further to the point a normal person doesn’t have to be bothered by people like that in public. It undermines public services to an extent.

              But after I no longer needed to use public transit, I did start to see things in a slightly different light. And that’s the only thing I wanted to say. People that are conscientious about enjoying any kind of mind altering substances will choose to do so safely and harmlessly outside of public, or in designated places like clubs specifically for that substance. Harm reduction must be central to substance use. And I know now that many people have that mentality. But that mentality is somewhat threatened exactly because they make sure nobody is bothered by them. It causes the experience to be defined by those people in public places, the loud minority.

        • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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          4 months ago

          At least most tobacco users have the decency to not ruin enclosed public spaces for the general populace.

          Because we banned them doing that just recently? And could and probably should do the same if any actual action or progress could be had these days?

          • Iceblade@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Precisely. The fact is it isn’t just tobacco users banned from doing it, but all smokers. Difference is that weed users don’t give a crap.

            • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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              4 months ago

              Hmm… Is that true? It’s not like smoking bans are actually all encompassing its still mostly local precident and business decisions.
              I am not sure I have seen someone smoke weed where they couldn’t smoke a cigarette, or where banned a cigarette smoker might illegally light up anyways, other than vapes which are still also in high contention and not exactly banned.

              I think you just have a stigma and an axe to grind that specifically singles them out because of a internal problem you have.

              Anyways, good luck with that.

      • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        You are a criminal. Just like when you rape a child in a country where it’s legal (statutory rape based on age) you are held liable in your home country if the AoC is higher than in the country you visited.

        • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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          Not mostly how this works, it is true that for underage sex many countries do have laws like that, but those are usually special exceptions to the general principle that the laws of the place where you are (or where your actions have an effect) apply and not those of your home country or any arbitrary country.

          • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
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            It’s probably the most widespread and established law around the world. Only the age limits differs, but hopefully backwards countries like most of Europe, South America, China and the Philippines will catch on soon.

            I don’t have hopes for the middle east.

        • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works
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          So if an American drinks a beer in a German biergarten or in a park in france they should be charged with violating the open container law?

      • socsa@piefed.social
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        In most cases if you are a tourist and are accused of minor crimes you just get deported unless you’ve done something else more serious. Detaining someone on a short term visa is awkward (what if their passport expires while in custody?) and kicking them out of the country accomplishes the same thing as jailing them.

  • TheFrirish@jlai.lu
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    but getting blind drunk in the street every night for them is fine. Ridiculous.

    • socsa@piefed.social
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      There’s a reason why countries with proper transit infrastructure view alcoholism as a novelty.

      • Trailblazing Braille Taser@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        I’m honestly not sure what you’re saying. Countries like the US with poor public transit infrastructure think alcoholism is serious solely because of people who drink and drive?

    • ngwoo@lemmy.world
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      I was shocked at how often you just see people laying passed out on the sidewalk or sleeping on a bench. Japan is an insanely different place after the bars start closing. Was genuinely uneasy with how many people everywhere just had zero control of themselves.

    • xenoclast@lemmy.world
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      Like smoking, alcohol is a huge industry in Japan. It’s “normal” for Japanese companies to addict their employees to their products and because the companies ARE the government, they enact incredibly protectionist laws like this to prevent external competition.

      Their economy depends on it. It’s super gross. Like America and guns, or Sweden and flatpak furniture (the last one is a half joke)

      If Japan starts being a cannabis producer, they’ll 180 so fast you’ll get vertigo.

    • undergroundoverground@lemmy.world
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      Honestly, i think the reason is that just the right amount of alcohol dependency is amazing for capitalism. Dont get me wrong, I’m not judging anyone. I understand and I enjoy a drink myself. I just think we need to be honest with ourselves about it.

      It keeps you consuming and it makes you forget all the bullshit you had to put up with all day. It dulls your your problem solving, your creativity and (most importantly) your empathy, so supervisors, middle managers, department managers and execs are less disinclined not to beat down on those below them.

      I’m not saying its some grand conspiracy. I’m saying, those in power have known exactly the right drugs to administer to the masses in order to placate them. The Romans knew to give wine and not cannabis. The British army knew to give rum & brandy but not weed.

      In fact, all of them were legal. Then, capitalism really took off and, totally unrelated in sure, every drug other than alcohol suddenly became illegal.

  • Skates@feddit.nl
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    Part of the world: takes a step forward

    Japan: not on my fucking watch

  • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    Wasn’t it already illegal. My wife’s cousin served two years for an amount that is so small police wouldn’t even bother to confiscate it in europe.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      Yeah, it’s news to me that it wasn’t technically illegal. They still believe in the reefer madness shit and act like it.

  • EnderMB@lemmy.world
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    I don’t like weed. I’ve tried it throughout my teens, but left it there.

    With that said, it’s amazing to me that we’re still having the same conversations around drugs. Decriminalise EVERYTHING! Ensure what is on the market is clean, drive the costs down to remove criminals from the market, and dedicate every police force to protecting those on the bottom rung of the drug ladder.

    I read a book from a former officer a while back, where he’d spent two years working on infiltrating a drug network. It was successful, and they not only shut down a major network of drugs, but arrested around 100 people, and removed tons of illegal weapons from the market, and arrested several people in the network known to police for being involved in several murders. They believed that the drug market in the UK during this time had been disrupted “for three hours”. That was all it took for another gang to take over, and apparently it’s those successes that cause a lot of people to leave drug enforcement - after all, what’s the point?

    There almost seems to be zero benefit to drug criminalisation, other than “old conservatives hate it”.

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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      The police love drug criminalization because it gives them widespread latitude to hassle pretty much anybody they feel like whenever they feel like, because “drugs could be involved.” Marijuana especially, since stoners are generally fairly nonthreatening folks but “I smelled marijuana” is a zero-effort way to instantly manufacture a fictitious probable cause for anything.

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      4 months ago

      Rich corporations and people profit, everyone else is criminalized for reasons.

  • irotsoma@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    The pant is illegal because it’s cheap to grow yourself, but if you let some drug companies make money off of processing it, then it’s perfectly fine to use…

        • Laser@feddit.org
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          4 months ago

          Weed makes you question if you should get more snacks

          I haven’t tried it in a really long time though but I didn’t really like it very much. Not that I think it’s bad, but it’s a downer and they’re just not my favorite.

          Acid and 2C-B on the other hand, man. Haven’t tried other psychs unfortunately but I find them both great for their individual effects. Unfortunately, there’s the huge stigma around psychs in general plus the naturalistic crowd that makes up a proportion of psych users will only accept stuff like shrooms, peyote and ayahuasca.

      • agelord@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Could you please elaborate on how it “opens” your mind and makes you question things?

        • chaogomu@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          As a teen, the main question I had was, “can I make a pipe out of this?”.

          Now that I’m old, the question is mostly “why the hell is this still illegal on a federal level?”

        • KrankyKong@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          It’s hard to explain. At least for me, it helps me see things from another perspective. I work in web dev, and one of my favorite activities is to smoke a little bit, then work on my side projects. Some of my best work has come from my hyper focused, high, programming sessions.

          Weed really kinda follows you wherever you take it. If you wanna veg out on the couch and watch TV, it’ll facilitate that for you. If you wanna go down a research rabbit hole on some obscure topic, it’ll facilitate that just fine too.

    • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      I actually think it would be detrimental to Japanese demographics.

      They are already having a hard time trying to convince young people to give up their freedom and pop out more babies. Weed would only make them think more clearly, not blindly.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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        4 months ago

        I know you’re joking but… People say that about cannabis, but there are plenty of right-wing people who love getting high. Doesn’t make them think more clearly.

        • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          I am very, very pro cannabis and I was not joking.

          In my experience, cannabis does make you question authority and being told what to do (to be fair, that might just be how it affects me).

          I’ve been to Japan, there is a huge culture of respect and following authority and just trusting the authority has honour. Psychoactive substances encourage you to think twice instead of trusting authority based on tradition.

          Just my two cents.

          • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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            4 months ago

            It’s not the plant, it’s what it reveals about the people using scare tactics. Cannabis makes you question authority when it’s illegal and you see how people in power have been lying to you about how dangerous it is. Legal, socially acceptable cannabis just makes you goofy.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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            4 months ago

            Again- lots of right-wing people love using cannabis. I can tell you from living right by the Illinois border but nowhere near a big city that I see Trump bumper stickers on big trucks at the dispensary constantly.

            • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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              4 months ago

              Right and left wing are not the same as authority and lack of authority, it’s actually a different dimension (as shown on political compasses).

              Japan’s issue is their hierarchy and authority, them being right wing is not really what makes cannabis incompatible.

              Idk where the right wing connection came from

                • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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                  4 months ago

                  Yes, which is what differentiates them from the old country club conservatives, they don’t just have right wing views of the economy, they want a leader with absolute power.

                  Which is why it’s so dangerous and we shouldn’t be taking about left or right wing but authority vs freedom.

              • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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                4 months ago

                The terms right and left wing originated as a shorthand due describing monarchists and anti-monarchists. Authoritarianism is THE defining characteristic of the right. Things like economic policies only come into it because authoritarians prefer economic policies that give more power to economic elites.

                • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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                  4 months ago

                  I mean, you can define it differently for sure, but modern politics basically use left and right wing as whether you want more hierarchy vs equality. Once you established that, the question becomes, do you force that by authority or do you do systems thinking to get the environment to encourage that.

                  There are right wing people who believe in small government. They want hierarchy and “better” people to be on top, they just either want the market to decide (old school cons) or by taking it by force (GQP).

                  But I do agree with you, right wing politics will always end up with a minority having most of the power, the how is what separates Trump vs Cheney.

          • Maeve@kbin.earth
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            4 months ago

            Maybe different people are affected differently. You may be adversely affected by penicillin, I may not be. Metformin may work for you, I may require insulin?

          • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            cannabis does make you question authority and being told what to do

            only when its illegal, because you start asking yourself what else they lied to you about.

            i dont think this is an effect from the drug itself. the ‘creativity’ you get can go either way tbh.

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        4 months ago

        You realize that birth control, plan B, and abortions are very much a thing here, right? These “we need them to drink so we can impregnate them” posts always creep me out a bit.

        • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          I don’t think the youth of Japan should pop out kids. That’s what the leaders want. The youth want a better life, which if provided, would probably make them want to procreate more (not that they have to).

          My point was that cannabis is not gonna have positive effects (my guess) given how things are and how little chance there is for young people to have financial stability and comfort.

  • scarabic@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I work at a company that has big offices in Japan and the US (as well as many other places) and it’s pretty interesting to see the contrasts in living standards and expectations up close.

    On the one hand, when coworkers visit from Japan they are disgusted by how dirty, unsafe, and uncourteous the US is by comparison. They complain endlessly about the low quality standards of the food. I picture myself having to pick worms and hair out of everything and that’s what things seem like from their perspective.

    But then some of them move to the US because they can’t handle the stuffy, oppressive attitude in Japan. Everything is about what you can’t do or aren’t supposed to do. One guy said he was so relieved to go to the US where people know how to say “we can find a way to do that.”

    • Zement@feddit.nl
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      4 months ago

      From your description alone, knowing only the US and not Japan, it sounds like Europe is the middle ground. Not as free, but less socially oppressive. I mean, in Japan it’s mean to walk while you eat… how deep is the interference running?

      Edit: Am from Europe, sorry should have added this.

      • cmhe@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        There are two kinds of freedom, negative and positive liberty. US has a lot of negative liberties, they dictate little in what you can or cannot do, but is lacking in positive liberty, they don’t support you very well to do what you want to do.

        While Europe might have less negative liberty, their generally better social welfare system grants people more positive freedom.

        • xenspidey@lemmy.zip
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          4 months ago

          Yes the Bill of Rights are specifically what the government can not do to / take away from you. They are individual rights and liberties.