What happens when two problems overlap. And the nature of the two (and the efforts to oppose them) are different. It's relatively easy to chip away at the reactionary authoritarianism (and its attendant racism and classism) that has driven the War on Drug-users; addressing all the various reasons that drive people to abuse drugs is a far more complex and open-ended problem. Doesn't help that many people conflate "what makes me personally uncomfortable" with "what should be banned/illegal."
While I will leave untouched the opinion about laws regulating the use of marijuana, I will note that while less harmful than opioids, cannabis use is not without mental and physical health risks. For example, use during adolescence can interfere with myelination and pruning of the pre-frontal cortex, which in the worse case scenarios can be associated with psychosis and loss of potential IQ and the combusted byproducts of bud and flower contain some of the same carcinogens and oxidative species as tobacco smoke. We just have not studied cannabis, especially the long term hazards, much as it took years to definitively link cigarettes to COPD and lung cancer and alcohol to breast cancer and coronary artery disease. User beware, and believe the evidence based research and not the claims of the lcoal bubista.
What happens when two problems overlap. And the nature of the two (and the efforts to oppose them) are different. It's relatively easy to chip away at the reactionary authoritarianism (and its attendant racism and classism) that has driven the War on Drug-users; addressing all the various reasons that drive people to abuse drugs is a far more complex and open-ended problem. Doesn't help that many people conflate "what makes me personally uncomfortable" with "what should be banned/illegal."
While I will leave untouched the opinion about laws regulating the use of marijuana, I will note that while less harmful than opioids, cannabis use is not without mental and physical health risks. For example, use during adolescence can interfere with myelination and pruning of the pre-frontal cortex, which in the worse case scenarios can be associated with psychosis and loss of potential IQ and the combusted byproducts of bud and flower contain some of the same carcinogens and oxidative species as tobacco smoke. We just have not studied cannabis, especially the long term hazards, much as it took years to definitively link cigarettes to COPD and lung cancer and alcohol to breast cancer and coronary artery disease. User beware, and believe the evidence based research and not the claims of the lcoal bubista.