If anything, cannabis seems like a much better (and more profitable) drug around which to build a leisurely establishment.
that’s just a “coffee” shop in Netherlands
Yeah I did this exact thing often in my early 20s.
and many are actually cozy, comfortable places. and no bachelorette parties!
In Virginia, I have one of those in my town
More friendly environment w/dry vaporizers (bag, whip, or portable/extract) so there’s no smoke (and note the lack of lasting/scented steam clouds that people hate about flavored vape pens). Also edibles and the like… but that just time-delay dosed food.
I would say that drinking is a longer/more gradual experience so has more reason for a dedicated space. Though I guess the passable options that I mentioned could draw the experience out, but I’ve never done that so I’m not sure what that’s like compared to one-and-done/hanging-out-when-high.
(though as others have said, it is a thing)
No it wouldn’t. I’m sick and tired of the childish argument that if we accept alcohol then we have to accept or introduce other substance abuses because some find it more appealing.
Why shouldn’t we accept it? Its already poven to be better for you than alcohol, many people enjoy it, and a lot less deaths per year will be caused by wee than alcohol. Should people who don’t want to drink not be allowed to have a place they can hang out similar to a bar?
Here we go again. People who don’t want to drink alcohol can hang anywhere and still don’t drink acohol. The unwillingness to drink alcohol or that “many people like it” are not actual arguments to introduce and use other health damaging substances rerdless of their nature and effects.
I just want constancy. Weed is less dangerous than alcohol. Ban both, legalize both, legalize weed but not alcohol, or keep things the way they are and drop the premise that it has anything to do with health and safety.
That “less dangerous” is so subjective and unfounded that I’m not going to address.
On the other hand do you think it’s a good idea to think in extremes? Alcohol is rooted in our culture since literally thousands of years to get it out is almost impossible now but we can struggle for moderation. Weed as we find it on the market didn’t even exist 100 years ago. So maybe it’s a good idea to introduce it get it common as alcohol so in 50 years we will have the problems with alcohol and with weed on top. Smart.
Then we can go further to other drugs because we cant leave them outside. We have to be consistent and some people really like it.
Complains about how dangerous introducing something is. Then says it is subjective and won’t address it.
It’s like the Santa Claus problem. Telling kids that Santa Claus is real and watching, then went they get older telling them it was all a lie. Surprise Pikachu face when they all turn atheist. Tell kids that weed is bad for their health. When they get older, watch as half the country legalise medical marajana. Surprise Pikachu when the kids all start trying meth “cause adults lied about one drug, what about the others?”
Consistency isn’t just to make certain people feel better. Consistency prevents people from going down dangerous paths.
Well, actually reading a post and just glancing over it are two different things and I can asure you that only the first can help you understand what other person is saying.
Introducing a drug (for which we don’t have yet the full table of clinical affections but the data that we have clearly shows it has negative long term effects) to unrestricted consumption and social acceptable norms is not ok especially in the context of how bad alcohol consumption is and how much damage is doing to consumers. But you actually don’t care about alcohol consumption, it’s just an argument you got flying around from the internet forums and subscribes ro whataboutism.
What I won’t address is the comparison “less dangerous than” which is vague and unfounded. I can tell you why but I doubt that you care.
Telling people that weed it’s bad for their health is the truth, especially to kids and that won’t change when they grow older. But maybe you don’t care because you’re young and consuming and nothing bad happened to you.
Medical consumption and for leisure in a bar/coffee house consumption are 2 very different things. A medical drug is not something that is all good for you, it’s something that consumed gives you more benefits than problems in the context of a health affection. Something recreational is something you consume just for fun. So the element of necessity (the health affection) is missing thus the trade-off between beneficial and detrimental is non existing. You actually have to be consistent in your arguments.
How meta. My only argument is that policy should be consistent, less people stop trusting the authority that is issuing the policy; and you complain that my argument is inconsistent.
As long as you don’t stink. So fucking sick of weed users smelling like ass in public.
I’m sick of alcohol users smelling like ass. If you don’t drink then the smell of alcohol on someone’s breath is absolutely nauseating.
I’m gonna add coffee drinkers. Honestly smell like actual shit, sometimes.
That’s already a reality in some places. San Francisco, New York, and Amsterdam are some examples.
Some medical dispensaries even had this vibe years ago.
Add Spain to the list.
One can find a ‘coffee shop’ in nearly any city in the Netherlands. The first was Mellow Yellow in Amsterdam. They opened in 1972. From that point the formula they had, (by selling the cannabis themselves instead of the 60s, dealers hanging around in a bar who would often sell hard drugs as well), spread slowly around the Netherlands into the coffee shop culture we have today. Couple of years later in '75 our government started decriminalizing soft drugs. Early 80s a tolerance policy was set up, so coffee shops were still illegal, but could go about their busyness freely if no involvement with selling hard drugs.
Dutch coffee shops, you mean?
One or two every block in the old city center.
“the” old city center 🙂 The Netherlands is quite a bit bigger than the Amsterdam tourist trap 😁
That’s the trend I wish would emerge in the U.S.: lots of small spaces to hang out in like that
I’m trying so hard not to go on my /c/fuckcars rant right now.
I went to one in Thailand. Got to borrow a bong and play billiards and Uno and stuff, it was a real nice and comfortable little place
If they replaced individual bars rather than expanded the space where drug consumption is the basis of socializing.
I don’t smoke weed, but phrasing it’s usage as “drug consumption” always annoyed me. It makes it sound like it’s the same thing as heroin or meth, which it’s not even close to the same thing.
Heroin, amphetamines, alcohol, and cannabis all have genuine medicinal uses, and also all can be abused depending on context. Drug consumption is a fine, value-neutral term, which can refer to both their use and abuse.
The war on drugs generation has had that reality tainted though mate. There are a lot of (mostly ultra conservative religious types) people who see drug use as the same whether it be meth or weed. And they don’t see beer the same way usually.
But in a very literal sense you’re absolutely correct. But we’re having a conversation about perception here.
people who see drug use as the same whether it be meth or weed.
But they are correct about this part, there is no ethical or moral difference between using amphetamines and using cannabis.
And they don’t see beer the same way usually.
Well, they’re incorrect about that part. But I’m not going to change the way I talk just because other people are wrong. Think about it: I’d never stop changing the way I talk.
But we’re having a conversation about perception here.
Absolutely.
I worked as a chemical dependency counselor for years with all types of addicts. To me, alcohol is scarier than all of them. Quitting drugs is never fun or easy, but alcohol withdrawal will kill you straight up. One cannot quit cold turkey. In my opinion, alcohol is the hardest drug yet invented, it just also happens to be more socially acceptable than the other ones. Challenging this perception is something I care about quite a bit.
It’s the same thing as alcohol.
It isn’t. And when people say “drugs” they’re almost never talking about alcohol anyway, unless the conversation is literally about the designation of what constitutes a drug and what doesn’t, which is convoluted as heck.
Depends on your circles I suppose. Drug is drug.
Yep. I can’t stand this “oh, weed is harnless” attitude a lot of people have towards cannabis. Its an intoxicant like any other, and should be treated as such.
The amount of friends I have who think that they’re fine to smoke and drive are too damn high.
From what I recall weed is considered less harmful and addictive than alcohol. Most recent study that caught my eye was from New Zealand. Alcohol was somewhere on the top along with heroin. THC somewhere in the middle ranks.
Sure, alcohol is pretty bad. But I’ve been disappointed when looking up places to hang out, so many of them are some kind of bar. I’m fine with people using drugs on their own time, but I’d like for there to also be places where people don’t.
For the ones complaining of smell, Ill take the weed perfume over vomit dipped alcoholics any day.
Speaking as a smoker: it’s a great idea until someone manages to start a fire (or deliberately sets one.) Also smoky interiors get uncleanably grimy FAST.
There are some board game cafes in the states. And some of those overlap with legal weed :) but smoking indoors in public is still a no-go
I’m tired of these people that are so scared of cannabis and it’s effects, like they are straight out of reefer madness. You know what’s significantly more harmful and in practically everything you consume these days? Sugar. Caffeine is a close second.
Source for the caffeine claim? As far as I know caffeine is inversely correlated with all-cause mortality. The mechanism is uncertain but has been theorized to be mild appetite suppression, digestion, or coffee outweighing the caffeine itself.
The comment might be conflating their given stat with legal drugs that are addictive. Caffeine is more addictive, not more harmful. It still kinda goes to the same point of a rejection of cannabis use on the basis of harm/addiction being generally hypocritical of society though
There’s a place like that in my city in Florida.
Should visit Amsterdam. They likely already have this
