Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Actually it’s the angry, defensive potheads who are throwing tantrums like two-year-olds.

MJ legalizations is inevitable in MD and throughout the country. Nobody said you had to like it. But continue throwing your temper tantrums. I enjoy them.

I am not sure that it is inevitable. Why has there been zero progress in Congress even though the Democrats have had a trifecta the last two years? It’s a strong demonstration that it is not good politics.

Marijuana use is also a strong part of the general feeling that cities are becoming disorderly. People that spend any amount of time in DC, SF, LA, Denver or Seattle are not impressed because it is very unpleasant to have to smell it everywhere.

Anonymous wrote:
Actually it’s the angry, defensive potheads who are throwing tantrums like two-year-olds.

MJ legalizations is inevitable in MD and throughout the country. Nobody said you had to like it. But continue throwing your temper tantrums. I enjoy them.

Anonymous wrote:Bullshit

You can smell weed even in 495 and 270 and 95 if you're behind a car smoking while driving. It's the same as being able to smell diesel exhaust from a truck while on the highway.

You're a moron getting high while driving and probably think no one around you can smell what you're doing. We all can. Get off the damn road with and quit DWI before you kill someone.

Lol, diesel exhaust. Your hysterics are incredible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you vote against weed legalization, you’re voting in favor a racism. Because that’s how the current laws are applied.

Wait, what? Is there a certain race that smokes weed? What does that even mean?

I know plenty of people of various races that enjoy pot.

It's pretty common to partake across races. But one race gets arrested for it disproportionately. So criminalizing it means creating a greater negative impact on people of that race.

So, nobody is arresting explicitly for weed. There are drug arrests, but they are to get at the associated violent crime. Drug related homicides in Montgomery County at least, are exclusively over marijuana. That won't go away. The black market won't go away. And the associated violence won't go away.

And yes, there is more violence in lower income black and brown communities. So that's where police get called. That's why they have more contact with Black and brown people. That's why there are arrest disparities. Control for where the 911 calls come from, where the violence occurs, and the racial disparities substantially, if not completely, disappear.

Want to end racial disparities? Get rid of concentrated poverty.

This is the answer to so many of our woes, but how to go about it in a way both political parties can agree on [hint: unfortunately that will never happen]

This is off-topic, but in a free market negative externalities get priced into real estate values and people can and do pay a premium to avoid those externalities. How much is it worth to live in a neighborhood where there is peace and quiet at night versus a neighborhood where there is frequent police lights/sirens while you are trying to sleep? How much is it worth to live in a neighborhood where an alcoholic spends all day-every day drinking in public, causing a commotion and making lewd comments to passersby, including you and your kids? Etc.

Availability of marijuana contributes to this public disorder/tragedy of the commons. Do you want to be able to enjoy a peaceful day in your backyard without the smell of marijuana? Do you want to be able to sleep with your windows open on a fresh spring evening without neighbors weed smoke wafting in? These are real issues that lead to real diminishment of peoples peaceful enjoyment. If the answer is that we must accept lowest common denominator behavior, most people will figure out a place to live where they do not have to.

HOAs and apartment complex property managers will ban it. Like they ban smoking. People who violate it, especially in places like apartments and other multi-family dwellings, will be evicted. Again hurting lower income people of color more than UMC whites.

In Colorado most counties ban retail establishments. So they are concentrated in just a few counties. Since cannabis is still illegal federally, those retail establishments need to deal in cash only. Which means they are ripe for robbery and burglary. I guarantee Moco will have recreational use dispensaries. So we will have the associated violent crime near them. Look at G Leaf dispensary in Rockville, near the Flagship Car Wash. There was a double stabbing there a couple months ago and one person was killed. There was just a shooting there a couple of weeks ago. Not sure if that person died or not. I have lived here for decades and there was never violent crime like that in that part of town.

Political leadership better open its eyes to how it's about to really hurt our most vulnerable communities.

Anonymous wrote:Whoever is against weed, go smoke some, it may be the happiest you’ve been in your entire dull lives.

I run a $50M business and smoke recreationally. It's no different than me having a glass or two of bourbon at the end of the day. Frankly, you would rather confront a high person than drunk person 10/10 times.

Get over yourself or ask to ban cigarettes and alcohol while you're at it

And....so do Trump and Musk. It doesn't say much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm tired of the reefer madness and smelling pot everywhere. Can I just drive on the road without being exposed to mind altering clouds of smoke because some douche bag is hot boxing while driving with a DWI?

You must be going 5 mph on city streets to be smelling smoke in another person's care. Stop lying.

Bullshit

You can smell weed even in 495 and 270 and 95 if you're behind a car smoking while driving. It's the same as being able to smell diesel exhaust from a truck while on the highway.

You're a moron getting high while driving and probably think no one around you can smell what you're doing. We all can. Get off the damn road with and quit DWI before you kill someone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is they pot smoke doesn't stay in your own home if you live in a duplex or apartment. Nothing is worse than living next door to chronic weed users whose smoke comes through the windows or through the walls and is exposing you or your family to psychoactive drugs unwillingly. It is pure torture living next to ahole, selfish potheads.

I love how it tortures you! I only wish I knew you personally so I could revel in your misery.

^ and people still wonder how Trump won and will probably win again. ^

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you vote against weed legalization, you’re voting in favor a racism. Because that’s how the current laws are applied.

Wait, what? Is there a certain race that smokes weed? What does that even mean?

I know plenty of people of various races that enjoy pot.

It's pretty common to partake across races. But one race gets arrested for it disproportionately. So criminalizing it means creating a greater negative impact on people of that race.

So, nobody is arresting explicitly for weed. There are drug arrests, but they are to get at the associated violent crime. Drug related homicides in Montgomery County at least, are exclusively over marijuana. That won't go away. The black market won't go away. And the associated violence won't go away.

And yes, there is more violence in lower income black and brown communities. So that's where police get called. That's why they have more contact with Black and brown people. That's why there are arrest disparities. Control for where the 911 calls come from, where the violence occurs, and the racial disparities substantially, if not completely, disappear.

Want to end racial disparities? Get rid of concentrated poverty.

This is the answer to so many of our woes, but how to go about it in a way both political parties can agree on [hint: unfortunately that will never happen]

This is off-topic, but in a free market negative externalities get priced into real estate values and people can and do pay a premium to avoid those externalities. How much is it worth to live in a neighborhood where there is peace and quiet at night versus a neighborhood where there is frequent police lights/sirens while you are trying to sleep? How much is it worth to live in a neighborhood where an alcoholic spends all day-every day drinking in public, causing a commotion and making lewd comments to passersby, including you and your kids? Etc.

Availability of marijuana contributes to this public disorder/tragedy of the commons. Do you want to be able to enjoy a peaceful day in your backyard without the smell of marijuana? Do you want to be able to sleep with your windows open on a fresh spring evening without neighbors weed smoke wafting in? These are real issues that lead to real diminishment of peoples peaceful enjoyment. If the answer is that we must accept lowest common denominator behavior, most people will figure out a place to live where they do not have to.

I'm not a fan of its usage, but I voted for legalization. It's everywhere already. I'd rather legalize it and then regulate it to reduce the more obnoxious affects on everyone else. We have noise ordinances. We can create odor ordinances.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm tired of the reefer madness and smelling pot everywhere. Can I just drive on the road without being exposed to mind altering clouds of smoke because some douche bag is hot boxing while driving with a DWI?

You must be going 5 mph on city streets to be smelling smoke in another person's care. Stop lying.

NP
I can smell cigarette smoke from another car ahead of me driving 45 mph with the windows down. Means I have to put mine up and switch to internal circulation. Weed is even worse, but not prevalent here yet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I voted against it.


Pot makes you dumb. A little pot makes you a little dumb, and a lot of pot makes you really dumb.

It’s not in our interest as a society to be even further dumbed down.

Alcohol does the same thing, but it’s a heck of a lot more addictive.

DP - alcohol doesn’t increase risk for psychosis. It doesn’t produce smoke that’s harmful for those around the person smoking weed.

Are you really arguing alcohol is less harmful than weed?

No, I’m not. I’m arguing that weed isn’t harmless, as a shocking amount of educated people seem to think.

As to the psychosis issue: I should have been more specific. Cannabis use in adolescence specifically increases risk for psychosis and schizophrenia. Alcohol might increase that risk slightly, but not nearly as much as cannabis.

But again, the real problem is that people think cannabis is NBD. It IS a big deal. It’s NOT okay to smoke weed during pregnancy, or give it to your teenagers, or smoke it regularly around your kids.

NO ONE is suggesting weed for minors or pregnant women. Obviously. 🙄

Except that many pregnant women do use it to relieve nausea or pain. And plenty of adolescents use it; if it’s easier for the general public to get, it will be easier for them to get.

You don’t want to admit the downsides of legalizing cannabis. That doesn’t mean those downsides don’t exist.

Whoever is against weed, go smoke some, it may be the happiest you’ve been in your entire dull lives.

I run a $50M business and smoke recreationally. It's no different than me having a glass or two of bourbon at the end of the day. Frankly, you would rather confront a high person than drunk person 10/10 times.

Get over yourself or ask to ban cigarettes and alcohol while you're at it

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Me.

It will increase traffic and pedestrian deaths. Every state thats legalized recreational use has seen increased fatalities.
Most fatalities are among people of color.
Most are in equity emphasis areas.
The state leadership has not set out explicit approaches it will take THIS SESSION to mitigate the documented harms of legalization.

It has not been studied anywhere near as extensively as alcohol. A smart state would have done the prep work first. Not after it actually kills more people.

We are no longer smart.

Complete and utter bullshit. Not a sentence of this is true.

I will never convince someone who writes like a 12 year old. But for others who have an open mind and want to make an educated vote, here's the truth.

Increases traffic deaths:
“The legalization of marijuana doesn’t come without a cost,” says lead researcher Charles M. Farmer, Ph.D., of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Ruckersville, Va.

After legalization and the launch of retail sales, there was a 5.8% rise in the incidence of traffic collision injuries and a 4.1% increase in the rate of fatal crashes, according to Farmer and colleagues’ analysis of five states that permit people age 21 and older to consume marijuana recreationally. In a comparative group of states without marijuana legalization, the researchers did not see any rise during the same period." https://scitechdaily.com/legalization-of-marijuana-linked-to-an-increase-in-traffic-crashes-and-deaths/

Colorado specific, which does an incrdible annual report showing differences in several health measures from when it was illegal, to when it was decriminalized, to when medical marijuana was legalized, to when recreational marijuana use was legalized. 29% traffic fatality increase the since they legalized recreational cannabis. https://www.rmhidta.org/_files/ugd/4a67c3_b391ac360f974a8bbf868d2e3e25df3d.pdf


Traffic fatalities hurt people of color more:
"When accounting for miles traveled during biking, walking, or driving, Black and Hispanic Americans experience higher motor vehicle-related death rates than White Americans or Asian Americans."
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/racial-disparities-traffic-fatalities/#:~:text=A%20new%20study%20by%20Boston,larger%20than%20previous%20estimates%20show.

And right here in MoCo:
"Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Black/African American residents have a 33% higher traffic fatality rate compared to Non-Hispanic White residents."
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/visionzero/Resources/Files/Equity%20Task%20Force%20Framework%20FINAL.pdf

Pedestrian crashes overlap our equity focus areas.

State leadership is looking at legalization only through the harms of cannabis arrests, and not at the harms of cannabis misuse.
They care solely about their new tax revenue source.

I’m voting against. It’s gross and already everywhere - cars, apartments, outside restaurants and stores.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you vote against weed legalization, you’re voting in favor a racism. Because that’s how the current laws are applied.

Wait, what? Is there a certain race that smokes weed? What does that even mean?

I know plenty of people of various races that enjoy pot.

It's pretty common to partake across races. But one race gets arrested for it disproportionately. So criminalizing it means creating a greater negative impact on people of that race.

Speeding tickets are disproportionately written for minorities. Should we legalize speeding?