Welcome to Ohio residents (round on the end, high in the middle) to the world of legal cannabis. If our experience in Michigan is any guide, it will take the regulators at least two years to get their heads out of their asses and approve dispensaries.
Hope it takes much longer. Colorado saw a huge spike in homeless population when they legalized, and going through that city it seems like you can't go two blocks without seeing a dispenary. One final word of warning Portland, Or.
What an odd correlation to make. Legalized cannabis causes homelessness, and/or attracts homeless persons? In Canada, 5 years later we're basically seeing a slight increase of users (22% to 27%, but it's been rising every year for ~30 years anyway). and a slight increase in hospitalizations for overdoses (mostly younger males, never lethal of course). And I suppose there's been some relief for the court systems as well. Oh, and tax revenue like for alcohol and tobacco. Here's a brief overview of the studies. We've been keeping a close eye on the effects of legalization. https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/cannabis-5-year-1.6989993 There's a cannabis thread in the debate room if there's a want to dig into this subject further !
I think there would be a bigger correlation between homelessness and alcohol addiction. In any case, the prime causes of homelessness are more likely poverty, a lack of affordable housing, mental health issues and a lack of social support.
We know now that it's possible to eliminate the majority of homelessness, and interestingly, the government actually ends up saving money by pursuing anti-homelessness initiatives. Plenty of articles about it around the interwebs, but I remember first reading about it here: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/03/its-a-miracle-helsinkis-radical-solution-to-homelessness
That article belongs in the "good news" thread. I love their mindset. Two important quotes from that article: I want to live in a society that helps those who need it.
Colorado was the first state to legalize recreational use. As a result they had a huge increase in the 18-25 crowd, who were homeless. With an increase in robberies. This info came from a sheriff i talked to in Durango, Co. He was very frustrated as they didn't have homeless prior to the legalization. I am don't opposed to the idea of legalization, but we have an issue with a percentage of young people who would like nothing more than staying baked all of their waking hours.
Well, if they would have made pot legal in their home state, they wouldn't have had to move to Colorado with nowhere to stay!
The rise in homelessness is more likely caused by wages at the lower stagnating while rents increase. Drugs often contribute to homelessness through pot is not likely part of that. Since legalization, where it occurs, violent crime around that particular drug has gone down. I first smoked pot at seventeen in 1972. I have indulged nearly daily since it has been legalized here. I have yet to contract reefer madness. Alcohol has caused me much more harm. I believe alcohol is a larger contributor of homelessness.
When people ask me how I stay so virile and young-looking, I tell them it's because I take a shot of extra-virgin olive oil every morning. Okay, nobody has ever asked me that, but the olive oil thing is true. And it does keep me sharp enough to win every time I play my wife at Scrabble . Okay, okay, I rarely win, but still, the olive oil thing really is true. Supposed to help one live longer. And I haven't died yet.
Let's say Reefer. And as a former pot smoke, I do find myself worrying about the everyday and long-term effects of cannabis. But if people are going to smoke it anyway, it does make sense to regulate it. Although it was kind of fun stopping by somewhere to score some back in the '60s. And nothing quite beats the thrill of crossing the street, at a pedestrian crossing with the light in your favor, in front of police car while you're loaded and hoping you aren't walking in a suspicious manner. Or so I've heard.
If you are drunk it is pretty obvious to just about everyone. If you are really stoned it takes a trained eye. I can tell. I had a morning class where nearly the entire group had lit up before class. Here is the one negative about it that I am sure of. If you are paying good money to learn something you are ripping yourself off by going to class high. I pulled some of them aside over time and explained this. Some of them got it. Those were the ones that did better.
I live just north of Colorado and have spent a lot of time on the front range over the last 45 years. With the legalization of pot, the population skyrocketed along with the traffic, the prices, social ills, and the number of children hospitalized from accidental ingestion of edibles. My daughter was a law enforcement officer in the Denver area for ten years and has nothing good to say about what happened to the area after legalization. Poor Colorado took the brunt of the problem at the leading edge of legalization. My children, like most children, rebelled against their parents. In their case, though, it meant that neither of them has even smoked joint.
Come on over to the Northeast. Nobody would notice if they make crack legal tomorrow. Least of all the homeless people.
I won't say my wife is serious about winning at Scrabble, but I do notice that every time we play she uses the Vince Lombardi coffee cup she bought at the Green Bay Packers gift shop, the one that says, "Winning is not a sometime thing, it's an all the time thing."
Psychological advantage is always entertaining: walk into the room, smack down Webster's Unabridged Dictionary on the table, and watch the other players blanch. There are no friendly games of Scrabble.
JOKE: 'I met my wife at a scrabble tournament 20 years ago. Next month we're going to renew our vowels.' I'll take my coat and leave
There actually are friendlier Scrabble games than others. Years ago we altered the rules for my step sister’s ex husband. John wasn’t what you would call a good speller, but we didn’t want him to feel left out so we created what we called ‘Mojo Scrabble’. The rules were simple: if you could justify it, and convince at least one other player to let it play, it could be played. (That dynamic worked in our favor too, so we still slaughtered him.)
It is sad to watch a Scrabble neophyte (also known as a "victim") start out a game. He/she is delighted to find a word midst the scramble of letters and happily puts it out there, not knowing that defense is half or more of the game and that s's and blanks are treasures to be savored. And to play safely around the double and triple squares.
Hah, that reminds me of a version that my siblings and I played a few times, which we called Gibberish Scrabble. No dictionary words allowed, only nonsense, and you had to provide a definition for anything you laid down. If everyone agreed that that’s what your word should mean, then it was allowed. Fun game, though it got old quickly.
