Posts: 4,040
Name: Abel Mohler
Location: Asheville, North Carolina USA
|
In the US the situation is very weird. All marijuana, including the medical kind, is totally illegal, according to the federal government. But several states, most famously California, have passed medical marijuana laws. So as long as growers and distributors in medical marijuana states follow regulations, local authorities can't do anything about it. In California alone, dispensaries paid over $100 million in state sales taxes in 2010 according to a report I read the other day. But nothing stops federal police from swooping in at any time, raiding these organizations, and sometimes they do.
Paraphernalia, for the most part, is totally legal. You can buy equipment legally for just about any illegal drug consumption, as long as it's something that you can smoke, since technically it could be used for tobacco. As a result, there are legal head shops in every medium sized town in America.
On the other hand, natural substances that haven't been classified, are automatically assumed to be legal until laws are passed against them, as long as it doesn't say on the label that it is meant to be a consumed as a drug. As a result, many marijuana alternatives are sold in head shops, which have a very powerful effect, some of which have turned out to be very dangerous later.
Would reforms more on par with European reforms make sense in this country? Yes, but the politics is very complicated in this country. Personally I feel it would be much easier to give the power back to the states, and let them decide individually what is best. I have no idea if this will ever get done, as it's probably not very high of a priority at the moment.
__________________
Software engineer at
Please login or register to view this content. Registration is FREE
.
Last edited by wayfarer07; 11-25-2011 at 08:23 AM..
|
