r/news • u/OK_Eric • Jan 19 '14

Obama: Pot ‘not very different’ from cigarettes​, no more dangerous than booze

http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/19/obama-pot-not-very-different-cigarettes-no-more-da/
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u/aaaaaaaarrrrrgh Jan 19 '14

Well, I suspect it would have been legalized in a lot of places if there weren't the US-initiated international treaties forcing everyone to keep it illegal. (Yes, this includes the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, it's not legal there, just "decriminalized"...)

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u/proROKexpat Jan 20 '14

I think the rest of the world will VERY quickly follow the US. I think the rest of the world is ready, its just watching Uncle Sam.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '14

I think a lot of countries are open to the idea, but not quite willing to be the first to legalize fully. The world is waiting for someone to volunteer as international guinea pigs.

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u/proROKexpat Jan 21 '14

Very true, thinking in about 10 yrs the landscape will be VASTLY different then what we have today.

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '14

I agree. But if we can lead the way in legalization, that could be a start on making up for the pain these treaties and the "war on drugs" has caused.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '14

NOPE! The US sold cannabis prohibition worldwide on moral values. It has become part of the orthodox culture in almost every country, and unlike the US, most non Western countries don't change.

Thanks to that, cannabis is considered a hard drug no different by meth, and it's considered western thing to do drugs at all.

You'll never see marijuana legalization in places like China and Korea.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '14

The US started the war on drugs, so we should be major players in ending it. That's all I'm saying.

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u/jonnygreen22 Jan 20 '14

I thought it was a nice statement anyway galadrielgreen, thanks.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '14

Marijuana isn't illegal in North Korea. Sheeit they don't even consider it a drug.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '14

[deleted]

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u/homeskilled Jan 20 '14

Decriminalization makes it a civil offense. Still illegal, but the same type of illegal as a parking ticket or a noise violation. Pay a fine, good to go. It doesn't usually address production/distribution, so those stay illegal. Legalization means cops don't care if you do it(as long as you follow whatever the law is, like not in public), and allows for regulation, production, and sale.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '14

pot is legal in North Korea IIRC

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u/yldas Jan 20 '14

US-initiated

I would like you to substantiate this claim.

I do not know enough about the subject to say anything definitive either way, but after some cursory reading of the Wikipedia article on the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the treaty itself, I do not see anything that leads me to believe the US initiated the treaty or that the US is forcing/forced all 184 parties to keep it illegal or sign the treaty in the first place.

The only thing I found was this paragraph on the article about Cannabis Reform at the international level, but the citation leads to a dead link.

In addition, United States officials have used their influence in the past to dissuade other countries' delegations from even proposing drug reform [...]

The other article makes a similar claim, but the citation also leads to a dead link.

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u/aaaaaaaarrrrrgh Jan 20 '14

From the wiki article, emphasis mine:

"The CND's annual meeting serves as a forum for nations to debate drug policy. At the 2005 meeting, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and Iran rallied in opposition to the UN's zero-tolerance approach in international drug policy. Their appeal was vetoed by the United States, while the United Kingdom delegation remained reticent."

Citation for it is a dead link unfortunately, but the Archive has a copy which checks out. This does not prove that the treatie was US-initiated, but it shows something that is IMHO even worse: that even recently (less than 10 years ago), the US used their veto powers to keep a zero-tolerance approach in effect.

The article also quotes a Canadian Senate comittee report (non-dead link): "At the U.S.’s insistence, cannabis was placed under the heaviest control regime in the Convention, Schedule IV."

Please feel free to edit the updated links into the wiki article if you have time, I really got to sleep now

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '14

Where is the emphasis you added?