# The scourge that is the demon weed **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 4, 2018, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860 "2018-01-04T17:54:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/1 "2018-01-04T17:54:04Z")
Mister Beauregard has chosen to [rescind the Cole memo](https://www.yahoo.com/news/ap-newsbreak-us-end-policy-134029749.html), which defined the federal hands-off policy with regard to states that have legalized trade in cannabis. _Sessions, who has assailed marijuana as comparable to heroin and has blamed it for spikes in violence, had been expected to ramp up enforcement._ Now there is the perspective of a wise and enlightened man. The WoD can only succeed of we bring all our available resources down upon it. _While Sessions has been carrying out a Justice Department agenda that follows Trump’s top priorities on such issues as immigration and opioids, the changes to pot policy reflect his own concerns. Trump’s personal views on marijuana remain largely unknown._ Yeah, just do whatever makes you happy, Bo-bo. _Sessions’ policy will let U.S. attorneys across the country decide what kinds of federal resources to devote to marijuana enforcement based on what they see as priorities in their districts, the people familiar with the decision said._ There is nothing like uncertainty to keep those pushers and wastoids on their toes. There is just not enough invective in the world to lay upon this worthless insult to humanity. We need to send him back to the 17[sup]th[/sup] century, where he longs to be, where he belongs, where he can eat his porridge out of the duke’s badly-cleaned chamber pot. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/2 "2018-01-04T18:31:57Z")
States rights, except for that. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/3 "2018-01-04T18:38:22Z")
Republican Senator Cory Gardner (Colorado) is pretty pissed off. From the [Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-is-rescinding-obama-era-directive-for-feds-to-back-off-marijuana-enforcement-in-states-with-legal-pot/2018/01/04/b1a42746-f157-11e7-b3bf-ab90a706e175_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_sessions-1036am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.b9516f8a2990): > [@](#): > > Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) said on Twitter the move “directly contradicts what Attorney General Sessions told me prior to his confirmation,” and he threatened to impede the nomination of Justice Department leaders in response. > > “With no prior notice to Congress, the Justice Department has trampled on the will of the voters in CO and other states,” he wrote. “I am prepared to take all steps necessary, including holding DOJ nominees, until the Attorney General lives up to the commitment he made to me prior to his confirmation.” ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/4 "2018-01-04T18:57:57Z")
An old man applying old man logic to a problem he neither understands nor has made any real effort to understand. It’s blatant “Do what I say, because I said so” paternalism at its worst; it’s opinion-as-policy, and a very unpopular one at that. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/5 "2018-01-04T19:20:31Z")
By coincidence, MSNBC is running a spot about California pot production, which proved interesting. Way back a while ago, a trade agreement with Colombia put the kibosh on the California greenhouse flower industry, causing vast numbers of greenhouses to be vacant and unused. Perfect for growing the dank, crusty, fragrant herb so much favored by the DFH community. Groovy. (For those in need of a good warm chuckle, the following is recommended as positive mental hygiene, Grandmas smoking weed for the first time.) Recommend using the closed caption option. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/6 "2018-01-04T19:36:07Z")
If we don’t keep the Devil’s Lettuce illegal, we’ll have to come up with another way to keep putting brown people in jail. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/7 "2018-01-04T20:26:46Z")
> [@andros](#): > > If we don’t keep the Devil’s Lettuce illegal, we’ll have to come up with another way to keep putting brown people in jail. Bingo! We have a winner! The primary purpose of drug enforcement is to incarcerate minorities. For Mr. Sessions this is a very attractive feature. [Relevant article](http://www.drugpolicy.org/press-release/2016/03/top-adviser-richard-nixon-admitted-war-drugs-was-policy-tool-go-after-anti) ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/8 "2018-01-04T20:40:49Z")
I have always been a little, um, paranoid about the greater WoD. There are very large bricks of gelt to be gleaned from black-market sales of substances. How much (laundered) weight do the dealers wield in the government? Money, after all, is power. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/9 "2018-01-04T22:33:46Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Mister Beauregard has chosen to [rescind the Cole memo](https://www.yahoo.com/news/ap-newsbreak-us-end-policy-134029749.html), which defined the federal hands-off policy with regard to states that have legalized trade in cannabis. > _Sessions, who has assailed marijuana as comparable to heroin and has blamed it for spikes in violence, had been expected to ramp up enforcement._ > Now there is the perspective of a wise and enlightened man. The WoD can only succeed of we bring all our available resources down upon it. > _While Sessions has been carrying out a Justice Department agenda that follows Trump’s top priorities on such issues as immigration and opioids, the changes to pot policy reflect his own concerns. Trump’s personal views on marijuana remain largely unknown._ > Yeah, just do whatever makes you happy, Bo-bo. > _Sessions’ policy will let U.S. attorneys across the country decide what kinds of federal resources to devote to marijuana enforcement based on what they see as priorities in their districts, the people familiar with the decision said._ > There is nothing like uncertainty to keep those pushers and wastoids on their toes. > > There is just not enough invective in the world to lay upon this worthless insult to humanity. We need to send him back to the 17[sup]th[/sup] century, where he longs to be, where he belongs, where he can eat his porridge out of the duke’s badly-cleaned chamber pot. Legalized marijuana seems to lead to more auto fatalities, but there is probably some sort of beneficial effect on drug crimes. I dunno, weed still seems like its better than alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/10 "2018-01-04T22:48:04Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Legalized marijuana seems to lead to more auto fatalities, but there is probably some sort of beneficial effect on drug crimes. I dunno, weed still seems like its better than alcohol. The only study I’ve seen did not differentiate between drunk and (possibly) high drivers. If a drive blew over a .08 _and_ tested positive for THC, the blame was put on the driver being high, not drunk. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/11 "2018-01-04T22:53:14Z")
The push to legalize pot will be energized considerably by the Republican tax plan, which by lowering deductions for state and local taxes puts pressure on high taxation states to either lower taxes, or (more likely) find new sources of revenue. Taxing pot sales will look increasingly attractive. Unintended consequences and all that. Add in the (largely delusional) belief that marijuana is an effective painkilling alternative to opioids and will help solve our problems in that area, and you have two forces driving legalization. Federal prosecutors who decide to go after pot sellers/buyers in pot-legal states won’t have much time to do anything else. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/12 "2018-01-04T23:00:22Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > The push to legalize pot will be energized considerably by the Republican tax plan, which by lowering deductions for state and local taxes puts pressure on high taxation states to either lower taxes, or (more likely) find new sources of revenue. Taxing pot sales will look increasingly attractive. > > Unintended consequences and all that. > > **Add in the (largely delusional) belief that marijuana is an effective painkilling alternative to opioids and will help solve our problems in that area, and you have two forces driving legalization.** > > Federal prosecutors who decide to go after pot sellers/buyers in pot-legal states won’t have much time to do anything else. [WaPo](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/10/16/legal-marijuana-is-saving-lives-in-colorado-study-finds/?utm_term=.ae938ea88da5) > [@](#): > > Marijuana legalization in Colorado led to a “reversal” of opiate overdose deaths in that state, according to new research published in the American Journal of Public Health. > > “After Colorado’s legalization of recreational cannabis sale and use, opioid-related deaths decreased more than 6% in the following 2 years,” write authors Melvin D. Livingston, Tracey E. Barnett, Chris Delcher and Alexander C. Wagenaar. > > **The authors stress that their results are preliminary, given that their study encompasses only two years of data after the state’s first recreational marijuana shops opened in 2014.** > > While numerous studies have shown an association between medical marijuana legalization and opioid overdose deaths, this report is one of the first to look at the impact of recreational marijuana laws on opioid deaths. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/13 "2018-01-04T23:06:02Z")
Yeah, I’mma want to delve into that one too, **Jackmanii**. Why “largely delusional?” ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/14 "2018-01-04T23:35:06Z")
It varies from on body to the next. Cannabis has never, ever had any kind of pain reduction effect for me. In truth, it is more similar to acid in that respect than to heroin (I think, anyway, as I have not tried heroin). ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/15 "2018-01-04T23:41:09Z")
It would appear that Trump thinks his popularity rating is\* too high\*. No pun intended, for a change. Besides, grass is for losers. When you’re in Trump’s social class, it’s Columbian Chardonnay or nothin’! ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2018, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/16 "2018-01-04T23:45:08Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > It varies from on body to the next. Trudat. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2018, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/17 "2018-01-05T00:51:02Z")
Keep in mind that this is a directive for federal enforcement. Many local authorities have essentially said that they won’t enforce the de jure law. I know my local PD said they wouldn’t immediately after the law passed, but before it went into effect. More and more states will “fall.” My guess is VT and NH are ripe. AZ was somewhat close but no [del]cigar[/del] last election. > [@eschereal](#): > > It varies from on body to the next. Cannabis has never, ever had any kind of pain reduction effect for me. In truth, it is more similar to acid in that respect than to heroin (I think, anyway, as I have not tried heroin). I understand that most sold for medical purposes (often a tincture) is high in CBD and very low in THC. The stuff people smoke recreationally is much, much higher in THC. In other words, you probably used the wrong stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2018, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/18 "2018-01-05T01:02:40Z")
Like most moves by the Trump administration, I’d feel better if there were a clear, well-reasoned and evidence-based explanation for the decision, instead of just more transparent bullcrap. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2018, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/19 "2018-01-05T01:16:23Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Add in the (largely delusional) belief that marijuana is an effective painkilling alternative to opioids and will help solve our problems in that area, and you have two forces driving legalization. I think classifying it as an alternative to opioids is too strong a statement. It’s better to look at it as a supplement that can reduce opioid use and maybe replace it in some circumstances. One of the most comprehensive [recent reports](http://nationalacademies.org/hmd/reports/2017/health-effects-of-cannabis-and-cannabinoids.aspx) from The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.) last year reached the following conclusions (among others): > [@](#): > > There is conclusive or substantial evidence that cannabis or cannabinoids are effective: > [ul] > [li]For the treatment for chronic pain in adults[/li][li]Antiemetics in the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting [/li][li]For improving patient-reported multiple sclerosis spasticity symptoms[/li][/ul] Interestingly (to me at least), they found limited evidence that it is effective for increasing appetite and decreasing weight loss associated with HIV/AIDS, which was one of its traditional uses as medicine. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2018, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860/20 "2018-01-05T01:20:00Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > I understand that most sold for medical purposes (often a tincture) is high in CBD and very low in THC. The stuff people smoke recreationally is much, much higher in THC. In other words, you probably used the wrong stuff. I have had THC stuff, variously mixed and almost pure CBD (I think it said there was a very trace amount THC). It does about the opposite of pain reduction for me. But, at least with the THC, you can just focus on other things. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scourge-that-is-the-demon-weed/805860.md?page=2)