City of Berkeley requires marijuana companies to give away 2% of their products to low income people

The medical marijuana dispensaries in Berkeley, California will start giving some of their pot to low-income people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it, thanks to a new city ordinance that passed unanimously at the beginning of this month. Dispensaries are now required to set aside two percent of the cannabis they sell each year to give away for free to people who fall below a certain income level.

“Basically, the city council wants to make sure that low-income, homeless, indigent folks have access to their medical marijuana, their medicine,” Darryl Moore, one of the people who serves on the council, explained to a local CBS affiliate. “We think this is the responsible thing to do for those less fortunate in our community.”

The move has inspired its fair share of jokes. “Soda tax? Yeah, whatever,” the East Bay Express ribbed. “Berkeley may just need to adjust its nickname to the People’s Republic of Pot,” Yahoo News suggested.

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https://archive.thinkprogress.org/w...ijuana-to-some-of-its-residents-43fe1747c779/

I’m not convinced that marijuana is a medical use, I don’t believe it is good for your health either. I’ve tried it once before, and personally I choose not to do drugs.
I also disagree with what this city is doing. We used to fight against drugs and homelessness. But now we are combining people in unsafe living conditions with a mind stimulating drug.

 

The war on drugs was basically a war on the poor. Drugs were used as an excuse to convict and imprison minorities. Drug abuse is an illness, not a crime. In the case of marijuana, it isn't even an addictive drug. You want to know what I honestly said about marijuana to my kids growing up? I told them that marijuana was like anything else. Don't do it all of the time because it kills your motivation. That was what I saw growing up. The people that had to be high every day didn't want to do anything else. Other people went about their daily lives and would get high to relax occasionally the same way people use alcohol which IS an addictive drug. I have seen far more people's lives destroyed by alcohol and cigarettes than by marijuana in my lifetime.

I think that if you want to live a super clean life without alcohol, cigarettes, or marijuana, good for you. Good health is a drug we all could use a little more of. But even physical fitness is like a drug to some folks. They become obsessive over their physical health and in many cases to the detriment of their mental health. So like I say, moderation in everything you do. Find a balance, avoid excesses.

New Jersey just became the latest state to legalize marijuana. It's coming to a state near you soon. I can speak for my state. We legalized it a while back and I haven't even noticed a difference of any kind except that there are no more drug arrests listed in the police blotter which used to be the bulk of the crimes.

 

Two years ago in May I traveled to Oklahoma to marry my daughter. The state had legalized marijuana and most street corners had a pot shop. It was May and my head plugged up from the pollen so my sister recommend I go to a pharmacy and get Sudafed. I had to go through a battery of questions and forms to get this allergy med. I found it funny that I could walk next door and buy pot more easily than I could secure genuine medicine.

I believed I was a rock star all through the 1980's and indulged in all manner of mind altering abuses. @JoeNation is correct. Regular pot smoking will rob a person of their ambition. However I have to disagree just a bit with his assessment of the culture only because I have witnessed it. Smoking pot does introduce a person to a deeper drug culture that does make harsher and more addictive substances more readily available.

I believe I read somewhere that California does around 2.5mm a month in marijuana sales. Based on that, $50,000.00 in free pot will be available in the state each month. I don't know if that number is significant or not in the overall scheme of things. In the end, it has little to do with medicine or personal responsibility anyway. The legalization of marijuana has everything to do with an additional tax base for a state teetering on the brink of financial failure.

 

I think you are correct about marijuana being intertwined with harder drugs. However, that is mainly due to the illegality of drugs not that one leads to the other. If, for instance, you are selling marijuana illegally, why not branch out into other illegal drugs? That was sort of the mindset people had and it made sense to sell as many drugs as you could.

Now if you make marijuana legal, the other drugs that are still illegal like cocaine, pills, and heroin are separated from the harder drug culture and your exposure to them is going to be far more restricted. So, while I think people would go from marijuana to harder stuff in the past, it really isn't the case today where marijuana is legal.

 

none of the potheads I know ever moved on to hard stuff. Just another little old lady rant from Mayberry.

 

I’m not convinced on the validity here. Humans build tolerance from substances. In the case of drug use, one might become physically tolerant of pot enough to try to find the next best high, and when a drug dealer tells someone about all these other great “products” you might be more inclined to try something new.

 

derp

The majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, “harder” substances.5 More research is needed to understand if marijuana is a “gateway drug” – a drug that is thought to lead to the use of more dangerous drugs (such as cocaine or heroin). For more on why visit risk of using other drugs.

Does marijuana use lead to other drug use? | FAQs | Marijuana | CDC

 

Why do you find it difficult to post anything without throwing a jab? You should turn off the internet and go see if you can find a girlfriend. I am worried about your state of mind.

 

I don’t even know what old lady and Mayberry he is talking about...

 

My son who does addition research could probably explain better than I could why the old trope about marijuana and gateway drugs is more of an urban legend than an actual behavior pattern. Maybe he'll chime in.

 

He likes to take jabs at me for being old fashioned as well as just plain old..... I pity the elder statesmen in his family.

 

I hope that he does. Back in my day marijuana was far from legal and you could bet the guys at the clubs that were selling pot were the same guys that either had harder drugs or had the connections to get them.

 

I think it might be because you live so close to Raleigh and Mount Pilot.

 

And I do frequently say that I hope heaven for me is Mayberry!

 

I’m not totally convinced either way on the harms v. Health of marijuana. I come from a religious right of center family who has zero tolerance for drugs, so I definitely lean towards the “it’s not good for you” category.

 

If you don't need 'em, don't do 'em.

 

Aunt Bea is smiling down from heaven.

 

I smoked my share of dope in my life.
Did my share of drinking in my younger days as well.

Alcohol is a lot worse for you and really has NO medicinal benefits. Except maybe Granny Clampett's rheumatism medicine.

Haven't had a drink or single toke of pot in years.

I do wish Indiana would legalize pot. It does indeed have medicinal value.

Certain strains are very helpful for neuropathy
Where did I hear this? Was it in High Times?
Try the AARP magazine.

LOTS of older folks are smoking pot for medicinal reasons. Many had never done so in their younger days.

Was I ever afforded the opportunity to try other drugs. Absolutely.
I did coke a few times. Kind of a rush but not for me.
A few uppers and a few downers. Same thing. Not for me.

I had friends that dropped acid and they always offered me some.
THAT I never tried because I was afraid I'd like it.
One of those friends has been a high school teacher for years now.

I smoked opium a few times. It rarely came around but I will tell you it was one pleasant high and lasted for hours.

Now I could occasionally use an opioid for pain and they're damn near impossible to get prescribed thanks to big pharma.
I don't like taking them. Give me really weird dreams but they DO help immensely during a pancreas attack.

If pot is a gateway drug then so is alcohol.

Addiction is a disease. People don't grow up with the goal of being an addict.

 

Indiana has passed legislation for hemp farming, that's been turned down for decades
You've only been able to buy beer on Sunday for a few years now there, and we've only conformed to daylight savings time a decade ago.

I also haven't touched either one for a very long time. I did Mushrooms that was different. You don't need to do them again

 

The whole gateway drug thing is more of a sociological issue. I think you hit the nail on the head with your comment about illegality being a factor rather than the drug itself. But that's just my opinion.

All I can really offer is that in my experience, it's virtually impossible to get rats to self-administer THC. So, addictive potential is next to nothing.

On tolerance, it definitely happens, but I think a few things are overlooked:

1. Tolerance is transient here and easy to reverse with a short break.

2. You can never reach a point where tolerance can't be overcome by quantity with marijuana. Due to its incredibly low toxicity, you can always just use more to overcome tolerance.

3. Personal opinion, not all highs are equal or even similar. One doesn't necessarily go from being dissatisfied with the high of marijuana to trying cocaine just as one doesn't move from playing video games to knitting. Both subjectively enjoyable experiences involving your hands, but completely different qualities to the enjoyment, and not everyone will enjoy both or either one.