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[Biff]

Criticism of the top of my head:

- They are explicitly not selling to 18 or younger kids. Where did you get this idea?
- The current system of keeping the drug illegal has been ineffective in keeping drug out of kids' hands. Part of the reasoning for legalization is the capability to keeping it out of minors hands like alcohol at LCBO.
- To be honest, I'm not entirely sure youth unemployment won't go down with or without legal weed.

1) Where did I say they were selling to kids under 18?

My thesis is as follows:
- If you are 18 years, 1 day old, you are legally able to purchase marijuana
- Therefore, approximately half of Grade 12 students will be eligible to purchase marijuana before graduating, given that half will turn 18 before graduating (ballpark based on June graduation date)
- Therefore, there will be high schoolers who can legally buy weed
- From there, you have to be naive if you think they won't share or buy for friends or sell to younger students in lower grades who cannot yet legally purchase

2) The current system is ineffective in keeping drugs out of kids hands. OK. So the answer is to then make marijuana more widely available? What? You don't think 19 year olds buy alcohol from the LCBO for their 17 year old friends or siblings?

3) K

 

[Phobophile]

Couldn't help but notice that only Canadian adults were mentioned. Is this going to be exclusively for Canadian citizens? Are they trying to dissuade drug tourism?

 

[whitehawk]

Locking this in for 10 years from now:

I predict the youth unemployment rate will be worse than it is now.

I'm not talking a few basis points worse. I'm talking going from 13% to 16% type of worse.

I know it's fun and gamez on the Internet when it comes to marijuana legalization, but making this legal for 18 year olds will mean it will become much more prevalent in high schools in general. The link between marijuana use and poor academic performance is a virtual consensus in scientific research.

Sure, in the short term us Canadians will enjoy some juicy tax boosts. Hell, there may even be job creation from a legalized source of revenue in addition to marijuana tourism.

But at what cost? Selling addictive garbage to kids who aren't even old enough to drink?

This is disgusting. I don't care if a 20-something smokes. That's your business (as long as the smell doesn't interfere with my comfort in my private residence). But keep it far and away from the high school age group... Like wtf... This isn't rocket science.

Your conscious is in the right place, but your logic is flawed. Marijuana in the black market is easier for kids to acquire than alcohol. Drug dealers don't care about the age of their customers. While it won't happen immediately, a legal system will slowly shrink that black market and put a tougher wall between weed and kids.

Myself, I got high before I got drunk. Weed was everywhere around highschool and easy to find. Alcohol on the other hand while still obtainable, proved to be much tougher.

 

[Interframe]

Locking this in for 10 years from now:

I predict the youth unemployment rate will be worse than it is now.

I'm not talking a few basis points worse. I'm talking going from 13% to 16% type of worse.

I know it's fun and gamez on the Internet when it comes to marijuana legalization, but making this legal for 18 year olds will mean it will become much more prevalent in high schools in general. The link between marijuana use and poor academic performance is a virtual consensus in scientific research.

Sure, in the short term us Canadians will enjoy some juicy tax boosts. Hell, there may even be job creation from a legalized source of revenue in addition to marijuana tourism.

But at what cost? Selling addictive garbage to kids who aren't even old enough to drink?

This is disgusting. I don't care if a 20-something smokes. That's your business (as long as the smell doesn't interfere with my comfort in my private residence). But keep it far and away from the high school age group... Like wtf... This isn't rocket science.

I don't really see an issue with any of this. In fact, I think you may be a little out of touch with how easy it is to get weed in Canadian high schools (I graduated from high school in 2012). Its so much easier for a high school teenager to get weed than alcohol already and I don't even see that changing after its legalized.

And honestly, don't try to pretend like you care about high school kids and their health, the lack of sleep teenagers get is more damaging to the development of their brains than cannabis ever will be. Hell, energy drinks and the dangerous amounts of sugar they put in them are more poisonous to teens and their health than weed and they market that shit aggressively to kids, why aren't you out here advocating for teen health when it comes to that crap?

 

[Kozak]

Locking this in for 10 years from now:

I predict the youth unemployment rate will be worse than it is now.

I'm not talking a few basis points worse. I'm talking going from 13% to 16% type of worse.

I know it's fun and gamez on the Internet when it comes to marijuana legalization, but making this legal for 18 year olds will mean it will become much more prevalent in high schools in general. The link between marijuana use and poor academic performance is a virtual consensus in scientific research.

Sure, in the short term us Canadians will enjoy some juicy tax boosts. Hell, there may even be job creation from a legalized source of revenue in addition to marijuana tourism.

But at what cost? Selling addictive garbage to kids who aren't even old enough to drink?

This is disgusting. I don't care if a 20-something smokes. That's your business (as long as the smell doesn't interfere with my comfort in my private residence). But keep it far and away from the high school age group... Like wtf... This isn't rocket science.

hahah

So lets keep it illegal so kids under 18 can (continue to) obtain it easily amirite?

Great thinking buddy

 

[Cipherr]

Mostly common-sense stuff. This part kinda made me laugh:



"Whoa whoa whoa. This icky is waaaay too sticky. You gotta pony up another loonie, my man."

lmao

 

[killer rin]

Mostly common-sense stuff. This part kinda made me laugh:

"Whoa whoa whoa. This icky is waaaay too sticky. You gotta pony up another loonie, my man."

Pfft, this is Canada. A loonie would be too low we're looking at Toonie territories here

 

[Biff]

I don't really see an issue with any of this. In fact, I think you may be a little out of touch with how easy it is to get weed in Canadian high schools (I graduated from high school in 2012). Its so much easier for a high school teenager to get weed than alcohol already and I don't even see that changing after its legalized.

And honestly, don't try to pretend like you care about high school kids and their health, the lack of sleep teenagers get is more damaging to the development of their brains than cannabis ever will be. Hell, energy drinks and the dangerous amounts of sugar they put in them are more poisonous to teens and their health than weed and they market that shit aggressively to kids, why aren't you out here advocating for teen health when it comes to that crap?

Where did I say I care about teenagers' health?

What I care about is the employment rate. That is all I'm talking about. Productive members of society who do well in school, go on to post-secondary education, and ultimately become middle income tax paying citizens.

What I am concerned about is a new wave of failing students. As I said in my first post, there is a clear statistical link between marijuana use and low academic achievement. Yet out of the dozen replies to my original post, not a single one has addressed that fact, or disproven my theory on how easier access to marijuana could cause a decline in the high school graduation rate.

 

[yanipheonu]

1) Where did I say they were selling to kids under 18?

My thesis is as follows:
- If you are 18 years, 1 day old, you are legally able to purchase marijuana
- Therefore, approximately half of Grade 12 students will be eligible to purchase marijuana before graduating, given that half will turn 18 before graduating (ballpark based on June graduation date)
- Therefore, there will be high schoolers who can legally buy weed
- From there, you have to be naive if you think they won't share or buy for friends or sell to younger students in lower grades who cannot yet legally purchase

2) The current system is ineffective in keeping drugs out of kids hands. OK. So the answer is to then make marijuana more widely available? What? You don't think 19 year olds buy alcohol from the LCBO for their 17 year old friends or siblings?

3) K

How are any of these things worse than simply having kids going to illegal drug dealers for weed?
A government run pot dealer will at least check ID. An illegal dealer has no such obligation, not to mention the crime and potential danger of a dealer.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/colorado-s-teen-marijuana-usage-dips-after-legalization/
Colarado's weed usage amongst teens was actually lower than the national average after legalization. It certainty didn't go up drastically. Data is admittedly scant given how new it is, but there certainly seems no evidence for some epidemic of youth usage of weed caused by legalization.

Research and investigations into the matter have not shown this to be a problem.
These are better than solipsistic reasoning.

 

[CazTGG]

Where did I say I care about teenagers' health?

What I care about is the employment rate. That is all I'm talking about. Productive members of society who do well in school, go on to post-secondary education, and ultimately become middle income tax paying citizens.

What I am concerned about is a new wave of failing students. As I said in my first post, there is a clear statistical link between marijuana use and low academic achievement. Yet out of the dozen replies to my original post, not a single one has addressed that fact, or disproven my theory on how easier access to marijuana could cause a decline in the high school graduation rate.

Most people don't need to disprove your "theory" because it's based on misrepresenting correlation with causation of marijuana usage among youth, especially when keeping it illegal isn't going to prevent them from getting their hands on it, it just means they'll be obtaining it through illegal means. What we do know for certain is that "the costs of enforcing criminalization are disproportionately high given the drug’s social and health consequences”, which currently costs between $300,000 to $500,000 per year to enforcement rather than areas such as the public education of which you claim to value so much. More importantly, legalization will hit the illegal marketand has been linked to reduced crime rates so there's an incentive to legalize it beyond increasing jobs: It will help keep people out of jail for possessing a drug they can already obtain for recreational use, including students. Finally, as yanipheonu pointed out, legalization saw a lower usage among teens rather than an increase. There isn't anything to suggest that legalization will lead to an increase in unemployment of youth or a decrease in the pursuit in a post-secondary education.

 

[killer rin]

Couldn't help but notice that only Canadian adults were mentioned. Is this going to be exclusively for Canadian citizens? Are they trying to dissuade drug tourism?

Why would we do that? Do you know how much money we get from Alcohol and Casino Tourism? Imagine if we could add Weed to that!

 

[Triteon]

Wait, if weed is easy to grow and if anyone can just grow their own 4 plants at a time why would anyone buy it when it at the store fronts? Retail weed will be heavily taxed so I don't understand the appeal of obtaining it that way.

The only factor I see affecting this choice is time, which weed can take months to grow, and well, admittedly I know next to nothing about growing, smoking or consuming weed other than the health studies and recreational merit.

I can grow lots of things in my garden but i still buy vegetables.

The main reason would be convenience.

 

[Bronetta]

The report mentions 18 years will be the mininum required age but provinces can have a higher age requirement to match alcohol laws.

In other words, if your province doesnt sell alcohol to 18 year olds, they won't be selling marijuana to 18 year olds either.