[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Legal weed? Nope.Officially, it's forbidden, but it's tolerated. Coffee shops are in the weird position that it is allowed to sell weed, but not allowed to purchase it (so, the coffee shop has to do illegal stuff to acquire the weed in the first place... which is tolerated).

Marijuana is on the slow road to legalization in the US.

In New York City, where I live, it's been de facto legal for some time. It's technically illegal, but you would have to really work at it to get busted. Walking up to a cop smoking a joint, blowing the smoke in his face, and saying "Want a toke, officer?" might do it. Dealing might, too, but might not, as below.

A dealer I knew years back who was one of a group that sold from a park explained what had actually happened when I had heard about a problem with the police. He said "No, it was 'Show some respect'." The cop had responsibility for the park, and knew quite well the group was selling marijuana. Just don't do it while he was watching. If they did, he'd have to bust them. (And he made it very clear that anyone trying to deal harder stuff like crack cocaine would get busted.)

The cop on the beat has better things to do than bust people for smoking pot. If he busts them, he must appear in court against them, which is a waste of everyone's time.

A former co-worker talked about a talk he attended given by a University of California law professor, who said all such laws had an "Us vs Them" basis, and were the result of a dominant group attempting to suppress a lesser one. The US efforts that resulted in Prohibition were that sort of thing. Criminalization of marijuana in the 1930's was another, with the target the black communities where marijuana was a common recreation. ("Them darkies smoke that stuff! Can't have it leaking over into our communities!" Er, too late... )

Marijuana is now legal for medicinal uses in several municipalities, and the areas in question are having the unusual experience of figuring out what to do with all the taxes collected as part of the process. The Governor of New York State recently signed into law a bill making medical marijuana legal. The camel's nose is now in the tent. I just know there are people in the New York City government imagining the tax revenues sales of marijuana over the counter would generate, and rubbing their hands and drooling. It won't just be medicinal. The same stores selling cigarettes made from tobacco would have no problem selling cigarettes made from marijuana, and licensed, inspected, and taxed, with actual rated potency has a lot to recommend it.

That's idiotic. Allow it or forbid it, not some sort of stupid half breed arrangement.

Forbidding it simply won't work. Allowing it is politically fraught. A half-assed compromise where it is technically illegal, but the laws are seldom actually enforced is a step along the path.

In Germany, games censorship is foolish. Is that also the case for 18+ games? Seeing that children don't play games that are not fit for them is a task of the parents, not of the government.

It should be. It becomes a task of government because too many parents don't want to do it. I see a lot of that in efforts to censor sex. The ostensible reason is "protect the children", but the cynical part of me suspects the real reason is "protect the parents from having to deal with questions they aren't comfortable answering". Sorry, mom and dad, but if you're a parent. that's your job. If you aren't willing to do it, you shouldn't have kids.

Scrapping all the stupid rules and differences would go a long way. If there's one Europe, then everything, from pricing and rules should be the same. If it can't be, then there shouldn't have been a push to create a single Europe.

Part of the problem with the EU is EU regulations in addition to local ones. I believe a lot of the opposition to the EU that resulted in Brexit was from small and mid-sized businesses doing business in the UK who were unhappy with EU rules on top of existing local ones. Larger businesses that did business outside of Britain had a different opinion.

But a common currency and rules has side effects that should have been obvious going in. When you have a common currency and accounting standards, it's suddenly glaringly obvious who is economically healthy and competitive and who isn't, and why. You can't hide problems behind different currencies, accounting procedures, and government smokescreens. And you learn the hard way which nations should never have been incorporated in the EU in the first place.
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Dennis