I mean to be honest, the situation in Canada looks a million times better than what we have here in New Zealand.
We wouldn't be having this issue if weed was legalized, because people would have choice in what they buy and the ability to grow their own without fear of prosecution. Right now, we are already paying high prices to gangs for PGR weed - I would much rather be buying from a business that is paying taxes which support our community.
In fact, the stuff you are saying is what we hear from the people who want to keep selling us the crap PGR weed that they are growing.
The stuff you guys have access to in Canada is 10x better than what most people are sold here.
We also worry about the over regulation, stupid things like 'thc limits' etc. but it still would be a step in the right direction for us in my opinion.
Also, I don't think you will be able to come to New Zealand without a covid vaccine - we take that stuff quite seriously here lol.
"would be a step in the right direction for us"
No, it's a step in the wrong direction. It's 180 degrees from where you want to be going. You honestly think the state, which is the source of prohibition, is going to be the solution to it? You're saying all the same things the ignorant people here said, too. It's why it happened - people like you didn't bother to do the research, and blindly believed what they were told by the state. Now our private gardens and dispensaries are raided and people's lives are shattered more than ever before, and the licensed producers (govt insiders with million dollar licenses to grow) continue to lobby the government to crack down on "illegal" cannabis. Get it? Illegal cannabis, in a country where cannabis has been "legalized"? Hellooooooo?
Let me know when you've found 45 minutes to educate yourself on the matter. I've predicted everything that has happened in the past 10 years, worldwide, in regards to legalization. It is NOT a step in the right direction for anyone except prisons, government, and licensed producers (corporate weed). The people lose in legalization.
What you want is decriminalization - the end of the bad laws around cannabis. Not more bad laws.
"the situation in Canada looks a million times better than what we have here"
I predicted NZ would be told things are rosy here, and the people would eat it up. That's why I recorded the entire process and put it into a 45 minute documentary - so ANYONE could see what a lie it is, and how much worse things are once Prohibition 2.0 ("legalization") comes in.
If you won't take it from the person who was at the center of it all from day 1, and was correct about everything he's ever said about it, I'm not sure if anyone can reach you with the truth.
I just want to be able to buy and smoke weed legally - decriminalization does not achieve that, it would still be illegal to buy and sell. In many parts of Canada and the USA people can go into shops, and have a choice of many different cannabis products to purchase. Here in NZ, we have to buy a bag from a random guy with varying quality and little to no choice. and they will beat you up and take your money if you try to argue with them about the shit quality.
Not everyone has the space to grow their own.
I'll watch your video later today to see what you're on about, but judging from your opinions on vaccines I probably won't agree with you!
Nothing personal though, we are all entitled to our own opinions so don't take this as me shitting on you or anything.
"I just want to be able to buy and smoke weed legally"
That's the carrot they dangle - the ONLY thing that anyone gets out of it. And yes, you'll be able to smoke (at home) without arrest. But you can already do that. They aren't going to let you smoke in the park, or anywhere around people.
"decriminalization does not achieve that, it would still be illegal to buy and sell."
Huh? Decrim means ending all the bad cannabis laws that got created starting in the 1930s. It means not arresting people for weed, not charging people for weed, not going to court for weed, not punishing people for weed. It would still be illegal? Then that's not decrim. What we want is the end of the bad laws, NOT NEW LAWS.
"In many parts of Canada and the USA people can go into shops, and have a choice of many different cannabis products to purchase."
Government stores. Overregulated isn't the word. It's $30 for a shitty gram, but only $5 for a REALLY nice gram on the street. And you can't get edibles, or extracts. They even made weed shirts illegal in many places here. My wife needs a gram of THC per day, and she'd be DEAD right now if we had to buy at government prices. Besides, it's toxic, literally. People are getting respiratory infections left right and center after smoking govt weed. Grown in warehouses by corporate idiots.
Seriously, all these debates have been had, for years. Everything you say is like something out of a textbook here. We heard it here for years, the exact same justifications. You're making exactly the same mistakes, and I even saw that coming- I even said NZ would be next, YEARS AGO! And here we are, and you guys still won't listen to warnings.
You're aware cannabis messages are still censored on YT, right? I can't get this message out there. I can't warn people like you. Nobody can. We're SCREAMING over here, trying to get you to listen, but nothing we do has any effect.
Please, listen to those who were there! It's NOT a good thing. And no, I'm not paid by anyone to have this opinion, or to say these things. I'm independently motivated and have been speaking out against legalization since 2012, when it was just a distant rumour here.
That's Jan 2014, when I could see everything that's going on now forming up, I put out that warning to Canadians. I wasn't listened to. It was 100% right. When I show fellow cannactivists from Canada that clip now, they say "why didn't I see that back when it mattered?"
You have the opportunity to see it and hear it when it matters.
Your rejection of my research into vaccines hints that you aren't likely to be willing to consider my position on anything else. You have an unscientific approach - anything that doesn't agree with your hypothesis is discarded as "fake news". You will not reach the truth that way, unless you do so by accident, and I wouldn't count on that.
Whatever dude, if you had to live here you would be wishing for it to be the way it is in Canada now. Obviously it's not perfect - but you have no idea what it's like here now. Not everyone smokes weed, some people hate it and think other people shouldn't be able to do it. We have to be able to make compromises as we live with other people with different opinions. It's not all about what you or I want.
Of course I know how it is there. I have family and friends there, and I have the internet too. Anyone can find out how it is. It's exactly like it was here in Canada in 2017.
So in Canada in 2017 the market was dominated with crap weed sold by gangs, and that's what you want to go back to? sweet as bro
Yes, before legalization the Canadian cannabis market was about 1/3 gangs, and 2/3 mom and pops small growers. You rarely hear about the quiet mom and pops gardens. Mostly you hear about the gang stuff. You'd know that if you watched my video.
You would also know the only reason gangs get involved in cannabis is the price. That's why gangs don't traffic in carrots.
You'd know the price is only high because of prohibition. Cannabis isn't a difficult crop to grow. I can grow it for free, as long as I've got dirt and time. Warehouse grows get their prices down below pennies per gram here (and still can't make a profit). Cannabis is a weed, and it grows wild under the sun all over the world. Only prohibition makes it expensive.
The government doesn't let on, but it actually WANTS the gangs to continue, so they can wage a continuous "war on drugs" that can never be won. They profit off both sides of this war, just like the wars in the middle East. Police departments get bigger budgets. Prisons make profits when cannabis users go to jail, and lobby government to keep cannabis illegal. Legalization doesn't threaten any of that. Gangs continue after legalization - we have a much worse problem now than ever before. The more illegal something is, the more gangs will get involved, because the price of it goes up. The higher the price, the more violence you'll see related to buying and selling it. Legalization means 14 years in prison for growing too many plants at home, instead of just 6 months when it was "illegal". And it means you can get prison time for sharing a joint with a friend, under the wrong circumstances, because they call it "trafficking". Is that legal, to you?
These are the hard lessons we learned here. You know nothing and claim "it's different this time". Your feelings are meaningless. The intention is to crack down even harder than ever before, calling it "legalization", and destroying not only the free market but the entire cannabis culture, pushing it even deeper underground than it was in the 90s.
Legalization is nothing we want, and everything we don't. You're going to be allowed to smoke a joint, that's it. And you have to buy it from the ones who profited off prohibition since 1930, for ten times the price you were paying before. Oh and let's not even start on the irradiation, which is done to legal weed for safety. It kills the bacteria, which stops the curing process, resulting in dead bud that hurts to smoke. And it also blasts off most of the trichomes and cannabinoids, so you need more just to get any effect, smoking up large amounts of legal fungicides - even in "organic" cannabis. You're in for a real treat.
"Also, I don't think you will be able to come to New Zealand without a covid vaccine - we take that stuff quite seriously here lol."
If NZ is only going to allow citizens who take government injections to move freely, who would want to be there? lol
Yeah my bad - if you are a citizen you will be allowed in with a 2 week quarantine. But yes I for one am glad our government is taking steps to protect our population.
That didn't work out well in 1976 with the swine flu pandemic. The govt protected the population there too, with a rushed vaccine that was deemed safe and effective, the US president went on TV to take it, and then millions got sick from it, and thousands died, and they immediately halted the vaccine. The flu petered out on its own and the whole thing was said to be a mistake. Now you never hear about it, except if you encounter people like myself with knowledge to share, who can back up everything they say. But you recoil from it. You've been trained to recoil from it. Doesn't mean you're right, and being wrong in this case has serious consequences. Maybe you should open your mind and do a bit of real research, just to be sure you aren't being misled like all the people who got sick and died in 1976? Or you could just say "he's so arrogant, surely he's wrong" or "I've been told not to listen to crazy conspiracy theorists, and this is definitely one of those", which is the easier and more popular option. If you're right, then your beliefs will hold up to scrutiny and should fear no honest debate. But hey, maybe you don't have time for all this nonsense.
I know people personally who have spent many years working on this type of thing (studying virus, vaccines etc. in a university), so I am more inclined to trust them rather than some dude on the internet.
Literally hundreds of thousands of people have died already from this virus in the USA - so I think a vaccine is worth a try (note millions of people have already had these vaccines, so I think we would know by now if it was killing people).
Anyway, I'll be getting a vaccine when it's available to me and I'll let you know if it gives me any problems!
It won't give you any problems you notice (or admit). You'll put the vaccination passport on your smart device and wear your green star proudly, no doubt :D
If it won't give any noticeable problems, then why do you care so much? I thought you were worried it was going to kill millions of people like in 1976.
What is the solution you would prefer? Just let people die until we obtain natural immunity of some kind? I don't think most people are willing to accept that.
hopefully this blockchain is still active in 10 years and we can discuss it again then and see how things turned out :D
who knows, maybe you are right and I am wrong - but why would I listen to some guy on the internet rather than people who have literally spent their adult lives studying this stuff?
If you really believe this stuff - you should get some actual peer reviewed studies together so we don't have to just take your word for it ya know.