[Coach]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

As someone who isn't a pot smoker but is excited at the legalization I have some random questions

-How will the infrastructure work? Their own stores like booze or sold over counter at connivence stores like cigarettes?

Places I've been where it's legal, part of the law is they have to remain separate. You can't sell it where you sell alcohol, and it' only available in the stores, not at other retail outlets (like gas stations).

-Mid 30s.. someone educate me on edibles. Besides the homemade pot brownies I've never had an edible pot product before. The potency of some seem rather alarming. Suppose that shouldn't matter as booze as various levels of alcohol content but still. Ignorance here.

Potency of edibles is usually pretty high. I had an infused iced tea here in Van the other day (which was delicious). Guy said to drink 1/2 and then the rest if you didn't feel anything. As a pretty regular user I drank the whole thing and had a pretty good high for a few hours. Thats the thing with edibles, it usually lasts a lot longer.

But this is why legalization is great, because you will be able to go to a store, inquire about their products, ask about dosage, and inform them of your experience with the product (or lack thereof) and they can make suggestions for you.

-With Fuzz on drinking in public and how that fits with pot. Public intoxication and having a few beers/smoking a joint are two very different things. As long as pot users are respectful of their surroundings I hope it's allowed outside the home. Certainly they can't be less respectful then cigarette smokers. The bar is low.

My guess is there won't be public use allowed, not unlike drinking. That doesn't mean people won't, but they'll try to be discreet about it, which is probably the best way to make sure it's respectful.

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

There seems to be an assumption that legalizing pot will mean more people will smoke it. Is there any evidence from the Netherlands or Colorado that that's the case?

I believe most evidence shows what is to be expected. An initial small spike in usage (people who have never tried before due to the legality of it, probably will try it. And some may become habitual users). But the use levels off back to normal pretty quickly IIRC. The thing is, anyone who wants to smoke it probably is already. Especially in places on the verge of legalization. They are legalizing because the use is so wide-spread that there's no point in fighting it.

On the other hand, last week I was stopped beside a car where a couple were hitting the pipe hard - clouds of smoke billowing out their window at the lights. They were so blatant that it has me wondering if a great many do think that just because it'll soon be legal they'll be able to do it anywhere and any time. Which is just dumb, because alcohol is legal and you can't get hammered and show up to work, or chug a beer while you're stopped at a traffic light. But people are idiots, so who knows.

Well, it's not legal yet and those people are doing it. As Polak mentioned, anyone who is going to smoke and drive is probably doing so already. Alcohol is legal, and legally (and socially) you can't show up to work drunk, or drive drunk, but people do. These are the trade offs of living in free nations. Idiots will do idiot things.

Actually, yes. The dosage makes the poison, and the amount of toxins you would ingest from standing beside someone outside who is smoking are negligible. But there's a kind of public hysteria around second-hand smoke, where evidence and science are unwelcome.

Yeah I don't doubt that, but most second hand smoke issues arose from being in contained spaces with smokers (restaurants, homes, etc..) by which I think there is a much higher ingestion rate, no different than there is with weed in a contained space. That said, there are many toxins in cigarettes that aren't present in marijuana. These are kind of two different scenarios (contact high vs ill effects of secondhand smoke). There are much more alarming health issues revolving around inhaling cigarette smoke than weed smoke (although, of course, inhaling any smoke is bad).