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Netherlands begins trial to make cannabis fully legal
(www.theguardian.com)
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Yeah I mean, that's the thing with marijuana legislation in the Netherlands in general - it's not legal in the first place. It would, of course, be preferable if it was actually legal (and this might very well be a step on the road to get there), but yes, in practical terms, there's not too much impact - whereas this plan addresses an actual problem, i.e. criminality involved with the drug supply of coffee shops.
Yeah my big issues with it are that it funds a lot of gangster bullshit in the country, there's a lot of tax money that could be benefiting the Netherlands that they're not getting, and there's no real control on testing for pesticides and mold.
The models employed in the US aren't flawless and a lot of the laws are written by idiots, but there's a ton of tax money going towards stuff like education in legal states and the requirements for testing for harmful substances are pretty major.
The state of Colorado alone generated something like $280 million in tax revenue last year of which a great deal goes to education and health care.