Could Iran be the next country to legalise cannabis and opium? | Hacker News Reader

Could Iran be the next country to legalise cannabis and opium?

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48 pointssmollett36 comments

Iranian here, it is highly unlikely to happen.but right now something going on under the cities skin which is low enforcement mostly don't show any interest to arrest ordinary users of herbal drugs( for chemical and modern drug it is whole another story,for example X pills.they will find and arrest you.and if you are distributor they will executive you 100%).but they vigoursly arrest and track distributers even herbal drugs.

p.s. if you have questions I would be glad to answer.

Another ridiculous drug policy.

Opium is considerably more dangerous than Ecstasy (which was noted as being 'no worse than horseback riding' by the head of Britain's drug advisory board).

Habitual use of ecstasy seems to have significant effects on the seratonin in the brain. Furthermore, dopamine receptor burnout is a real thing. Do enough ecstasy and you'll have a harder time enjoying yourself.

When you say "executive" do you mean "execute" or is this some other legal proceeding?

edit: thank you for the downvotes on a legitimate question?

Yeah , sorry , I meant "execute" . my android keyboard auto correct was fucked up.

A shrewd move if they do; significantly reducing use of the death penalty would significantly improve Iran's standing on human rights which would likely pay significant diplomatic dividends at zero strategic cost.

>The current regime already envisages the prescription of opium tincture to drug abusers registered at state addiction centres

It amazes me that that policy is not more widely adopted for opium / heroin. It stops addicts having to deal / steal to feed their habit and so the whole thing kind of dies out whereas otherwise it tends to grow exponentially. Seems a bit of a no brainer but it's only intermittently adopted. I see about 120 Americans a day are dying of heroin and going the prescription route would rapidly reduce that towards zero.

As I said in another comment I am from Iran.the thing you are talking about can have huge consequences for regime.(I mean really huge).if they do something like that it will have huge media attention in Iran.people will raise other demands.why not legalize alcoholic drinks?why government keep trying torture girls and boys who have sex outside of marriage in various way? All so many other question . I assure you.if regime agrees to something like that(which I don't think at all,there is no way absolutely). I assure you it is end of Islamic government.

Don't methadone clinics serve that exact purpose in America?

I suspect Canada is the next country to legalize cannabis.

Doubt it. It might not happen until well in Trudeau's term if it happens at all.

They have to create a regulatory framework and all the provinces will want to handle it differently. Ontario government will probably be selling it themselves like they do alcohol and since there's no suppliers of cannabis globally then they'll have to create the infrastructure to cultivate it.

I expect a long drawn out process.

What would happen if one province (like BC) just legalized it, similar to Washington and Colorado? Would Trudeau stop it?

Provinces in Canada don't have that kind of power. Canadian federalism is considered incomplete and is therefore not like the US.

They can just use the Beer Store or LCBO model. Done.

There's an oversupply of Cannabis in the west coast. Done.

Next?

Nothing stops Ontario from buying from B.C. or other existing culrivators of medical marijuana. Scaling these operations, and looking to Colorado as a model, will take a year or so to be sure. I suspect we should have legal weed in 18-24 months tops. Under a minority government, I would have agreed with you. But outside of dubious treaties, there isn't anything preventing this now.

I don't know, he seems to be a man of quick action. Word on the street is that he's already pulling Canada's fighter jets from the Syrian conflict.

And reassigning ground troops. It's just shuffling assets, not actually withdrawing from conflict.

After seeing the profits from e.g. Colorado, people might be more interested than you might think. :)

Interestingly, Iran is the only country in the world that allows its citizens to pay for someone to give up their kidney https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidney_trade_in_Iran.

By some accounts it works rather well, see http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2015/09/tina_rosenberg.html.

(It is true that they do allow other nationalities to pay for a kidney, however someone of their own nationality must give up the kidney, preventing at least some level of medical/tra splant tourism).

Opium (afeem) is something that is very prevalent in rural parts Iran, Pakistan. Cannabis (ganja) is something that is available easily too. It about time it is legalized and controlled.

Does the strictness of drugs law correlate with general political repression?

Some people suggest drugs are pushed by governments to pacify their populations, but I'm not aware of any governtments on the west's "bad-guy" list that take that approach. Would it actually work?

Could there be a worse way to write a headline than starting it with "could?"

The next country? I'd bet good money against that proposition.

How much? What odds do you offer?

At 1:1 I'd bet every dollar I have.

I'd be more interested if you would give at least 20:1 odds against it.

In any case, you should heed the Kelly criterion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_criterion).

I would still be pretty comfortable at 20:1, but I probably wouldn't bet very much since the payout is so small.

A theocracy is easier to maintain if your populace is stoned.

At first read, I read "stoned" literally, as in stoned to death as still performed to this day in Saudi Arabia.

And Iran. Iran in fact has the hugest rate of execution by stoning according to http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/special-rep...

Mostly they just use hanging though.

I find it sad that in this modern, politically correct world, no-one uses pulling apart by horses as an execution method anymore.

ISIS use "dragged to death behind Toyotas", will that do ?

http://www.zerocensorship.com/t/uncensored-isis-execution/18...

The only thing worse than this execution is reading the comments under that video.

Any citations or reading that supports this? I've always thought that cannabis lends itself to a freer thinking, it's often associated with more liberal attitudes.

I know plenty of stoned neonazis in Germany.

i think its a joke... if not then its just a stab at theocracy.

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