Marijuana on young women is not cool. The first two patrons in an establishment this morning were females. And besides smelling rank of weed and having dark lips and fingernails, these women definitely under the influence decided to verbally attack the attendants at the establishment. None of the four letter words we know were off limits for them. Then they walked out to a car and after a minute of getting in, you would have swore the inside of the car was on fire. but yet they have young children.

Decriminalizing yes...legalizing ..marijuana should not be rushed into..
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."and a quote from the new york times: . . "a better drug policy is one that actively discourages marijuana use as well as other recreational drug use, especially for youth. The aggressive commercialization of marijuana that is now rampant and still growing is particularly damaging to the public health because it markets marijuana and an array of increasingly potent products in ever more attractive ways that encourage marijuana use and frequent high-dose THC use. We are at a crossroads. Legalizing marijuana will have lasting negative effects on future generations. The currently legal drugs, alcohol and tobacco, are two of the leading causes of preventable illness and death in the country. Establishing marijuana as a third legal drug will increase the national drug abuse problem, including expanding the opioid epidemic."

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As licensed business institutions, the web shops should bring a class action lawsuit against the banks that refuse their money, if only for the hell of it. But why waste precious time that can be spent capturing a vast lucrative market. Apparently some people have no problem supporting crypto currencies that are popping up like gremlins, but they would like to put nails in the coffins of every web shop owner. BTW who won the 1/2 Billion lottery in the US and isn’t there a pending lawsuit?

and a quote from the new york times:
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***"a better drug policy is one that actively discourages marijuana use as well as other recreational drug use, especially for youth. The aggressive commercialization of marijuana that is now rampant and still growing is particularly damaging to the public health because it markets marijuana and an array of increasingly potent products in ever more attractive ways that encourage marijuana use and frequent high-dose THC use.
We are at a crossroads. Legalizing marijuana will have lasting negative effects on future generations. The currently legal drugs, alcohol and tobacco, are two of the leading causes of preventable illness and death in the country. Establishing marijuana as a third legal drug will increase the national drug abuse problem, including expanding the opioid epidemic."***

@ Porcupine: Marijuana has proven to be a gateway drug:

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"Marijuana Has Proven to Be a Gateway Drug
Robert L. DuPont
Robert L. DuPont is the president of the Institute for Behavior and Health and the first director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

updated april 26, 2016, 3:22 am

It should come as no surprise that the vast majority of heroin users have used marijuana (and many other drugs) not only long before they used heroin but while they are using heroin. Like nearly all people with substance abuse problems, most heroin users initiated their drug use early in their teens, usually beginning with alcohol and marijuana. There is ample evidence that early initiation of drug use primes the brain for enhanced later responses to other drugs. These facts underscore the need for effective prevention to reduce adolescent use of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana in order to turn back the heroin and opioid epidemic and to reduce burdens addiction in this country.

Establishing it as a third legal drug, along with tobacco and alcohol, will increase drug abuse, including the expanding opioid epidemic.
Marijuana use is positively correlated with alcohol use and cigarette use, as well as illegal drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine. This does not mean that everyone who uses marijuana will transition to using heroin or other drugs, but it does mean that people who use marijuana also consume more, not less, legal and illegal drugs than do people who do not use marijuana.

People who are addicted to marijuana are three times more likely to be addicted to heroin.

The legalization of marijuana increases availability of the drug and acceptability of its use. This is bad for public health and safety not only because marijuana use increases the risk of heroin use."
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2. No We do not grow enough food (maybe) for there to be an impact. If you read the post properly and keep everything in its context then you can see the article was not talking about Bahamian farmers. specifically. We do not grow much crops, but the people we import most of our food from does. And if their farmers chose to grow weed instead of food, the impact will be worldwide. Then you must also think of other countries like Brazil, Argentina and even Austrailia.. if they switch even portions of their farms to marijuana cultivation...imagine a world with a lot of weed to smoke
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3. Since there were no ethanol or renewable fuels in commercial quantaties 30 years ago so your comment about the post not being current is moot or even ignorant. unintelligent even.

And despite several political leaders goosing the government to do so The Bahamas does not need to be on any first flight to any where to legalize marijuana and definitely not look it immediately as s commercial opportunity. In fact the country must first concern itself with problems the legalization of marijuana can bring. Firstly there can be a severe food shortage and/or inflation of food prices as farmers abandon traditional crops for the more lucrative marijuana. Consider growing animal fodder at a few hundred, maybe a thousand dollars a ton as opposed to weed at several million dollars. The same will be true for ethanol and plant based renewable fuels. Secondly the full legalization of marijuana in the USA and Canada can create more drug trafficking problems for the Bahamas. The way the laws are being drafted, marijuana can only be cultivated , sold and consumed in the states in which licensees have permits to grow or sell. So in essence you cannot fly to California, buy a tone of weed then fly back to your home state to smoke it. Likewise these legal states cannot (at least not yet) import drugs from the Bahamas or from Mexico or even from another state. Even some counties within a state have not legalized weed and don’t want it and are crying out to the US Federal government to assist in policing. So the marijuana in Mexico and Colombia and Jamaica will try find ways to get their products to market. Then even when marijuana becomes legal there will have to be a clear definition of what is marijuana and what is legal. There are hundreds of variants of cannabis, and hybrids, and some many multiple times more potent than the original. Also what additive will be legal. Some marijuana is laced with cocaine or other substances to make it more potent and more addictive and drug dealers even apply embalming fluid to dried up or ‘dead’ weed to make it sellable. And, of course, marijuana as a gateway drug leading to The consumption of stronger and more dangerous drugs.

Remember when Bahamians bought cars in Miami and it would reach here without an engine or some other major part missing. Remember when persons bought TVs in Florida and when they opened the box for customs it had concrete blocks instead of a tv. And Miami is right there. Even though there have been worse things done to persons from other Caribbean countries and South America who shopped in Florida. Now to trust sending your money all the way across to the other side of the world and to hope something comes back. Something of value and something that resembles what you ordered. And while there have been some serious ripoffs and disappointments, the satisfaction rate among persons ordering vehicles from Japan is very high. Especially among those who purchased from companies that have proven reputations and set their own standards for exports to ensure consumers don’t ‘get no junk.’

And so TRUMP did an about face on his campaign promise to leave legal marijuana up to the states. He now wants the federal government to enforce laws that make marijuana use illegal anywhere in the USA
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"By katy steinmetz January 4, 2018
Dispensary owners and cannabis growers may suddenly be sleeping more restlessly.

Though setting up a pot shop has always been an uncertain business, memos issued by the Department of Justice under President Obama gave people in the industry some assurance that if they were abiding by state laws, they were at small risk of federal prosecution. But on Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded those memos, allowing federal prosecutors to enforce federal marijuana laws more aggressively and sending ripples of unease throughout the burgeoning industry.

“***A lot of folks in the business and broader society didn’t realize how tenuous the Obama Administration’s safe space was,” says the California Growers Association’s Hezekiah Allen, who represents hundreds of cannabis farmers in a state where recreational pot went on sale for the first time just four days ago. As more states have legalized marijuana and more people have publicly set up marijuana businesses, Allen says, “there is much more exposure to risk than there ever has been.”***
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. Most likely Trump is again hitting out at Barak Obama's successes and is pandering to his rich buddies in the liquor and tobacco industries.

The only way for the Bahamian economy to recover is for the retail sector to recover and banks must start lending again. There is too much money sitting up in bank vaults that need to be circulating through the economy. BUT as more and more persons find jobs over the next few months, consumer confidence has to be restored. Past experience has many Bahamians thinking of banks as big, bad wolves baiting them to make one bad move so they can gobble them up financially. So while many may say yes to high interest consumer loans and credit cards that they can easily dispense of, Bahamians are wary of mortgages and even car loans. They have learned to save and buy Japanese cars for cash. And while some say BoB is a failed bank, it is more a bank that was raped repeatedly by politicians and cronies. The bank was profitable until that burden became too much to bear. And yes, talk is cheap because persons are gobbling up BoB shares as soon as they become available, despite the noise in the market In fact there are no sellers and the buyers list is as long as the sellers list was a few months ago. A BoB recovery will put more pressure on the Canadian banks.

More problems for Apple and the IPhone. With sales for thevIPhone 8 and iphone x being below projections, Apple has admitted that all its products are affected by a chip flaw that makes the products suspectable to begin hacked. Currently Apple says it is too expensive to replace all the chips and the company is looking for a software fix.