this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
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[–] [email protected] 90 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Finland is wrong.

"Often unenforced"

Who the fuck made this inforgraphic?

Finnish cops are obsessive over fighting cannabis, and in practice even having a single joint on you will lead to a criminal record, and not for just "personal use" or "possession" but the same crime you'd be charged with if you grow 27 plants at home.

And yes, I've personal experience on both, as well as several dozens of other examples, documented and otherwise.

Finnish drug laws are just as archaic as others, and the cops attitude and understanding is way worse than in most European countries.

It's ridiculous.

So yeah, Finland is definitely wrong, fucking hell.

[–] garfaagel 42 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Who the fuck made this inforgraphic?

It's from Wikipedia. Admittedly, I didn't do much fact-checking and just trusted it. But of course you can always contribute by improving the map.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 8 months ago (5 children)

It's like the "happiest country on Earth" bullshit.

Yes, Wikipedia is right that technically there is a way for police to not enforce the law when it comes to personal amounts of cannabis, but in practice that never happens, and the cops make even the smallest bit of weed be a "proper" drug crime. Medical use is technically legal, yeah, but there's like at most a dozen people in the country, and most doctors would never ever even consider cannabis to be medicine, and even tiny use admitted to a doctor might lead to a loooot of discriminatory bullshit.

Basically the education material for the police and the doctors seems to have been "reefer madness".

Just google "police prevented filming" in Finnish, "poliisi esti kuvaaamisen", and see how many articles come up where you're not allowed to even film protests or even when the police conduct a search at your home, you're not allowed to film that, according to the police.

I had to set them straight about that.

https://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/art-2000009654524.html

That's an article from when the police illegally searched my apartment and prevented me from filming them by grabbing my phone away from me. The supreme court decided they were wrong. But for 90% of the things they did wrong that day, the grabbing of my phone was the only thing I got them on, because I still had the clip of them actually grabbing the phone.

Finnish cops are undereducated authoritarians. Good in comparison to other countries police in a lot of things, but still not something to be desired when it comes to cannabis and matters of personal rights.

So even though I know the map is wrong, Wikipedia wouldn't allow me to change it because on paper there's a reference to a possibility of not being charged for personal use, even though that never gets utilised in practice.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Wow. The map doesn't even match their own table underneath it (check out the UK, which is yellow in the table and dark red in the map).

[–] EmoDuck 28 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Is Antarctica really "unknown"? The closest there is to antarctic law would be international treaties and they are mostly about nuclear weapons and oil drilling.

I feel like if you are willing to live in a frozen hellscape you should be able to smoke whatever you want

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago

Since there isn't a legal structure it falls in the default 'unlnown' category because legality doesn't apply.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

From what I've heard in the past the laws scientists follow are enforced administratively by their country. So while scientists for X country could smoke, an American scientist would be sent home for it. (But not charged with a crime)

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The Ununited States of America

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Legal, but often enforced.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The USA map needs lines at state borders to remind us that the state border itself is a federal thing and one can definitely be pinched by the wrong cop at the wrong time.

..or so I read. Check it out for yourself. It's a fun game!

[–] TopRamenBinLaden 5 points 8 months ago

I don't know why you got downvoted, but I know someone who recently got a pretty big ticket for a few grams of weed at a border checkpoint between two completely legal states, so you are correct.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Welcome to Germany in blue since yesterday! Interestingly buying and selling it is still not allowed. You can grow up to three plants for own use

I would expect or at least hope Denmark will follow suit.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (10 children)

buying and selling it is still not allowed.

That's somewhat misleading. It is allowed in the form of non-profit clubs ~~selling~~ giving to members who pay a membership fee for personal use. It's just commercial sale that's banned.

Edit to correct the above statement and to add that the clubs are only gonna be legal in July.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Not quite accurate. Selling is still illegal, even for the clubs. You pay a monthly fee to the club and the club is giving you a monthly allowance of up to 50g.

Yes, this is selling with extra steps but it circumvents EU stuff about not being allowed to commercialise cannabis.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago (7 children)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The law has been changed literally today. I am surprised this infographic got it right.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 months ago

I would think it is reason they posted it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It is very limited though. I would consider Germany more on the decriminalized side.

You are allowed to own a small amount. You are allowed to grow up to three plants at home. It is illegal to buy, sell, or import.

There is rules for having cannabis social clubs similiar to Spain, but the rules around them are quite complex and a lot of it remains unclear, until the law will have been interpreted in court decisions.

Some German states have already announced that they will make life hell for anyone smoking weed in legal public spaces or operating a legal cannabis social club. Also the level of permittable THC for driving is still undecided.

Currently any level of blood THC is considered a DUI and can not only get you a fine, but also a suspension of your drivers licencse with an extensive "medical psychological check up" if you want to regain your licencse. That "check up" is run by private businesses who also sell courses on which answers are right and which are wrong. Basically anything beyond "this was the only time i swear, i was in a bad place and i should have never done it and i am so sorry, and i will never do it again" is a wrong answer.

Now we had an expert proposal for a higher level of permittable blood THC. The proposed level has yet to pass but it would effectively be fine for occasional users, but still a problem for regular users, as it is close to the baseline THC level that they have.

So all in all it is a great step forward, especially considering how the "debate" from the political right and fascists was run around 1970s war on drug prohibition and cultural deprevation talking points. However it still creates many aspects to watch out for and it should be noted, that the political right wants to do everything to reverse the laws, when they likely win the elections next year. The problem with that is also that the center right social democrats are still internally devided, with many of them still thinking of weed as the devils lettuce.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 months ago

Mexico is wrong. Supreme Court approved to make it legal in 2021 but no laws have been written (and it doesn't work like in the US were the SCOTUS makes it legal automatically)

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The UK should probably be pink not red.

The police actually wanted to legalize it but the government refused to. They even fired their advisor when he said that cannabis isn't really that bad and probably shouldn't be an illegal substance. The UK government is awful and corrupt as hell.

So it's still illegal but the police very rarely actually do anything about possession. They may take it off you but it's not going to result in any legal action.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Virginia is wrong. It is not illegal to have on you, but there is no way set up to sell recreationally legally. The medical market got its claws in and is holding on tight.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

tfw México has more freedom than tejas

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Fucking Canberra has it but not the rest of us

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

It’s illegal in Jamaica?!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yup. But, the thing about laws in the third world is that they only kind-of exist.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

They exist for sure if you're a tourist. You're either a payday for a local cop or an example to be trotted out as proof they enforce those laws. The latter is so a higher up can divert DEA funding into their bank account.

Obviously that's not every developing country, maybe not even most. But unless you're very familiar with the country and area, it's not a risk you should take.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Given that weed is now legal for medicinal use, there's been a lot less enforcement here in NZ.

Mostly, at the outset cops have no way of knowing if you have a prescription or not, and asking if it's a suitable prescription is a pretty big no-no.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

brazil can probably be pink instead of red if you are not poor or not black

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Thailand can be taken off this list. New conservative govt made it illegal again.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Why does the KKKeast hate a plant so much?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Thailand has decided that they will be going backwards next year. What are the two micronations in the Pacific?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What's with the tiny blue dot in Australia

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (2 children)

That appears to be the Australian Capital Territory. Being from the US, I'm going to assume Canberra has a separate jurisdiction from surrounding states, like Washington DC

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

There's no sane reason for this except to stand in awe of the reach of Western conservatism.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

sees the whole world doing something

Look how the West has influenced the world!

I think this more of an indication that conservatism is not a strictly Western thing.

[–] r_se_random 5 points 7 months ago

I'll recommend reading up on the history of cannabis bans. There were multiple countries which were coersed into criminalising marijuana to open trade with America. Don't remember if that was Raegan or Nixon.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Dprk says unknown and while i couldnt tell you the legality on paper, its sold in stores and pretty easy to obtain. I think its usually leaf not flower though?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Since germany is blue on the map and its only legal here from today on, i dont think it is an old, out of date map. But maybe the information for some Other country is just wrong?

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