Binglang has terrible effects on health and the environment yet still legal. There isn’t much logic with their policies.
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It’s also a moral panic issue that politicians want to stay away from, like gay marriage, until gay marriage wasn’t
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A court ruling forced them to change the law because punishment did not fit the crime.
Not because they were reasonable.
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I didnt say that. Gain asked why it is exciting. It’s exciting because it remains as progress.
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Yes, I mean they could have made the change without their hand being forced.
They could have. But at least the judges are reasonable.
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We know ‘progress’ from experience.
Progress is exciting
You can be salty all you want. But I am in favour of taking objective wins when we get them and dishing praise when real progress is attained.
It doesn’t mean to stop pushing for the goal but salty sulking is unproductive.
Going to stick my neck out here but as someone that has lived in probably the most liberal pro-pot nation and the most anti-drug nation, I rather like that Taiwan comes down hard on drugs and laws are so tough here. A father can take his children to a public park and not be surrounded by puffs of weed or drug wrappers littering the ground like is the case in the EU or Canada. Sure I have to deal with public dancing aunties here instead but I would take them over the 420 blazers in my home nation.
I definitly subscribe to the argument that if there is a demand for drugs then drugs and drug abuse will exist despite tough laws. But Taiwan and China are different because there is no mainstream drug culture here like there is in the west, so there is no real demand apart from a tiny slice of westerners and ABT’s. Your average Taiwanese probably views drug dealers as on par with terrorists, this is in part due to Qing china and the early republican period having the worst drug crisis in recorded history like earlier posts have mentioned.
I personally view non-synthetic cannabinoids and natural stuff as on par with alcohol. But for me any relaxation of any laws is just too big a risk to take, I see it as a worrysome first step to importing western drug culture here and all the issues that come with it (but drug culture is probably another topic for another thread). IMO the government should go the other way and crack down harder on beetlenuts and people that drink drive.
Not even close. Unless you smoke as much as Bob Marley, the chances of getting cancer from ganja is very slim.
This is way off base. Taiwan has a highly developed drug culture–I’m talking about locals, not Westerners and ABCs. It’s just not as out in the open as in some places. Use of amphetamines, ketamine, various club drugs is rampant.
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Young TW do a lot of pills, MDMA, stimulants, meds for recreation. I wouldn’t assume they all hate drugs or retain a mindset from the Qing dynasty towards them.
Its definitely still taboo to discuss unlike the West but I wouldn’t underestimate their demand
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This may help explain the government’s attitude, but not the attitude toward drugs of your average young person.
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I also think weed being seriously prohibited in TW leads to other harder drug use instead since pills are so easy to obtain there. if It were up to me I’d decriminalize weed but crack down really hard on synthetic drugs.
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USA already imprisons far more people in total number and per capita. Their productivity must take a big hit but the US has no desire to lower this number in any meaningful way. Because besides weed there are already so much stuff that are criminalized that even if all the weed related criminals are released, they will find other ways to imprison other people on other laws.
Taiwan doesn’t imprison nearly that many total people or per capita.
Penalty for smoking pot is already pretty low here. First time offender goes to rehab but it does not appear on their criminal record. The harsh penalty is on growing/importing/selling. But then it’s all down to prosecutors if they want to charge growing a couple of plants as manufacture or possession/use. Second time offender gets less time than stealing o bikes it seems. 3 years max.
But Taiwanese are conservative as hell and I don’t know how we can sell this to voters. Best we can hope for is reduction of penalties or even reclassification into lower tier drugs. No idea why is Ecstasy is lower category even though it’s a much worse drug. Those party drugs are very popular in Taiwan by the way possibly because of less harsh penalty.
China doesn’t care about Taiwan being relaxed on pot if they take over this island. All they gotta do is execute weed dealers in public and people will stop.
I suspect it’s an idea that has been mainly spread through higher education. Not sure if that is changing though.
Given Taiwan’s highly developed drug market, I’d have to say yes.
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The US is already the most powerful market in the world.
Taiwan is the one that needs to buff its strength to resist chinese aggression.
Taiwan does not have maniacal judges that are sitting there being bloodthirsty wondering how they could put people into cages.
Don’t need to sell this to voters. That’s the beauty of liberal society. You do what you want and I do what I want as long as what we want doesn’t interfere or violate other people’s human rights.
It’s about the things that add up. Weed legalisation is an act of sovereignty that even Chinese can participate in. It makes it more undeniable. If entrenched, it makes taiwan a bit more unpalatable. Not everything is black and white. It’s about taking actions to push further away from China.
All you need is to get president vegetable to force it through… like she did with same sex marriage.