Hunh. That's a darned good question . . . how much IS an ounce of marijuana anyway?

[xiphias]

Ballot Question 2 in Massachusetts would turn possession of 1 oz or less of marijuana from a criminal offense to a civil offense.

Someone on my friends list, who is working out how she wants to vote, asked, "So, how much IS that, anyway? How many joints do you make from an ounce of marijuana?"

I realized that I have no clue, and that that could really be a significant question . . .

I did some Google searches, and what I turned up suggested that perhaps an ounce would be as much as a single pot smoker could reasonably be expected to consume in a week, but I don't know that for sure.

So . . . I'm pretty darned certain that SOME of you would have a better feel for this than I would. As always, anonymous commenting is allowed; IP tracking is off; if you don't want to explain how you know stuff, feel free not to explain.

But . . . how many joints are in an ounce? How many people would consume an ounce? How long would it take one casual user to go through an ounce, a heavy user, an occasional user?

I mean, I don't assume that there would be a one single answer -- I assume that there are lots of variables, from type of weed to type of smoker to all sorts of things -- but I just want a ballpark order-of-magnitude thing. Would one ounce make one joint? Would one ounce make a thousand joints? I have no way of knowing.

Comments

[ron_newman]

Does it matter, though? I'd vote for this even if it said 16 ounces of marijuana.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Not to me, it doesn't. But I'm in favor of legalization, not merely decriminalization. A fair number of people, perhaps a third of Massachusetts, would prefer to see dealing marijuana remain a crime, but reduce the smackdown on the end-user to a civil offense. If the amount of marijuana that is exempted is a reasonable amount for an end user, that's one thing. If it's a terribly small trivial amount that nobody would ever have that little, that's another. And if it's a huge amount that someone would only carry if they were supplying a whole lot of other people, that's a third.

And I don't know whether "an ounce" is a tiny little bit, a medium amount, or a huge whole lot.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

If you decriminalize use, but maintain the criminal penalties for dealing, you have a market that it is illegal to supply. That will serve to make dealing more lucrative. More buyers, more money, more attractive, still criminal. That's a recipie for some real violence.

I'm not saying it's not a step in the right direction, it's just that it may be a painful step, and not a good place to pause for very long.