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

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Yep. You're looking at a different side of the question than I am, so it's quite reasonable that you might be coming up with a different answer.

Obviously, someone who smokes around their kid is not going to stop because the penalties are less severe. The worry would be -- are there people who are going to START smoking around their kids if the penalties are less severe?

And I can only make wild speculations about what that would do to your work. I'd guess that, since it is still illegal, it wouldn't affect your work THAT much . . . but I don't know that, and you'd be in a much better position to guess than I would.

As a bartender, I like people to have the right to use certain mind-altering chemicals recreationally. That's my job, after all. But I'm also deeply aware that the mind-altering chemical I work with is probably the one which causes the most damage that YOU work with.

That influences how I look at this question, too. My job is providing alcohol, recreationally. Alcohol is the drug which causes the most damage to families. Marijuana is a far less damaging drug -- but it still causes damage. And it's more illegal than alcohol.

That's an imbalance. I want to see that imbalance rectified by moving the legal status of marijuana closer to that of alcohol, rather than by moving alcohol closer to marijuana -- because the latter situation would put me out of a career that I love.

But you deal with a different part of the system, and your perspective will probably be different.

Here's the question I hear you asking: How many people are CURRENTLY deterred from using pot in ways that will negatively affect their families, who will NO LONGER BE deterred if the penalties of posession are reduced?

My gut feeling is that the number of such people is very small. I suspect that the people whose pot use is going to harm their families are people whose decision-making is already skewed enough that the criminal penalties aren't affecting their choices very much.

But then, I WOULD have that gut feeling. Having that gut feeling fits right in with the course of action I already have decided I want to take. You've dealt with people in that situation more than I have, and have a better perspective to know if that's true.

[alaria-lyon.livejournal.com]

Thank you for putting my thoughts in order. You've helped alot!

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome.