[scarface74]

Yes and forcing people to show ID has really stopped underaged drinking and making drugs illegal have stopped people from smoking weed.

[Brendinooo]

There's plenty of room between "unrestricted" and "stopped".

You're not arguing that "laws don't actually do anything", right?

[yamtaddle]

"These are very effective but not perfectly effective" is the lamest possible "gotcha!" in these kinds of discussions.

[scarface74]

https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/health-effects/teens.html

> In 2019, 37% of US high school students reported lifetime use of marijuana and 22% reported use in the past 30 days.1 Past-year vaping of marijuana also remained steady in 2020 following large increases in 2018 and 2019. However, large percentages of middle and high school students reported past-year marijuana vaping—8% of eighth graders, 19% of 10th graders, and 22% of 12th graders.

[yamtaddle]

I remember those surveys. I did so much meth.

[scarface74]

You really don’t think a lot of teenagers are smoking weed?

[yamtaddle]

> Yes and forcing people to show ID has really stopped underaged drinking and making drugs illegal have stopped people from smoking weed.

> Past-year vaping of marijuana also remained steady in 2020 following large increases in 2018 and 2019.

I've got a guess about why the number might be rising, and it rhymes with "egalization", in which case, yes, making drugs illegal reduced use of drugs. I guarantee fewer people in general, including fewer kids, smoked when it was illegal, and less was consumed overall. I'd further bet there's a lot less pot consumption by kids now, than there would be if dispensaries didn't verify age.

But I also suspect it's just kinda hard to get clean data about teen drug use. I'd also guess the real figures are extremely uneven (that "8% of eighth graders", if accurate, probably means 20% some places and 2% in others) and high use correlates to places where it's easy to get, which supports the notion that carding or outlawing should reduce use (since they make it harder to get).

(Nb. I'm pro-legalization, I just think carding and outlawing almost certainly strongly curb use, though of course they don't stop it completely, and I think "this wasn't perfectly effective, so it's necessarily useless" isn't a strong point in most situations)

[George83728]

Laws against murder haven't stopped murder, so I guess those laws are useless.

Gun control laws? Japan's ex-PM got blown away by a wacko with a homemade shotgun, so I guess gun control laws just don't work. Nevermind the rate of gun violence in Japan.. it's all or nothing.

[monetus]

This doesn't directly add to or take from your point, because obviously laws have a purpose -

that assassin was motivated by an extreme religious affiliation to the lawmakers. There is irony here.

[George83728]

I'm not seeing the irony, unless you believe that opposition to pornography being available to kids must necessarily have a religious motive. I oppose it, and I am an atheist.

[monetus]

It doesn't have to for anyone, but does in this instance as the lawmakers in question are motivated by their affiliation with a religion.