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I've read so much hand-wringing German coverage of this issue, and while sometimes comparisons are made to other countries, it's almost never mentioned that cannabis has been legal for half of the US population for years now, and the sky hasn't fallen.

The system set up by this law is extremely dumb, but at least small home grows are legal, and the government is still exploring a path to commercial sales that would be compliant with EU law.




It’s been (effectively) legal in neighboring Netherlands for even longer


As far as I know the Netherlands only legalized consumption and sale, but not production? Which just lead to higher demand for products what were still largely supplied by criminal groups.


Possession is still technically illegal, tho it hasn't been enforced since the 1970s.

That said, since December 2023 there has been fully legally-produced cannabis on the Dutch market. While media tends to call it "state weed" ("staatswiet"), it's not nationalized, it's just licensed production. Currently it's only available in a number of cities, chiefly in the South of the country, but more cities should be onboarded onto the system this year.


Cannabis is still illegal for 100% of the US population under federal law.


What does that mean in practice? It's legal in California, but the FBI might arrest you if you go to Yosemite National Park with cannabis?


And airports and other places that are nominally under federal control. That said, airports generally care more about bombs and hard drugs, but the risk is higher than a bottle of bourbon.

It's also still a disqualifier for federal employment.


For a start it means no bank can legally lend you money for your cannabis business or they would be subject to prosecution.


A cursory google search shows that as a result of that stipulation there are in fact financing packages or lenders that acknowledge the risk and seek to meet that demand.


Comment made little sense to me so I looked it up: "hand-wringing: an overwrought expression of concern or guilt" (Merriam Webster)

TIL this is the polar opposite from the Dutch expression to rub your hands together which means "being happy about a success; being content; expressing happiness" (Ensie, translated by me)

Asking my german partner, they say it's a thing you'd do when plotting something evil, so more negative than positive I guess, but there is no expression to go with it like "hand wringing" or "in de handen wrijven" are common expressions. I would subscribe to it being a plotting thing in Dutch as well, but that also doesn't work with the US English definition and the way that you used it

Do people from the USA also use it this way in a physical sense, rubbing hands together when they are concerned or feeling guilty or is it just an artifact of history similar to "hanging up" a phone? In the Netherlands I've definitely seen rubbing hands for excitement


There is the expression in English, rubbing your/their hands with glee. All context dependent as for the physicality. Someone holding their hands tightly and rubbing them might be nervous for example. Someone fast moving them but not cold could be more joyous.


A slight addendum from another German: we have the adjective "händeringend", which is the verbatim translation of "hand wringing-ly". It's usually not used in a negative, scheming connotation, though - if you look/search for something "händeringend", your are desperately looking for that something.

The actual act of wringing your hands is associated with generic Bond villains, though.

Language is weird.




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