Apps And Web: Between Fear and Possibilities
The battle Netsdrop is fighting in California is causing a lot of discussions among the experts within the cannabis field. If we consider both apps and websites (like http://greenhouseseeds.nl/), it is quite impossible to deny that cannabis has officially entered the web…of the Web. But what does it mean, and what do people are saying about it?
On one hand, there are scholars who believe that apps like Netsdrop are doing nothing but making the legalization battle harder. Why? Because they add a huge “no-no”variable to the equation: the fact that apps can easily be accessed by young people. This, of course, is a good point that goes back to one of biggest fears of the many conservative actors who are actively fighting against cannabis legalization: teenage smoking. However, especially thanks to what’s happening in Colorado, we now have enough data to claim that teenage smoking is not exactly a direct consequence of availability. As a matter of fact, since cannabis has become legal, the number of teenage smokers in Colorado has not significantly increased. What does that mean? It has been suggested that teenage smoking, just like any other subversive activity a teenager “has” to experience in order to test his/her own independence, is directly related to illegality. In other words, teenagers smoke also – not only, but also – because it is “illegal”, “wrong”…etc. Interesting theory!
On the other hand, institutions have been claiming that both websites and apps are bad: because, how do you keep things under control when people can buy pot online? Once again, this is a fair point. Still, internet and smartphones do exist, and people do use them. Do we really think we can stop the Internet? Or should we actually look at the opportunities that websites and apps like Netsdrop offer? Think about how much easier it is to keep under control those who sell and buy pot online, when the websites and the apps are not produced by some obscure individual but by a regulated, official company. Plus, studies have demonstrated, over and over again, that people tend to choose the legal path, if that path is available. This is just another chance to offer people what they already want: legal pot, and the chance to buy it on the web.
Let’s give Netsdrop a chance, and let’s give ourselves a chance: apps and websites have already changed our lives, and they will soon change the way in which we think about cannabis.
