What you are talking about vicar, and alien are so called gateway drugs.

Most gateway drugs must have a strong physical addiction potential, or because they are extremely easy to get. And most important it depends on when you are starting with substances which could lead to addiction.
And then number one gateway drug[s] are alcohol and tobacco.

As most kids experiment with these two early on, then the way is paved.

Weed comes in [usually] at a later age, at which you should have already physically and psychologically learned, how to say no.

Otherwise, how is it that states with open cannabis laws, have a lower addiction rate for harder drugs?

In my opinion alcohol and nicotine are the worst of all drugs and gateway drugs.

If you are talking crime, then legalizing the ones that do less harm than the legal drugs, is a necessary step.

Tax alcohol 300%, tobacco 800% and state grown cannabis, peyote, mushrooms at Value Added Tax and 300% if it's blended in with tobacco. And you will see, less barfights, domestic violence, rape, murder, drug sales, vs. increases in consumption of cartoons and animations, boosting the snacks industry, music awareness, camping, et cetera. Lol

Alcohol is a nerve toxin. THC isn't.

In general people wanna get high, always get high.

Is there any person ever getting robbed for weed? The purse snatching story is more in the line of alcohol, meth or crack.

The best way is to stay away form any substances that alter your state of mind, ...if you can.

War on drugs has always failed and will always fail.
Humans are crazy about getting high, for whatever reasons.

It's just about choosing your drug.

Sport, coffee, tea, alcohol, chocolate, tobacco, sex, talking crap in forums and chat lines, there is nothing people can't get addicted to.

And people will always get high if they want to.

So decriminalizing, prevention, education is the way to go.
State controlled outlets for drugs, addicts get free and clean needles, and check ups for typical drug fiend diseases.

Holland has worked fine, and so are Canada, and most of the states in the US, as far as you can say over the short period of time.

The judicial system get's relieved over something it cannot stop anyway.
Taking care of the hard drug users and addicts, and education and prevention from the taxes on legal drugs, and you have a good chance to succeed.

China is playing USA in the 1980's, a few crop incentives won't help, while people are being thrown in jail over smoking a bit of pot, or taking XTC. But hopefully they will see the stupidity of it.

@vicar
It's incorrect weed or soft drugs don't lead to addiction or demand for harder drugs.
It's an individual problem, some people take heroin, once and never feel like taking drugs again. Some drink a few drinks and soon are hitting it hard.

There is no rule or solution for personal addiction.

Great! Thanks for putting it up.

Do they also accept scooter and e-bike parts?

I mean not through Salvador, perhaps. I guess they wouldn't like their café to be an 'old scooter storage'.

But since every idiot is hailing Tesla's and e-mobility, and forgetting that they riding toxic waste and mountains of carbon fumes around, it would be worth knowing how to at least get rid of the old batteries and e-parts,....-properly!

I don't have much sympathy for the shop owners. I agree with Haali, Mike and Tiger.

They sell cheap taobao, crap for up to 500% its value, most stuff has nothing to do with Lijiang and 5 drum shops on 200meters of road is a bit overkill.

None of the stuff ever sold in China, is by customer demand. Some Dongbei bloke, thinks Lijiang needs fake African drums, and shiny toy drones, so they open 60 shops in the old town, because they have money. And think the more annoying, loud and screamy advertisement you have the more people buy.

All others investors, due to lack of creativity, will open shops with the exact same product, in 30 shops of their own, in Chinese, then it's called cultural preservation. No shop owner in Lijiang is local. The locals all rent out, cause they can make tons of money. They don't give a crap. If you own property in the old town, you are rich.

Lijiang and Dali = greed, from all sides.

The tourists buy the crap that is offered, cos they have no idea, what is local culture....hence China not having any real culture left, after the Revolution....

So welcome to Yunnan Disneyland.

For all I care, charge 500RMB each time you enter the old town, 1000RMB if you must.
Let the shops go out of business, I rather see a run down but original old town, than that freak show.

I don't go there anyway, I rather go to small village guesthouses, in the area, and spend my money on hiking, good local food and relaxation, rather then squeezing through million of tourists, on roads that are barely big enough to let squirrels pass.

Lijiang and Dali were once really beautiful spots. Now they are just money laundering and cash mills. The real China is never found in touristy old town.

@scally
The article is great and thanks for putting it back into the view of the public. Yeah that girl and her lawyer, really have balls, to go against the people convicting her.

But these people don't like to be messed with. They will probably put her against bars again.

But I hope they also try to find the murderer, otherwise there is still a babykiller on the loose. See Steven Avery.