system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI: Difference between "legal" and "decriminalized"?

I just read in another thread how marijuana in the Netherlands is not legal, but decriminalized. What is the difference?
gpt
Decriminalized means you aren't arrested for doing that thing.  You could still be fined potentially.  So if marijuana is decriminalized than simple possession is unlikely to cause any problems, but if you are smoking it publicly you may be stopped from doing so by a police office, and issued a ticket (for example).