Writes the Editorial Board of The Washington Post, in "A dispute over marijuana smoke raises questions for D.C. — and beyond."
Of course, it's not just the smell. As a person with a very reduced sense of smell, I'd say that smell is usually bothersome because it's information about the quality of the air you are breathing. Being deprived of that information is unsettling, because I'm less able to protect myself from bad air.
Anyway... isn't the answer here obvious? Polluting the air with smoke is just plain bad. There should be strong rules and strong social pressure against smoking. It's unhealthy. You can consume marijuana in ways other than smoking. We spent decades fighting against tobacco smoke. There's no reason to treat marijuana smoke as less noxious than tobacco smoke. It's 100% unacceptable to inflict marijuana smoke on other people.
Posts
48 comments:
Potheads don’t realize how stinky their habit is. Last time I was in Denver it was intolerable
Reminds me a bit of the barbecue place that was driven off Willy Street in Madison because of all the vegan neighbors complaining about the smell.
I bet people who live near dairy or pig farms are laughing at the snowflakes who cannot stand a little smell. There are million dollar homes in Dane County that cannot use their yards during weeks when manure is spread, doubt they will ever get these smell rules applied for them.
"But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned"
"There's no reason to treat marijuana smoke as less noxious than tobacco smoke. It's 100% unacceptable to inflict marijuana smoke on other people."
Not entirely true. Cigarette smoke came from evil capitalist cancer-merchant cigarette manufacturers like Phillip Morris and RJ Reynolds with fat-cat Republican supporting white men producing billions of dollars in raw profit from baby boomers
Marijuana smoke comes from awesome dude-bro socialist-adjacent marijuana communal start-ups with a DEI ethical mission plan run by fat-cat Democrat-leaning white men producing billions of dollars in raw profit from the stifled ambitions of zillenials.
See? Big difference.
@ Mark. I grew up on a dairy farm. I can handle manure. Pot smoke simply reeks and in some places it is everywhere
Dylan in 1986: "'Everybody must get stoned' is like when you go against the tide ... you might in different times find yourself in an unfortunate situation and so to do what you believe in sometimes ... some people they just take offense to that. You can look through history and find that people have taken offense to people who come out with a different viewpoint on things."
Another idea is to rescind the prohibition on smoking in public spaces,
serious questions, that can NOT be answered; because the studies aren't done*..
Which is worse for you? tobacco smoking or pot smoking?
Which is worse for you? secondhand tobacco smoke or second hand pot smoke?
Since the studied aren't done (and WON'T be done), you have to ask yourself. Which is worse?
The studies aren't done* marijuana remains a schedule one drug (or such?), which means: it is close to impossible to perform research on it.
EVEN IF the drug was rescheduled there would be NO MONEY for research, so the research STILL would not be done
When my neighbor smokes a cigarette the smell wafts past and is gone. When he smokes a joint a heavy cloud lingers. It's an oppressive, overpowering annoyance. Luckily, he rarely gets high. I don't know what I'd do if he were a pothead.
And the other neighbor sits on his porch in the evening and smokes his pipe. It's a delightful scent.
Indeed. I never understood why we got rid of cigarette smoke in public places only to replace it with foul smelling marijuana.
Can’t walk in a city without smelling the noxious skunk of pot. Killed any desire I have to live in a city.
Pot is sacred now, like tattoos, trans and dogs. Nothing bad about any of those you bigot!
Don't knock the Precious!
Well, you know, hot garbage, piss, human feces, smells from open kitchens and pot.
"It seems like everyone is smoking a joint now"
What does Science say about the long-term effects?
And this is the country that's going to stand up to the Chinese, right?
Some have proposed social consumption spaces — 'analogous to a bar or a restaurant'...
...or opium den.
Some have proposed social consumption spaces — 'analogous to a bar or a restaurant'...
...or crack house.
There should be strong rules and strong social pressure against smoking.
Are you suggesting single, uniform standards that apply to all people, equal justice under law?
Sorry, wrong century.
I do not wish to drive a car while stoned from second hand marijuana smoke, nor do I wish to leave my car behind and have to pay a taxi to take me home and then another to take me back to retrieve my car the next day. Nor do I want to pay the difference between an hour and a half parking and overnight charges.
The editorial inadvertently exposes how narrow and privileged the writer's life is. DC sidewalks already reek of pot smoke. The DC Metrorail smells of pot smoke. My secure federal building smells of pot smoke inside, because people sit around smoking it outside.
There's also a divide as far as who smokes pot at home and who smokes it in public. In DC that divide manifests as racial, but I think it may actually be a class division that looks racial because of DC's demographics. Maybe that would change with full legalization; I don't know. But it makes it more difficult to talk about.
I was wondering if you were going to get to that last paragraph. I have been pounding the table on that since the beginning. Thank you.
Amsterdam is not worth visiting anymore because of the cloud of marijuana smoke hanging over the old town from outdoor pot smoking, the trash littered everywhere by the potheads and the urine smell from potheads relieving themselves on the streets. Pot smoking is not a "no harm" activity to those who are not potheads, including businesses with outdoor venues. If you want to destroy a town's ambience and economy just liberalize pot smoking in public spaces so that it becomes a nuisance.
It would also import the smellscape of New York City, where sidewalk pot smoking is legal.
Dangerously close to "hellscape" for the Mayor of NYC to use to describe his city?
He should have used the nostalgic term "smell-o-vison."
"Half of the people can be part right all of the time
Some of the people can be all right part of the time
But all of the people can’t be all right all of the time
I think Abraham Lincoln said that
“I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours”
I said that"
"Amsterdam is not worth visiting anymore because of the cloud of marijuana smoke hanging over the old town from outdoor pot smoking, the trash littered everywhere by the potheads and the urine smell from potheads relieving themselves on the streets."
I went to Amsterdam twice in the early 2000's (my husband is from sister city, Amsterdam, NY), and nobody was smoking anything outside, unless they were dumb tourists. There were brown cafe's for cigarette smoking, and coffee shops for the pot smokers. It was a beautiful city to walk around and admire the architecture of old Europe.
Sad that it has changed for the worse.
"'It would also import the smellscape of New York City, where sidewalk pot smoking is legal.'/Dangerously close to "hellscape" for the Mayor of NYC to use to describe his city?"
We're about 2/5 of the way to a Limerick. Can anyone complete it?
...... hellscape
...... ???
???
???
...... smellscape
Liberalization is a process of divergence, where results may vary, and are, in fact, inconsistent.
Smoking marijuana is far more hazardous to the smoker and others via secondhand smoke than vaping nicotine. Not saying you should do the later, but nicotine vaping is not hazardous whereas incomplete combustion of vegetation always produces noxious by-products.
Threat is like booze, which it is equal to. Open container laws, public intoxication etc.
When you live in a dystopian hellhole, you really have to get away.
NYC was one big asthma attack for me, thanks to all the pot smokers. I can't understand why people understand that burning tobacco is rude and bad for people with lung problems, but think that burning some other plant matter is perfectly benign.
Pot use should follow tobacco use rules.
You wonder about the smell of pot?
Back in the 1980s, Texas A&M built their new chancellor a nice new official home right across the road from what was then the pig farm on campus. During the open house held by the new chancellor when he moved in, a reporter asked him about the very obvious odor wafting about from the adjacent porkers. Our chancellor, rising to the moment, stated that to him, "It smells like money." Thus he became both a popular chancellor among the Ag students and faculty, and a legend in his own time.
The pig farm was relocated a few years later. But the lesson remains. The smell of buring pot in NY City is the smell of tax dollars, and the mayor damn well knows it.
Was shopping at Woodmans on northwest side of Milwaukee last night and noticed numerous plumes pouring off various shoppers. Also a higher degree of Covid masking. One guy in mid twenties wearing short pants(!) along with a down parka with hood tight around his psychotic looking face.
"Potheads don’t realize how stinky their habit is"
Not if you do it right. Really. And what kind of idiot still twists up reefers?
"I bet people who live near dairy or pig farms are laughing at the snowflakes who cannot stand a little smell."
I spent five summers in central Pennsylvania and when Amish farmers spread their fields with manure in the heat of August, holy shit!
"Pot is sacred now, like tattoos, trans and dogs. "
Dogs have always been sacred. Always.
Bender: "Bars equal crack houses and opium dens."
Cool theory, bro.
"There's also a divide as far as who smokes pot at home and who smokes it in public. In DC that divide manifests as racial, but I think it may actually be a class division that looks racial because of DC's demographics."
I worked in downtown Minneapolis for 25 years. And during that time every person I saw smoking pot was Black. Only once did I see a white guy smoking pot, and he was with two Black guys.
That's why whenever I hear about Black folk being disproportionately arrested for drug crimes, I think to myself, it's not because of the color of their skin. It's because they're stupid.
Of course, since people making the laws have no experience WITH weed, they overlook an obvious solution: allow the vaping of cannabis concentrates in public only. For those ignorant of cannabis and its many forms, concentrates are the extracted oils of the plant. When vaped, they smell like their constituent terpenes, which vary widely. Odor is very different. One of my favorite concentrates comes from a strain called Japanese Cedar. The smell of this particular concentrate, vaped, smell very much like the real thing. This was confirmed by my Japanese partner, who has been to Japan many times and has partaken of his family's bathing facility - bath water with cedar oil added. (In Japan you take a shower first then get into the bathtub, which usually has the same water for weeks. Hence the addition of cedar oil).
Another strain called Thunderbird Rose smells like - roses.
When plant matter is removed and oils are concentrated, it's a whole different set of smells, many quite unique and pleasant.
Hey, pass all the laws you want but people will continue to smoke pot outside. And guess what? The cops will ignore it just as they ignore petty theft, muggings, style jumpers and graffiti artists. But go ahead and bang in about “allowing” this or that.
“'The number one thing I smell right now is pot,' said Mayor Eric Adams in July 2022. 'It seems like everyone is smoking a joint now, you know. Everybody has a joint.'"
I remember when everyone had a cigarette (or worse, a cigar or pipe). That smelled a lot worse. And tobacco smokers don’t seem to realize that they stink even when they’re not smoking. And if you were around them you had to wash your clothes when you got home to get the stench out.
@wild swan
"Pot is sacred now, like tattoos, trans and dogs. Nothing bad about any of those you bigot!"
I take exception for dogs being lumped into that grab bag. I've lived with dogs my entire life and have consistently found them to be preferable and better-than most humans of any stripe.
I thought second hand smoke was a bad thing. Obviously it isn't with weed.
Here.
You slept and you dreamt of a hellscape
on waking believed it a farscape
but New York knocked you flat,
it was much more than that
t'was a sight and a, sound and a smellscape
Drugs, Drugs, Drugs, Drugs. Doesn’t anybody enjoy sobriety anymore? Maybe they are afraid of being thought they are crazy Christians.
Oligonicella said...
@wild swan
"Pot is sacred now, like tattoos, trans and dogs. Nothing bad about any of those you bigot!"
Nope, it was wild chicken that said that. Under nihilism, nothing is sacred is how I put it.
I was visiting my sister in California recently. I joined her in her church choir while I was there, as I usually do. As we were setting up the chairs and such for the choir, getting these chairs out of a storeroom adjacent to the altar area, I was surprised, to say the least, to realize that the storeroom smelled of pot.
I'm pretty sure, anyway. I've never been a user - tried it once in college with no discernible effect (I'm bad at smoking), and then ate the gummies some other CA relatives - my husband's side, I hasten to add - gave me and had the worst hangover of my life. But I've been around enough pot now to recognize that skunky odor, I think.
Oh, and to the commenter above who complained about cigarette smokers' stinking long after they've finished their cigarette - why would you think the smell of pot smoke wouldn't cling to your clothes just as much? It's not actually magic, you know.
@wildswan: Apologies. I swiped the quote but had to scroll to the box and perhaps saw the other moniker.
Way back in 1996 we were visiting a newborn grandchild in Boulder, CO. Smoking cigarettes was prohibited everywhere. We were in the park and there was a haze and overwhelming order of marijuana smoke. It didn't seem to be bothering anyone but we who were laughing about the irony of it.
"I remember when everyone had a cigarette (or worse, a cigar or pipe). That smelled a lot worse. "
Cigars smell pretty bad, but (and I can't believe I am saying this cause I hate cigs) I am almost enjoying the smell of cigarette smoke outside now, if it's not right in my face. Contrast that with the barfy oily smell of Dem Skunk marijuana. That's all I smell now when I am walking on the streets of Philadelphia or NYC. And every block has its active pot smokers, like it was their job.
Post a Comment