This is true. But it does offer a "brown bag" level of protection. I.E. the story from The Wire about how public drinking is illegal, but if you at least concea

This is true. But it does offer a "brown bag" level of protection. I.E. the story from The Wire about how public drinking is illegal, but if you at least conceal what you're drinking in a brown bag, the cops won't hassle you because they don't really want to enforce the law. I live in DC and the only weed dealers I hear of getting arrested are the ones who are extremely flagrant, like the one guy who operated out of a van with a giant pot leaf painted on it.