13 ms·

I’ve always been a supporter of legal pot. The problem I’m seeing is that once we legalized pot, there was no enforcement of nuisance crimes related to pot. S

• toqy 4y ago
  Have you been anywhere with legal marijuana? Because what you're describing isn't like anywhere that I've been that it's legal.
  • Mezzie 4y ago
    It definitely happens. I'm in a legal state and we just had to chase people away from our business because they were smoking pot in front of it and the smell was permeating our storefront. I also get random whiffs of pot smell in really inappropriate places.
  • machiaweliczny 4y ago
    I visited recently US and NYC and LA you can smell pot so much that it’s disturbing. I don’t know what’s that exactly but sometimes can smell it even in car with closed AC. We don’t have that strong stuff in EU
  • MartinCron 4y ago
    So, it's nowhere near every street corner or playground, but I encounter a surprising amount of second hand smoke here in (legal) Seattle. Although it's not really much more than it was pre-legalization.
  • hn_throwaway_99 4y ago
    Huh??? You have definitely never been to downtown Denver then. I'm a big supporter of legalized pot, but I agree with GP. In downtown Denver, everything smells of weed, and a large percentage of people seem like they're stoned out of their minds. I'm not even saying there is a solution here, or even necessarily a real problem. I haven't, for example, seen any of these stoned-out-of-their mind people get violent, as I have with drunks. But that said, there was a noticeable change in Denver when legalization passed, and, at least in public spaces, it wasn't good. Walking around in public where so many people are f'd up, and it's not like a bar or something, is a pretty sad experience.
    • willnonya 4y ago
      Still seems like a better option than most major cities in California where the zombies just smell like urine and neglect.
  • bee_rider 4y ago
    There's usually somebody lighting up at the bus stop I use to go to work. I dunno. I don't mind the smell of weed. I don't really want to smell like weed when I get to work. It is right next to a park so there's plenty of seating away from the smokers. It is a little annoying to have fewer seating areas, but not wanting to smell like weed is just my preference, and I don't think I've got some police-enforced right to never be annoyed. My gut says we should treat smoking weed like smoking tobacco -- although I'm not aware of any studies as to the effects of secondhand smoke, with weed.
  • redavni 4y ago
    Uhh Humboldt county here. It is impossible to walk for 15 minutes down any mildly busy road without smelling weed from a passing car. Not that anyone here has a problem with it, but your experience is not mine.
  • wl 4y ago
    My experience in California, Illinois, and Michigan (legal marijuana jurisdictions) is that second-hand marijuana smoke is very noticeable and unavoidable outside in public. Of course, growing up in California, legalization didn't seem to change the situation much. Pandemic observation: N95 masks don't reduce the smell all that much.
    • nicholasjarnold 4y ago
      Well, yeah, because N95 masks are all about particulate filtration performance and not necessarily VOC neutralization. The terpenes in weed are volitile organic compounds, something which a different type of air filtration/purification handles.
  • deleted 4y ago
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• slothtrop 4y ago
  > there was no enforcement of nuisance crimes related to pot. Those are just "crimes". Enforcement is often lacking, but in the public discourse there's currently pressure for less police presence / policing, despite the fact that it reduces crime. Re second-hand smoke: too few people care, same as cigarettes.
• deleted 4y ago
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• taeric 4y ago
  You can fine folks for smoking cigarettes in places it is not allowed. Including many/most public places. I'm curious why you think that couldn't be done with pot? Public drunkenness is also not without consequences. By and large, you solve a lot of those not by focusing on stiffer penalties for folks doing them, but by giving them a place that they can do so legally. Is akin to a skate park. Good skate parks go a long long way to getting skateboards off of sidewalks.
  • nsxwolf 4y ago
    It can't be done with pot, apparently, because it isn't being done. If there's any movement to reign in public pot usage I am not seeing it. I think people just immediately resigned to having the entire planet smell like a skunk forever. Illinois legalized it a couple years ago, and the legislature seemed very concerned with maximizing revenue from taxation and licensing and gave zero consideration to anything else.
    • taeric 4y ago
      I'm in a place that has fairly high usage of it, I thought, but it is still notable when I smell it out in public. :( Where are you?
      • jeltz 4y ago
        In Stockholm which I guess has medium usage you can smell it all the time during the summer.
      • nsxwolf 4y ago
        Western Suburbs, and Chicago. It's pervasive anywhere people are!
  • vegai_ 4y ago
    It seems that weed smell travels a lot farther than tobacco smoke. If I smell tobacco smoke, I can do a 360 degree turn in seconds to see immediately which direction I need to move 5 meters to avoid it. If I smell weed and want to get away from it, I usually have no idea where it's coming from.
• rwmj 4y ago
  That's a strange take. Do we not have any enforcement for nuisance (and other) crimes involving alcohol?
  • nsxwolf 4y ago
    We do, but basically everyone has legalized pot now, and they all seemed to have forgotten to do the whole nuisance enforcement thing.
    • jknoepfler 4y ago
      That's how change works. Over time, given a functioning system, we adapt enforcement policies and priorities to the changing needs of our communities. Nothing happens overnight. If it means a lot to you, by all means participate in that process!
• jlmorton 4y ago
  In the grand scheme of nuisance odors, or potentially dangerous emissions, outdoor and second-hand pot smoke is pretty near the bottom of the list. Higher up might be the hundreds of thousands to millions of cars, trucks, buses, etc spewing enormous quantities of carcinogenic and foul-smelling exhaust. When I open my windows, it's not marijuana I smell, it's partially-combusted diesel and gasoline. When I ride my bike to work, I pass a chocolate factory. You might think that's nice, but it actually stinks, and covers a vast area with its smell. I do notice marijuana smoke from time to time, but what, once a week, maybe?
  • jeltz 4y ago
    People must smoke very little where you live or smoke discreetly. Even here in Sweden where there are not that many weed smokers I can smell it all the time during the summer when out running. During the winter I might smell it once per week or once every other week due to people having their windows closed and people not hanging out in parks. Weed smell does not bother me (I think it would be annoying if a neighbour smoked all the time) but it is very smelly.
  • Test0129 4y ago
    I live in a metro that has legalized weed. Since legalization it's all I smell when I go into the city. It feels like every other car I am behind reeks of weed. The corners of stores reek of weed. The parks reek of weed. I can't even go see a show without smelling it. We managed to ban smoking from just about everywhere except for designated zones far away from traffic. We haven't done the same thing for weed. All of that sick tax money praying on addicts and hype is just too powerful. The smell is nauseating and I shouldn't have to wear PPE to go to a park.
    • sirnicolaz 4y ago
      In Berlin I smell weed everywhere I walk. I love it
    • slenk 4y ago
      Just because the smell bothers you doesn't mean it bothers everyone. For instance, smelling most perfumes or colognes gives me an instant headache but those aren't banned. Smoking wasn't banned from entrances because of the smell - it was because of the proven harm from second-hand smoke.
• nathanvanfleet 4y ago
  Yeah someone smoking weed in the park should be arrested... ????
• echlebek 4y ago
  So you're in support of it as long as it's only done by people who aren't poor, since they almost certainly don't have a private space where they can use it without running afoul of building rules. And things that are a nuisance to you are a crime. I'm not sure this is the support the legalization movement was looking for.
  • dahfizz 4y ago
    Interesting how quickly we moved from "Pot should be legalized" to "smoking in other people's face is a universal right". Smoking anything should be illegal in public. We already have cigar bars, and I know places like Amsterdam have "coffee shops" where you can smoke your weed. I don't see why we can't follow that model.
    • NotYourLawyer 4y ago
    • wiredfool 4y ago
      The acceptance of smoking in general (tobacco, not pot) has changed dramatically in the last 20 or 30 years. It used to be everywhere, sometimes with a token no smoking section. Hell, ash trays used to be a thing in non-smokers homes.
• jmpman 4y ago
  I wish they outlawed all advertisement for pot stores and any visual indications of the business. Should be a blank building with shut doors and windows blacked out. I don’t want kids to even be aware the places exist. And yes, I strongly supported legalization, and would like it legalized at the federal level.
  • pmoriarty 4y ago
    First let's do the same for alcohol, cigarettes, and guns... all things far more dangerous than pot.
    • Test0129 4y ago
      Can you name the last time you saw an ad for a gun store, cigarettes, or alcohol? Outside of a ball game I can't.
      • p0pcult 4y ago
        Huge variance dependent on geography here. I suspect you don't live in the midwest.
      • SauciestGNU 4y ago
        Gun stores and firing ranges have billboards all over the place here in Michigan. Alcohol advertises on television (prominently during sports) but alcohol advertisements are subject to strict regulation, and tobacco even stricter.
    • jeltz 4y ago
      Alcohol and tobacco ads are banned in my country, so sure.
    • candiodari 4y ago
      Well they all also cause extra load on the health system. Of course, so does marijuana ...
  • bee_rider 4y ago
• neetfreek 4y ago
  Perhaps relevant here would be the current approach in South Africa; it’s been decriminalised for use (for adults) in private. One can grow a certain amount at ones private residence, and consume it freely there as well. My understand is that outside of this context, it remains thoroughly controlled. I’ve not heard much about it having caused problems yet! Ref: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_in_South_Africa https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_in_South_Africa (Apologies: being the HN pleb that I am, I don’t know how to hyperlink)
  • vmilner 4y ago
    > (Apologies: being the HN pleb that I am, I don’t know how to hyperlink) I think it usually "just works" (I don't do anything special for mine).
  • karaterobot 4y ago
    Hyperlinks: You did it right, and there is no other way (for better or worse, you can't give links a label)
• ruined 4y ago
  legalization has almost nothing to do with people smoking in public. do you know what heroin smells like? once you learn, you will smell it nearly everywhere in any major city.
• beeforpork 4y ago
  Do you have examples of 'nuisance crimes' related to cocaine? I am currently trying to wrap my head around passive cocaine snorting. Some of the images in my head are quite disgusting. :-)
  • macrolime 4y ago
    Stable Diffusion also came up with a lot of quite weird images for the prompt "passive cocaine snorting"
  • wahern 4y ago
    Powdered cocaine can be and sometimes is injected, so needles. Addicts getting high on cocaine can cause all sorts of other problems. Cocaine is very often mixed with other drugs, such as heroin or fentanyl for speedballs. (I wouldn't be surprised if most cocaine consumption is actually in tandem with an opioid, contra the Hollywood image of cocaine.) And don't forget, crack is cocaine.
• breadbreadbread 4y ago
  i want to warn against "criminalizing" things we dont like. if someone ignores signage about smoking, sure you can shoo them away, maybe bar them from returning. But "nuisance crime" laws often result in marginalized people being harrassed by law enforcement for harmless activity or wrongfully accused of activity. Not everything you dont like should be enforced by cops
  • willnonya 4y ago
    Ding ding ding, first correct answer.