The worst part about living in Colorado

[Ailaena]

It seems as though I cannot go anywhere without people smoking pot mere feet from me. Really?? You NEED to do this EVERYWHERE?!? We are at the damn Renaissance Fair, there are kids everywhere, and people smoking pot everywhere. But it happens at every outdoor festival we go to. And sometimes indoor ones.

 

Have you ever seem pot smoke? There's way more of it during an exhale than cigarette smoke. Yes, what I want is a contact high, maybe then I'll relax about it.

 

I'm not a prude, I smoked pot back in the day, whatever floats your boat, but stop it. Two of the people we are with are smoking, and one is nursing a 3-month old. Just make it stop :(

 

 

You don't have to jawm, I'm just bitching

Edited August 6, 2016 by Ailaena

[kbutton]

We had some friends who moved from Colorado complain about the same thing. You're not alone!

 

 

[Joshin]

I take it CO doesn't have a no smoking in public spaces law? I'm in WA, where pot is also legal. Never seen anyone smoking it in public, but it's illegal to smoke within like 20 feet of a business, at public/private outdoor events, or within so many feet of a park. Vaping was also made to follow the same law recently. I think that is why the edibles are more popular up here.

[SemiSweet]

Yuck. I'm no prude either but I don't want any smoke around me, pot or cigarette.

[Diane in CO]

I hear you! We were at a drive-in movie and the people in the car next to us here smoking. I had to keep our windows up the whole movie. No fun on a warm summer night!

[wapiti]

Ick.  We've never been to the Renaissance Fair - the traffic to get off the highway exit is enough to keep me away LOL - but we don't often go to locations where there would be any type of smoking.  We typically hang in a bit of a suburban bubble that doesn't have a lot of that.  Probably up in the mountain towns is where we see it the most.  If it's any consolation, we were in NYC and Boston a few weeks ago on vacation and the kids were quite surprised by all the cigarette smoking.

Edited August 6, 2016 by wapiti

[Joshin]

Actually, it is illegal to smoke pot in the open in Colorado, in either a park, open venue, or outside bar, etc. I imagine there's a lot smoking going on at the Crested Butte Arts Fair today, though. 

 

Shame it's not enforced. Around here, at least, even the pot shops are big on pushing for enforcement. They don't want anything to turn the voters against them. Although I haven't smoked in years when I figured out it was one of many migraine triggers for me, but many of my friends and family do and they all seem pretty intent on following the law so that the law isn't revoked.

[EKS]

I live in WA and I have yet to come across anyone smoking pot in public or anywhere else.

 

Perhaps I don't get out enough.

[TravelingChris]

I have asthma and one of my major triggers is smoke.  I wouldn't like it at all.

[Guest]

We have issues with that here in Alaska too, not to mention the sheer volume of drunk and stoned people wandering around a given sidewalk.

 

The smell. Ugh. Maybe this makes me an old lady at 30 but I really wish the public smoking was better enforced, the cigarette crowd is way more respectful of those laws than the stoners around here. They think it doesn't apply to them for some reason.

Edited August 6, 2016 by Arctic Mama

[IfIOnly]

I hate the smell of pot. Major trigger for me since I grew up in a home with people smoking it and high. Thankfully I've never been around smoke here in public (OR). I would have zero problem calling the cops if I experienced it though.

[Maeintx]

I currently am in OR. I smelled it last night outside our hotel. I was asking dh what the laws were for public places, etc. Interesting to read this thread this a.m.

[Farrar]

It's legal here too. I thought there was no way it would increase much after the law passed. We're in an urban area and I have always routinely sniffed pot smoke. But, boy was I wrong. The minute the law came into effect, I felt like I can't go far without catching a whiff. 

 

It doesn't bug me much though. I think the smell just carries more than tobacco. And I haven't seen that much more at outdoor events and so forth.

 

The other day, I passed two guys smoking pot literally in front of the police on the street. The cops were clearly like, dude, not cool, because you're supposed to smoke on your own property. But they didn't do anything other than eye the guys.

[Frances]

I take it CO doesn't have a no smoking in public spaces law? I'm in WA, where pot is also legal. Never seen anyone smoking it in public, but it's illegal to smoke within like 20 feet of a business, at public/private outdoor events, or within so many feet of a park. Vaping was also made to follow the same law recently. I think that is why the edibles are more popular up here.

Pretty similar situation here in OR. Also no smoking near government buildings and schools and many cities have outlawed smoking in parks and many colleges have become smoke free. I've never seen anyone smoking pot in public since it became legal here.

[Frances]

I live in WA and I have yet to come across anyone smoking pot in public or anywhere else.

 

Perhaps I don't get out enough.

Same for me here in Oregon. I'm not actually even sure what it smells like. But ironically, due to my job, everyday I walk by pot shop owners paying their monthly tax bills in person because most can't get bank accounts for their business, so they have to physically bring in bags of money to pay.

[LucyStoner]

It's legal here too. I thought there was no way it would increase much after the law passed. We're in an urban area and I have always routinely sniffed pot smoke. But, boy was I wrong. The minute the law came into effect, I felt like I can't go far without catching a whiff.

 

It doesn't bug me much though. I think the smell just carries more than tobacco. And I haven't seen that much more at outdoor events and so forth.

 

The other day, I passed two guys smoking pot literally in front of the police on the street. The cops were clearly like, dude, not cool, because you're supposed to smoke on your own property. But they didn't do anything other than eye the guys.

It's been similar here.

 

Before legalization, it was around and I smelled it or saw someone smoking regularly but not daily. Now, I swear there are more than a few people who are burning one down while commuting to work. Unless I stay home all day, the chances I will see or smell it on any given day approach 100%.

 

Now, as for a Renaissance Fair. People have been lighting up at such events publically for decades before it was legal. I would be shocked to go somewhere like that and NOT encounter a lot of pot. The same was true 20 years ago.

 

We have fairly strict no smoking in public laws here (WA State) but some marijuana users do seem think those laws don't apply to them.

Edited August 7, 2016 by LucyStoner

[Farrar]

Same for me here in Oregon. I'm not actually even sure what it smells like. But ironically, due to my job, everyday I walk by pot shop owners paying their monthly tax bills in person because most can't get bank accounts for their business, so they have to physically bring in bags of money to pay.

 

I'll bet you've smelled it. The cheap stuff smells a little like skunk. Like, a slightly less offensive odored dead skunk. Or sometimes like off oregano, like burned oregano.

[kbutton]

I'm horribly allergic to it, so you have my sympathy! I went through the grocery line behind a pot smoker. He wasn't smoking right then, but he reeked. I sneezed and sneezed and the checker asked what's wrong. Yeah, some of us are just that allergic to it. 

 

Ugh! That would be awful. I will have to remember that if I travel to pot legal state. My allergies to hemp are difficult to describe, so I assume I'd react to pot. I bought hemp yarn once, and I couldn't touch it or even get a sniff of it without a MAJOR problem. 

[luuknam]

Same for me here in Oregon. I'm not actually even sure what it smells like.

 

I grew up in NL, where it's been semi-legal all my life, afaik, and I didn't know what it smelled like until I was 19 or 20. And it's not like I lived a super-sheltered life. I'm sure I'd smelled it before I was that old, but if you don't know what it is, you don't notice it as much.

[Frances]

I'll bet you've smelled it. The cheap stuff smells a little like skunk. Like, a slightly less offensive odored dead skunk. Or sometimes like off oregano, like burned oregano.

I'm sure I have, I've just never been in a situation where I actually saw someone smoking pot or was with someone who could confirm the smell for me.

[StephanieZ]

Seems to me like the local police forces need to get a ticketing system -- non criminal, but a financial fine -- in place. Just like in college towns where they'll ticket folks for public alcohol, etc. 

 

Personally, I hate the smell of tobacco smoke but I think pot smells groovy, lol. That said, I wouldn't want my kids exposed, and I'd be pretty irritated if other folks' smoking was making it hard for my family to enjoy being outside in a public place. 

 

Hopefully, local law enforcement will step up some sort of a ticketing program for public use . . . Seems like another easy money maker for the government, lol. 

[ktgrok]

Sounds like stricter smoking laws in general are needed. Here you can't smoke at all at many outdoor events, or only in certain areas. And that's just for tobacco smoke. 

[eternalsummer]

I live in CO too and smell it out and about occasionally.  Doesn't bother me any more than cigarette smoke, which I also smell out and about.  Both are legal here so I don't really see the difference.

 

I don't think you are getting a contact high from outdoor smoking, unless it is really crowded and very smoky.

 

What I hate about MJ legalization (vastly outweighed by all the things I like about it, but still) is the tourists.  I had no idea how many tourists there would be in CO; I don't know if it is the weed or just the destination itself, but holy lord there are a lot of them every weekend all summer, and none of them can drive.

 

If it is the weed that is driving tourism (and immigration - apt. prices in Colorado Springs have gone up more than anywhere else in the country this year, I heard), only widespread legalization will make it abate, I figure. Many states are moving that way, so maybe it won't be too long.

[gingersmom]

I must live in the boring part of the state. I have never seen nor smelled marijuana out in public.

[wapiti]

and none of them can drive

 

I have noticed this a lot more in the past two years with the increased traffic due to growth.  Trouble is that I account for driving times in my head the way they used to be and I end up late.

[trulycrabby]

Same for me here in Oregon. I'm not actually even sure what it smells like. But ironically, due to my job, everyday I walk by pot shop owners paying their monthly tax bills in person because most can't get bank accounts for their business, so they have to physically bring in bags of money to pay.

Just curious, why can't the pot shop owners get bank accounts? Do the owners typically have terrible credit, or is it a law?

Edited August 7, 2016 by trulycrabby

[Ali in OR]

Now, as for a Renaissance Fair. People have been lighting up at such events publically for decades before it was legal. I would be shocked to go somewhere like that and NOT encounter a lot of pot. The same was true 20 years ago.

Yeah, I took my kids to a Renaissance Fair when they were like 7 and 4 because we were going to be studying the renaissance that school year. I don't know what I was expecting--history buffs? Homeschool families? Nope. More like people who would have been hippies in another era. Or people into drama/costumes. Encountering pot at a Ren Fair doesn't surprise me.

[ktgrok]

Just curious, why can't the pot shop owners get bank accounts? Do the owners typically have terrible credit, or is it a law?

 

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pot-banking-20151219-story.html

[Ailaena]

 

Just for the record, I have absolutely nothing against people who smoke for recreational or medical reasons. I do think legalizing marijuana with no way to stop/punish people driving while high was a right, stupid thing to do, but apparently, I am the only one who feels that way.

 

Our Ren fair here is loads and loads of families and then random adults. I've never encountered more than cigarette smoke in the actual fair before today and the majority of people smoking were people with kids. It was just too much for me. Not the smell, I don't mind the smell, I think it was the mentality. No, you're just not as cool as you think...

 

I remember a gymnastics meet I went to last year. It was snowing, and there were two dads smoking a bowl right in front of the only entrance. Everybody had to walk by them to go inside and I was just so... I don't know. Sad, maybe? Disappointed that these people couldn't face their child's activities, you know, sober?

 

Smoking pot is not even close to the same as smoking cigarettes, regardless of how legal it is in your own home. And I must stress that it is not legal to smoke pot in public.

 

The contact high comment was sarcasm, but there is no definitive research that I know of that says how much exposure will affect your judgement, or your children's health. And before you say a contact high is not a thing, I have certainly been in situations in my past where I was not smoking, yet suddenly realized high. And I was totally surprised because I had heard that contact highs were a myth (yes, I was that young :/)

 

Maybe it's just smoking in front of kids that bothers me. I just remembered an occasion when I was 16 where we were at the home of some friends who had a 3-year old daughter and they were taking bong hits with her right, freaking next to them on the couch, and I just couldn't do it. I could not smoke in front of her, and I never saw them again. Even as a degenerate 16-year old, I just couldn't.

 

But even if it's totally my weird issue showing here, it's still not legal in public, and I still don't think you're cool for smoking pot everywhere you want to just because you're outside.

[ktgrok]

Ugh, that does sound awful, and I'm pro legalization. But hello, alcohol is legal, but you shouldn't be doing shots in front of your kid's gymnastic meet! Now, a beer or two at a festival, okay, I could see that, so I guess I could see smoking a bit...would have to think on that. But the difference I think is that one beer while walking around doesn't make most people drunk, but it's hard to smoke so little pot that you don't end up foolish. I know plenty of people that THOUGHT they could smoke a little and were "fine" but they definitely were NOT "fine", they were high. Being high while responsible for kids is dumb. Being drunk while responsible for kids is dumb. Getting drunk at a gymnastics meet is dumb. Getting high at a gymnastics meet is dumb. 

 

Definitely sounds like they need to enforce the no smoking pot in public thing! Fines, like a traffic ticket, would be reasonable. 

[eternalsummer]

Cigarettes are, imo, way worse than weed.  Nicotine is significantly more addictive and therefore destructive.

 

Many people do drugs all the time before social events (their children's or their own) or before work, etc.  The drugs are just different ones - caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, prescription painkillers, prescription uppers (prozac, etc.)  As long as you're not driving or being obnoxious in public, I don't care what drugs you need to get through your day, kwim?

 

Smoking in front of the only entrance (smoking *anything* in front of an entrance) is bad behavior, though.  Smoking outside near other people (instead out out in the mountains or whatever) is not cool - cigarettes or weed or whatever.  Smoking in an enclosed area with kids, also not cool - cigarettes or weed.  I say this as a person whose parents both chain smoked, inside, my whole childhood.  Sucked.

[ReadingMama1214]

Yeah, I took my kids to a Renaissance Fair when they were like 7 and 4 because we were going to be studying the renaissance that school year. I don't know what I was expecting--history buffs? Homeschool families? Nope. More like people who would have been hippies in another era. Or people into drama/costumes. Encountering pot at a Ren Fair doesn't surprise me.

This was our experience as well. Definitely not a "family-friendly" event like they advertise. We went before pot was legal and there was a lot of people smoking and it smelled strongly. My experience of the fair is crassness and scantly clad people. Fun, but not for kids.

 

I love Denver, but hate the pot. I laughed at a guy asking me to sign a petition to make marijuana cafes. Ew

[Tap]

I live in Vancouver Wa and smell pot a few times per month.  It isn't terribly uncommon to see someone smoking it outdoors here.  You can't always see the current smoke plume, but the smell always gives it away. It seems to linger for quite some time. Sometimes it is a very public place, and sometimes it is more rurual,  The last time I was at Pikes Place in Seattle the skunk weed smell was horrible.  It would have easily covered up any smoking pot. LOL

 

I can't believe how strong the odor clings to peoples clothes too.  There are times when customers come in to fill prescriptions that you just about gag, the odor is so strong.  I am a good 5 feet away from them, I wonder how doctors deal with it, when they have to be in an enclosed room with a couple of them.  :zombie:  :zombie:  :ack2:

[PrincessMommy]

I have asthma and one of my major triggers is smoke.  I wouldn't like it at all.

 

My daughter is too and there's no way she could attend any of those functions.  I wish people would be more considerate.  Freedom to do something doesn't mean loss of personal responsibility towards your fellow human beings.  

[ktgrok]

Cigarettes are, imo, way worse than weed.  Nicotine is significantly more addictive and therefore destructive.

 

Many people do drugs all the time before social events (their children's or their own) or before work, etc.  The drugs are just different ones - caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, prescription painkillers, prescription uppers (prozac, etc.)  As long as you're not driving or being obnoxious in public, I don't care what drugs you need to get through your day, kwim?

 

 

 

I disagree. A cup of coffee doesn't make you unable to drive properly, or dull your reflexes so you can't react properly in an emergency. Neither does nicotine. Those drugs may be bad for health reasons, but not in a "shouldn't be in charge of kids" way.  Not to mention we have social conventions that say you shouldn't be drunk at your kid's Christmas play or whatever. i'd say, if it is a situation you shouldn't show up drunk to, for either safety or social convention reasons, you shouldn't be high there either. Painkillers are an iffy area, depends. If they are needed to get through the event, and the person couldn't attend otherwise, and they are not driving or the responsible adult, fine. But no, getting high/drunk for the lols before certain events is not socially acceptable, nor is it the equivalent to a cup of coffee. 

 

yes, they are drugs, but different in many ways. Going to work on prozac is acceptable, going to work after 1/2 a bottle of wine is not, at least in most places. Smoking a cigarette on your lunch hour is acceptable, shooting up heroin is not. 

[Janeway]

I think it should be illegal to smoke, or otherwise hamper the air quality, around children or anyplace in that children will be within a period of time. I think I mentioned this before but I have lung damage due to my parents smoking. Now, every time I see someone smoking in a car with a child (I do not know any smokers personally, so I would only see it that way) I just cringe. It actually becomes a "trigger" for me because there are times where I feel like I cannot breathe and have to take breathing treatments, even at my age, and I know where this came from, and I hurt for that child. 

[MamaBearTeacher]

Smoking pot inside the toddler play structure at the park should not be accepted and when you call the police to report it they should take you seriously.

 

A nurse or anyone should not be allowed to smoke outside the main exit of a hospital with a large maternity ward.

 

Hospital employees should not be allowed to smoke outside the main entrance of a children's hospital or on the path leading up to it.

 

Who are these people who have the nerve to do this, sometimes right in front if no smoking signs?

 

Legalizing substances is okay if people do it in their own homes and don't have kids, but guess what? It seems they are not willing to follow the rules.

[MamaBearTeacher]

I think pot smells like dirty socks.