So, let’s say I’m at a concert and there are lots of people smoking pot. Let’s say that I’m also the sort of person who doesn’t smoke pot myself.
What are the effects of second-hand pot smoking? Will I get high? Will I fail a drug test? I presume that the typical concert hall would need to have quite a lot of pot smoking going on before it gets hotboxed (if that’s the correct term), but sometimes the smell is so freakin’ awful that I smell like I’ve been smoking even after I leave the club.
From my experience no, you won’t get high (unless theres a couple of guys right behind you blowing it on your head all night. Then…maybe a bit, but I think even that’s unlikely). It would take a lot more smoke than a bunch of pot smokers could generate to hot-box an arena (although they do try pretty hard sometimes). If you’re talking about small clubs, well, there shouldn’t be that much pot smoking going on out in the open anyway so that shouldn’t be a problem.
As far as passing a drug test goes, I would like to say don’t worry about it, but I honestly am not sure about that one…never had to take a drug test to find out.
When I was a kid in Iowa we would build anti-mosquito smudge fires while we were fishing at night. Wild hemp was quite a common weed and after the fire was going well we’d pull up the plants and throw the green leaves on the fire. This produced a heavy, yellow smoke with a distinctive smell which we stood in to keep them skeeters off us.
I’m prefeclee nermul in all respeks as ainywun with haf an i kin planely c.
What does “hot-box” mean?
That’s when an enclosed space is so saturated with smoke that you get high just from breathing the air.
I’ve gotten a contact high off being in the same dorm room where people were smoking. And I’ve heard stories of people failing drug tests from the same experience. I would imagine most concerts are in open enough spaces for the smoke to dissipate though.
To me, that’s called clambaking. I always knew hotboxing as puffing too long on a cigarette or joint and creating a really long cherry on it. That made it very harsh and unpleasant to smoke, and wasted a fair amount of whatever you’re smoking.
Maybe it’s regional terminology.
Me too…
me too… but I’m sure you believe about the same ratio of those stories as I do…
Agreed.
The drug tests are designed to rule out “contact highs” as a source of false positive.
[anecdote]
I failed one once (for mary jane) when I was around 20 after being hired at a major pharmaceutical company (go figure).
I demanded a second screening. The response was basically, “I’m sorry sir, we can retest the original sample but at these levels it doesn’t matter anyway and your previously pending job offer has been hereby rescinded.”
In other words, if I was 20 again I wouldn’t be too afraid about second hand smoke at a concert, but more about what I deliberately inhaled.
[/anecdote]
p.s. I’ve heard hotbox to refer both to a car full of potsmoke and a cigarette with a two inch cherry. Both forms are most commonly used by teenagers who either need to share a cig among 6 people or who have no safe refuge and are forced to enjoy natural herbs while crowded into small vehicles.
Thanks for the responses. I certainly try to stay away from any sort of smoke in general, but sometimes, it’s difficult to at large concerts (nothing arena sized though). One thing that’s always interested me is that the bouncers go after underage drinkers much more harshly than people obviously smoking pot.
Here’s a slightly humorous sequential thread title:
What body functions have you lost control of while laughing?
Effects of second hand marajuana smoke
That reminds me of the episode of Malcom in the Middle where his parents go to a jazz bar and for some reason love it so much that they have to go back there often. They can’t figure out why jazz music has such an effect on them.
When the dad buys some jazz cds and listens to them at home he’s puzzled as to why he doesn’t like the music as much.
Is that what I’m missing? Because I’ve really, really tried to listen to A Love Supreme and I just can’t.
As for the OP, I went to a Phish concert in 1995 at the Philadelphia Spectrum (indoor arena) up in the cheap seats, and lots of folks were toking down below. I was in high school and had not yet learned to recognize the smell of marijuana (I thought it smelled like someone stir-frying lawn clippings and creamy peanut butter). While I didn’t get high[sup]1[/sup], I did sort of drift into an altered state towards the end of the show. The music came into my head much more easily, the guitar notes were “sharper” and the bass made my feet hum. Jokes were much much funnier than they should have been.
A few glasses of cool water after the show, however, and I was right as rain.
When I had my first, and only, drug test the nurse asked me if I had any exposure to “drugs” from something like a club. Although I don’t remember smelling any pot I did go to clubs (don’t smoke or drink). Since I passed the test either the test isn’t very sensitive of they determined my exposure to be very minimal.
My GF and I did once go to a rave in downtown Toronto. We unintenionally got “hotboxed” inside the apartment we were in and got slightly messed up (neither of us smokes, let alone do pot). I was a little worried about driving home (I wasn’t ‘high’ so much as slightly dizzy).
I suspect either … liability… The bar or club could take heat for over-serving alcohol, but since they do not provide bud, if somebody hurts themselves while high, there is nothing to bring it back to the bar.
Or … common sense? Would you rather have the task of managing a room full of drunks (esp. considering some underage) or a room full of stoners?
Okay, what is an Irish Car Bomb?
Recipe for one Irish car bomb:
2/3 to 3/4 of a pint of Guinness in a pint glass
Shot glass with half Bailey’s, half Irish whiskey
Drop shot into Guinness.
Chug 'till the shot glass is empty.
Repeat until you fall over.
When I was applying for working as a Crossing Guard, I had to fill out an exhaustive background check questionnaire. One of the questions that made me nervous was, “Have you ever been in the presence of someone using illegal drugs?”. The week before I was at a concert that people were smoking marajuana. I figured I’d rather tell the truth than lie and somehow get found out, so I checked ‘yes’. I also took a drug test for that job.
Turns out everything was fine, and 3 years later I am still working for the city of San Jose. 
I guess in retrospect, the question was probably more in context to false positives. In any case, it wasn’t an issue.
Huh. I once went to a Grateful Dead concert in the Cumberland County Civic Ctr., which, if you haven’t been there, is not a large venue by most people’s standards. But, jammed as it was with a bunch of heavy-toking dope fiends, you literally could not see the length of the space for all the smoke in the air. If ever there was a time I should have gotten a contact high, that would have been it, and I was as straight as could be the whole night (I was 16 and my Dad was picking me up after the show…no weed for me).
Generally due to the shot glass knocking your front teeth down your throat.
Unless the floating widget chokes you first!
If the bar were at risk of losing their pot-serving license, they’d be a lot more worried about it.