# Professional norms around legal recreational marijuana **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 25, 2020, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939 "2020-01-25T03:42:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2020, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/21 "2020-01-26T17:45:52Z")
It’s just a thing. I don’t often talk about dinners I’ve had, sex I did on my lady, or about what I picked up from the hardware store over the weekend, and likewise I can’t imagine too many conversations where it’d even come up. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2020, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/22 "2020-01-26T17:54:54Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > We got an official warning from our Chief that even if we imbibed in a place where it is legal if we test positive for THC it is grounds for termination. > > During my first career as a Sheriffs Deputy (retired 2007) if someone went on vacation to places like Amsterdam or Jamaica they were mandated to get tested upon their first day back at work. I have been told that now everyone gets tested upon returning from vacation time regardless if they traveled or not. I was at 7 weeks a year when I retired. What a PITA that would be. > > ETA: I heard recently that an Officer for a local municipality was canned for testing positive. Wow, that sounds like a waste of taxpayer money. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2020, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/23 "2020-01-26T18:37:57Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Wow, that sounds like a waste of taxpayer money. I haven’t confirmed if that’s the actual policy, it’s just what 2 current Deps told me. Sounds excessive. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2020, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/24 "2020-01-26T19:04:27Z")
I wonder if norms are different in Canada, where it’s legal nationally. I assume that, depending on the profession, there must be some restrictions; e.g. public bus driver, surgeon, etc. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/25 "2020-01-26T19:14:32Z")
> [@DinoR](#): > > …Mayo Clinic [published](https://www.mayocliniclabs.com/test-info/drug-book/marijuana.html) approximate guidelines for how long that stored THC metabolite is detectable in the bloodstream. For a single use it is three days. For chronic heavy use, that is multiple times a day, it is still detectable in the blood for 30 days. I thought that inactive metabolites were detectable for a lot longer than active ingredients. That is, you can detect that someone used pot a lot longer than they are impaired at all. I’ve also heard that there are newer tests that test for THC, rather than long-lived metabolites, and those might become useful in cases where a driver is suspected of driving under the influence. I don’t use cannabis, and it doesn’t come up much at work. I think it would be unprofessional to talk about how baked you were. But I also think it would be unprofessional to talk about how smashed you were. My BIL uses medicinal cannabis for back pain, and I have talked about that at the office. It’s not “me”, which is certainly different than talking about my own drug use. But no one has expressed shock or horror or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2020, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/26 "2020-01-26T19:16:21Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Do you have a cite for that? I’ve heard plenty about the evils of The Devil’s Lettuce but never have I ever 😉 been told that motor impairment\*\* would be an issue even the very next morning. > > \*\* by “motor impairment” I’m assuming you mean getting glued to the couch? Just google “THC use motor impairment” and there is a ton of literature and research data about impairment of coordination, proprioception, motor impulsivity and inhibition, with effects lasting weeks to month in many cases. This should surprise no one. The medical community wants to be sure our neurosurgeons, microvascular/plastic/hand surgeons etc. are up to the task, along with ER docs and other clinicians of every stripe. > **[Cognitive motor deficits in cannabis users](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4966282/)** > > Cannabis use affects cortico-striatal networks that are essential for producing movement. In this review, we summarize the literature on motor system dysfunction in cannabis users and provide a rationale for why motor learning should be considered an... ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/27 "2020-01-27T03:04:04Z")
In The Netherlands it’s mostly considered pretty uncool and juvenile. It’s only immature people and foreigners who talk about smoking pot. In society in general, it would be like saying you spent your weekend alone in your underwear playing videogames, while everyone else is all: “Oh I visited an arboretum, changed the batteries in the smoke detectors and taught the kids Tibetan throat singing.” Smoking pot is fine but not an interesting topic of conversation. (Nor are the tales of your throat-singing offspring, probably, but at least it’s a little different.) It’s kind of a joke among my foreign friends: you come here only to find that Dutch people don’t smoke pot. Among my Dutch (-raised) friends, most of us gave it a go when we were young and got bored with it. Big meh. I have a friend who works in a bank and he talks about the other, illegal drugs he does, and banks tend to be conservative. Going by that, I’d say you can talk about doing drugs here, mostly, though of course it will always depend. I can’t think of anyone I wouldn’t openly tell what drugs I did over the weekend, I don’t think. The strongest disapproval is from people concerned about the dumping of MDMA waste in the woods, I think? Oh and the German police disapprove. But really, who wants to hear about someone else’s drug trip? Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/28 "2020-01-27T19:55:21Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Neither can I! Who would admit to liking Dave Matthews? Hah! I was going to post that too! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/29 "2020-01-29T19:43:00Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Do you have a cite for that? I’ve heard plenty about the evils of The Devil’s Lettuce but never have I ever 😉 been told that motor impairment\*\* would be an issue even the very next morning. Unfortunately, the (IMHO correct) movement to legalize pot has led to a sort of reverse of the Reefer Madness nonsense; instead of totally unsupported panic about all the terrible things marijuana will do to you, we have totally unsupported assertions about how it has no ill effects whatsoever. While it’s certainly no more harmful in direct terms than alcohol or tobacco (and probably better for you), it definitely impairs you. ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/30 "2020-01-30T04:02:20Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > In The Netherlands it’s mostly considered pretty uncool and juvenile. It’s only immature people and foreigners who talk about smoking pot. But do you sit around on Monday and talk about all of the choice genever you drank over the weekend, either? I guess what I’m really interested in learning about is whether the norms are different for alcohol consumption vs. MJ. Particularly in cultures where mota has been legal for a number of years. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/31 "2020-01-30T04:30:53Z")
I work for a tech firm in California that is headquartered in Oregon. We have a policy that you have to take a drug test to start employment but they stopped checking for cannabis like eight years ago. People talk about mj in the same way that they talk about alcohol. It’s pretty rare to talk about how wasted they got but favorite IPAs or flower versus vape wouldn’t cause anyone to bat an eye. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/32 "2020-01-30T13:58:52Z")
I think it would be considered unprofessional to talk about how wasted you got, from any substance. I’ve never heard anyone talk about that at the office. I have heard people talk about favorite beers – often when the department goes to a bar after work. Not so often actually at the office. When it gets legal enough that the department goes to a --hhhm, I don’t know the name for a legal place where you hang out with friends and consume cannabis, but one of those places – then I expect to hear co-workers discussing their favorite strain. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/33 "2020-01-30T14:19:55Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > When it gets legal enough that the department goes to a --hhhm, I don’t know the name for a legal place where you hang out with friends and consume cannabis, but one of those places I call it my living room.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/34 "2020-01-30T15:21:41Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Unfortunately, the (IMHO correct) movement to legalize pot has led to a sort of reverse of the Reefer Madness nonsense; instead of totally unsupported panic about all the terrible things marijuana will do to you, we have totally unsupported assertions about how it has no ill effects whatsoever. > > While it’s certainly no more harmful in direct terms than alcohol or tobacco (and probably better for you), it definitely impairs you. QFT! Pot is far less debilitating than alcohol but it does impair cognitive function along with mother skills and the body clears it more slowly than alcohol and most other drugs. Do you worry if someone smoked a bowl last night or the night before if they are your waiter? Your kid’s first grade teacher? Your Uber driver? Your pharmacy technician? Your cancer surgeon? The 70 year old who drives past the neighborhood playground to do her shopping? An air traffic controller? If we are going to legalize pot nationwide we will need to come to grips with those issues. And anyone who discusses with others how fucked up they got on any recreational substance outside of their close circle of friends or their therapy group is not showing good judgement. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/35 "2020-01-30T16:25:11Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Pot is far less debilitating than alcohol but it does impair cognitive function along with mother skills and the body clears it more slowly than alcohol and most other drugs. Do you worry if someone smoked a bowl last night or the night before if they are your waiter? Your kid’s first grade teacher? Your Uber driver? Your pharmacy technician? Your cancer surgeon? The 70 year old who drives past the neighborhood playground to do her shopping? An air traffic controller? One or two puffs before bed? Not a problem. > [@](#): > > If we are going to legalize pot nationwide we will need to come to grips with those issues. Whatever. It’s just not that big a deal. I agree that most of the health claims people are making now are ridiculous. I can’t imagine that the occasional puff is any worse than the occasional glass of wine. Even if not, it’s absurd to think that legalizing pot nationally will lead to a surge in cannabis use given the statistics when it became legal in various states. ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Sponge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dark_sponge/32/121_2.png) [@Dark\_Sponge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Sponge)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/36 "2020-01-30T16:50:20Z")
While it’s legal in my state testing positive is still a fire-able offense at my place of work (hospital). And they still ban job applicants for life if they test positive. So no, not mentioned too much around here. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/37 "2020-01-30T21:10:51Z")
Federal employee in DC here. The only time I’ve ever heard it mentioned is people noting how the subway now smells like it all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/38 "2020-02-02T15:28:43Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > I wonder if norms are different in Canada, where it’s legal nationally. I assume that, depending on the profession, there must be some restrictions; e.g. public bus driver, surgeon, etc. I’ve not heard much discussion, probably because of my age group. The only coffee time discussion I can remember was that the spouse of a co-worker now has a job selling cannabis in a pot shop. It was mentioned just like other job moves that people have, although with a few comments on «How times have changed…» ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/39 "2020-02-02T23:04:05Z")
A lot of good comments already- in my workplace after 5 years of legalization, it is definitely becoming more common to talk about CBD, marijuana in general. It has become common to recommend locations or specific products toward a goal. Pain relief for hands/back = 5 mg of \_\_\_\_\_. Especially around trying to decrease Advil and tylenol usage, I hear a lot of recommendations and discussion. But along with what many other people note, no one is saying “going to get blitzed tonight!” but I have also never heard, “going to go get shitfaced and blackout with some PBR.” ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2020, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939/40 "2020-02-03T22:00:39Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Pot is far less debilitating than alcohol but it does impair cognitive function along with mother skills… I’d better alert the old man. mmm [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-norms-around-legal-recreational-marijuana/846939.md?page=3)