Here in Florida, where we have medical marijuana, the only thing I’ve noticed is a much higher (heh) incidence of smoke smell in the public. That’s actually a major argument from the conservative opposition here to the legalization amendment we have in November: that you’ll be smelling pot smoke all day.
That’s not a big deal to me. I must say that I dislike the smell of pot: it smells enough like a forest fire that it vaguely triggers my fight or flight instinct on some level. But smelling weed once a week or so in public is not even that bad even for me.
One place I don’t smell it from, though, is a car. The vast majority of the time it’s from walking by a building, and sometimes from no particular place at all. I’ve smelled it exactly once appearing to emanate from a vehicle since medical was made legal, which equals the once that I’ve smelled it before medical legalization. So that very vague anecdote seems to argue against a rash of crazed poh-theeds driving dangerously, although it of course doesn’t rule out edibles or smoking before driving.
According to that argument, the entire country of Canada should now reek of pot smoke (see my post above). It doesn’t. I’ve actually never noticed it anywhere. It’s also worth noting that a good vaper emits no smoke and almost no odour, and is a much more efficient way to consume cannabis than setting it on fire (in terms of actual percentage THC/CBD delivered).
Vapes are very popular and probably keep the aroma to a minimum.
Just for the record I’m an occasional user.
I do see some issues with some of the younger kids and teens we are working with. They and their caregivers are getting entered into various criminal/administrative/child abuse systems if somehow caught.
I’ve had numerous instances of kids bringing vapes to school.
Not sure how much damage this might do to their lives currently and in the future.
I know, right? Oh, the havoc and devastation when same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts, the desperate hordes of refugees clogging the interstates to escape…
Yeh, no. Our current governor, Maura Healey, is in a long-term lesbian relationship, everyone’s matter of fact about it, and the state somehow still survives and thrives.
The troglodytes always need a bogeyman to stir up the outrage.
ETA: Legal pot’s only downside I’ve seen here was the initial traffic jams at the first few dispensaries, till the first excitement wore off and more stores opened.
In my state, it’s legal to grow weed, and to use it recreationally, but it’s not legal to use it in public. I don’t smell it much more than i did when people used it illegally.
Here’s the numbers succinctly summarized by the The NCSL Foundation for State Legislatures:
Following the link the increase of marijuana presence in fatal crashes increased from 8 to 18% from 2007 to 2016. That does not seem like barely registering to me. Your belief that driving buzzed is less of a risk (because they drive slower not faster) is unfortunately widely held, and I think puts more of those a bit buzzed justifying the choice.
I love weed. I think it helps my anxiety. Especially, now that it’s legal in my state, and I don’t have to be too cautious. I’d like to think that, though I may be wrong at times, I’m at least grounded in what I perceived to be reality, and I never had any negative dilutional side effects from the plant.
What worries me, is that some people will.
Especially with the likes of MAGA, and other cults.
How does that compare with the increase in cannabis use in that same period? This is much like saying “the guy that was killed by an anvil falling on his head was found to be stoned on marijuana!” Does that tell you anything useful about any causal relationship?
And I certainly hope you’re not insinuating that alcohol impairment isn’t a much more dangerous factor in driving!
I smell it a fair amount as it wafts from domiciles and sometimes cars. Still better than the cigarette clouds of my youth. I also smell the processing facility near my house, which is not a nice odor.
Oregon legalized for recreational use about a year (?) I think, after Colorado. No perceptible difference to crime stats here that I’ve seen. Of course, it was our state flower even before it was legal.
The only thing I’ve noticed is a fair few farmers converted to the new crop, and during harvest time out here in the rural areas, the fragrance can be quite strong. My nose discerns easily between skunk and cannabis, but when you first catch the whiff, you’d swear you were driving through a mob of pissed off skunks.
I’m a very light user of gummies for sleep. I cut them in half and that’s plenty for me. But I’m glad it’s available and no big deal here.
Here in Arkansas, that’s been my experience as well. We have medical marijuana here in Arkansas but recreational use is still illegal. Since medical marijuana became legal in 2016, I run into the smell much more often. I don’t smell it on a daily basis, but when walking through downtown Little Rock on my lunch break, my neighborhood in the evening, or even while driving down the highway it isn’t that unusual to catch a whiff. My neighbors smoke pot once in a while and it can get pretty pungent. I really, really hate the smell of the stuff.
The NHTSA is a separate entry from the insurance institute for highway safety. One is the feds, and the other was created by a consortium of insurance companies. And i actually adore the IIHS and their sister organization, the highway loss data institute. I’m going to an event at HLDI in a couple of weeks, and I’m really looking forward to it. I think they do a really stellar job of analyzing data, and also do better crash testing (imho) than the feds.
When i was working as a property casualty actually, i went to presentations by IIHS/HLDI almost every year. And i went to a lot of presentations about legalization of cannabis. When the first state legalized weed (it was either Washington or Oregon, i forget) they did a ton of studies comparing those two very similar (up to that point) states, and the rates of traffic deaths and other accidents moved in lockstep. And the guy presenting it was visible frustrated by that.
When Colorado legalized weed they did find an increase in auto accidents that they correlated to legalization. But it wasn’t a huge increase. And they made more assumptions than they usually do. (One of their virtues is that they are really open about how they analyze their data, at least when they do industry presentations.)
They’ve also done studies with drunk and stoned volunteers driving on tracks, and on simulators. In those studies, booze and weed produce very similar reductions in reflexes, etc. The impact on actual rubber-hits-the-road data aren’t anywhere close to comparable. Alcohol impairs actual driving more than weed, more than opiates, more than cold meds, and more than most everything else that’s been studied. My speculations as to why are just speculations. But the data is pretty clear that legalizing weed had a minor impact on traffic accidents.
The impact of weed on driving seems to be comparable to cold meds and opiates, fwiw. And while there have certainly been extremely serious issues with medically-prescribed opiates, a massive rash of traffic accidents isn’t near the top of the list of “societal problems with legalized opiates”. Neither is it a major issue with otc cold meds. Yes, the laws against impaired driving should include weed. But that risk isn’t a good reason to outlaw the stuff.
All of the Trump supporters I’ve know in real life (aside from my old Aunt in Florida) smoke weed. I had to end a few friendships recently because their ideas were getting racist and antisemitic, (surprise!).
