Michael Lansu
If you walk around enough in this city, it’s happened to you: You’re padding down a sidewalk on Milwaukee Avenue, earbuds in, just minding your own business, when the pungent smell of pot fills your nostrils. You turn on a dime just to see who the bold soul is puffing in public.
While there’s no data to suggest smoking weed in public is on the rise, many people are doing it. A decline in cigarette smoking combined with the harsher marijuana on the market these days may just make it more noticeable.
Attitudes, too, have changed with many states across the country decriminalizing the drug. In Illinois, medical marijuana is legal—with the first depositories opening up late last year—but recreational use is not.
A recent New York Times article about this very issue noted that some New Yorkers felt "more secure" these days about lighting up in public.
Andrew, a 35-year-old Bucktown resident who first got busted for smoking pot in public at age 12, said the attitude towards using the drug in public depends on the neighborhood, but he believes the overall attitudes toward pot use has changed in recent years.
“The stigma of marijuana is kind of going away,” said Andrew, who's able to balance his pot-smoking with a busy work schedule. “It’s not like some lazy stoner. People are starting to realize that pot isn’t bad for you, or that I’m not just going to sit on the couch all day. I smoke all day and I go work out. It’s not people with some hippie shirt on and watching cartoons all day.”
Despite the threat of a fine, or even jail time, many recreational pot smokers say they do not fear smoking the drug in public. Those we talked to for this article say they do not hold doctor-approved medical marijuana cards allowing them to use the drug for medicinal purposes. They also didn’t want their last names used for this story, fearing retribution from an employer or that they'd upset their families.
Andrew says he regularly walks around Bucktown, Logan Square and Wicker Park smoking marijuana from a one-hitter.
“When I’m walking past a bar and take a hit, people almost seem more offended by the cigarette smokers,” Andrew said.
Kathleen Kane-Willis, director of the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy, said there's no statistics that show more people have gotten bolder about smoking pot in public, but she thinks the decline in cigarette smoke has made the smell of marijuana more noticeable.
Zach, a 23-year-old Humboldt Park resident and bar back, says he smokes marijuana on busy sidewalks regularly and has never been stopped by police.
“I’m totally cool with smoking weed in public at this point. … And when you are a white guy you don’t fear it,” Zach said. “I’ll take a hit from a one-hitter outside of work in front of cops and I’ve never once been confronted about it.”
In 2012, Chicago granted police officers the power to decide if somebody carrying less than 15 grams of marijuana should be ticketed or arrested – a move that has been much criticized by those noting a discrepancy in the rate whites are ticketed compared to blacks and Hispanics.
According to Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy data, the mostly black communities on the South and West Side had the highest number of marijuana arrests.
Kane-Willis thinks the marijuana today has a stronger smell, which may give some the impression that more people are lighting up on the streets. She also suggests the public is more accustomed to the smell of pot and can identify it easier.
“We have seen much more specialization in strains in the past 10 years that are much more potent smelling,” Kane-Willis said. “When talking about the marijuana markets now, the type of marijuana people are purchasing is more potent, powerful, stinky. If someone was smoking in the 1980s it wouldn’t be as pungent or recognizable.”
The lack of cigarette smoke now also makes marijuana smoke more noticeable, Kane-Willis said. Fewer than 17 percent of adults smoke cigarettes now, down from more than 42 percent in 1965, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“As cigarette smoking decreases, the smoke you see is more likely to be marijuana,” Kane-Willis said. “It could feel more noticeable when creating new laws around smoking cigarettes. When you see somebody light up you are going to notice it more. … It might create the perception that there are more people doing it because it is stronger, it can carry further and there is more.”
Smoking pot in public is easier to get away with in some neighborhoods than it is in others– especially if you are black or Hispanic.
Keith, a 42-year-old black man from the West Side, said he doesn’t smoke marijuana in public because he believes police will stop him because of his race.
“We don’t smoke weed in public, unless it is around our house. … We will drive around and smoke that way you can get away from the police -- and fast,” said Keith, a bouncer. “Police will stop us every time. We don’t even have to be smoking weed, we can just be walking and they’re going to stop us because they smell it or just because we are black.”
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