In New York there is smoking weed on every corner – although cannabis is actually still banned there.
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(Photo: AFP)
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Today it has become an indispensable part of New York: The ban on smoking in restaurants and bars. The food tastes better, the clothes no longer smell of cigarettes, the head hurts less from the alcohol. The once controversial idea of the former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg changed New York and with it the world, many cities copied the metropolis.
It’s an irony of history that New York is now being polluted with smoke again. In many areas and almost at any time of the day, the street smells like marijuana or hashish, depending on the direction of the wind, the disgusting, sweet scent penetrates your nose early on. The smokers are easy to spot, sometimes young people on the street corner, sometimes kitchen helpers during the break, sometimes night owls.
As a resident you are amazed. While cannabis may no longer be banned in Colorado and a handful of other states, New York bans the drug. However, quite a few stoners believe that. The error arose in 2013 due to the new regulations of Mayor Bill de Blasio. After that, you won’t end up in jail if you’re caught with less than 25 grams of weed. There is only a 100 dollar fine.
The goals of Blasio are honorable: Relieve the courts and save young people from a career in prison. Arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana have fallen 38 percent since 2013, while traffic tickets have increased by 58 percent for the same reason, according to the mayor’s office. However, not many seem to be afraid of them. In the past, stoners didn’t try to hide the smell by quickly puffing a puff or two and holding their hand over the joint. Today, however, they openly blow the smoke into the air.
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It mainly depends on where the stoner is. According to a research by the media site Vice, the police mainly controls in areas such as East Harlem or Leffers Garden, where the crime rate is high. You may look at it how you want, but in other areas this practice leads to air pollution due to lax supervision.
Blasio tries to be a little pregnant: neither to ban cannabis, nor to allow it entirely. The drug is no longer frowned upon by society. The local newspaper New York Post reported some time ago how cannabis was making its way into the wealthiest people in town. Cannabis-infused candies, lollipops, chocolate or biscuits are served there at parties. The festivities are unbearable without the drug, the newspaper quotes an anonymous socialite: “Most people are usually so boring.”
The trend to make the drug fair can also be felt in the New York City Council. Some important MPs there are campaigning for legalization. Blasio defends himself – which doesn’t improve matters. It prevents a solution like the one in Colorado, where you can legally buy cannabis in stores marked with a green cross. However, you are not allowed to smoke joints in public there either. But many no longer do that anyway. After all, there are cannabis-infused foods that won’t cause lung cancer – and won’t make the air smoke.
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