Ask a Stoner: New York Already Has Better Smoking Laws

Dear Stoner: Why is Denver scared of weed lounges when New York City allows people to smoke weed wherever smoking freaking cigarettes is allowed? If the biggest city can do it, then why can’t y’all?
Choppy

Dear Choppy: Colorado governments as a whole have put their heads in the sand when it comes to public cannabis consumption. People have been smoking joints at parks, in alleyways and in parked cars for decades, and unless we become the Philippines, that’s not going to change any time soon.

Lawmakers in New York – where I’ve smelled more burnt weed than any other place in the world, by the way – were just smart enough to realize they weren’t going to stop it, so they might as well end the needless tickets and fines. Denver is still trying to confine social pot use to licensed businesses, of which there is currently one.

It’s not like New Yorkers are allowed to smoke wherever they want now that weed is legal there. Smoking of any kind is only allowed in private residences and vehicles, tobacco bars and stores, hotel rooms designated for smokers and city sidewalks fifteen away from a health-care facility entrance. Oh, shit – that is pretty much everywhere….

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