The stench of marijuana in New York City has gotten so bad that it’s alienating tourists, yet the city’s mayor, Democrat Eric Adams, is actually encouraging more of it – and even liberals are getting annoyed.
“Tourists are taken aback by the smell in Times Square,” so much so that a local business alliance has launched a campaign to discourage pot-smoking in the public arena, Spectrum News NY1 reports:
“After the legalization of recreational marijuana, the smell of weed in public places is rampant. Some complaints sparked a new campaign from the Times Square Alliance to put up signs that read ‘Let’s be Blunt: No Smoking in the Plazas.’”
“New York Smells Like a Declining City,” a recent Wall Street Journal piece says, noting that “The stench of weed is ubiquitous, and the mayor is encouraging the ‘industry.’”
On Thursday, the leftist magazine “The Atlantic” ran an OpEd titled, “I Don’t Want to See You Get High,” complaining about the stench of pot and the inconsideration for others exhibited by its users:
“Smelling cannabis has become an inescapable feature of living in (or visiting) the city, an emblem of life in New York akin to sipping a crème at a café table in Paris or strolling through Rome eating a gelato.”
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“I’m glad that draconian anti-marijuana laws have disappeared. But we need a taboo against public consumption.”
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And, New York City isn’t alone. Residents of Orange County (California), Phoenix (Arizona), Denver (Colorado) and Portland (Oregon) also find the overwhelming smell of marijuana distasteful.
Portland is even rated “best city for cannabis in U.S.” for 2023, unseating Denver as number one, based on factors such as “legality, price, the number of dispensaries per 100,000 residents, online rankings of dispensaries – and the number of Taco Bells per 100,000 residents.”
The International Cannabis Business Conference (ICBC) has offers one solution to the pot-stench problem in “The Best Way To Address Concerns About The Smell Of Cannabis Is To License Clubs,” which recommends increased regulation of certain issues reflecting poorly on its industry.
But, not everyone is offended by pot odor, however.
“The smell of weed in the streets is a sign of progress and tolerance, not decline,” Liz Wolfe argues in “New York City Should Have Always Smelled Like Pot,” published by Reason magazine.