New York is a city of smells, yet the scent of weed is breaking through.
Smoking violation complaints to the city’s 311 system are up an average of 86% since adult-use marijuana was legalized in 2021 — compared against the prior decade. Smoking complaints in parks are likewise up 44%. The records do not specify if weed or cigarettes are the culprit, but tobacco use rates have declined sharply in the city over the last two decades.
These grievances may have to do with the chemistry of cannabis itself and the physics that governs how its smoke moves — but researchers are also digging into the perception of weed and how it influences peoples’ acceptance of cannabis use in public spaces. The best way to understand the present and navigate the future might be through scientific understanding of the substance — and how that influences opinion.
A study published Aug. 11 in the journal JAMA Network Open found adults in the United States increasingly perceive secondhand exposure to cannabis smoke as safer than tobacco smoke — though this view doesn’t reflect the science that suggests otherwise. But this greater acceptance of cannabis could explain why New Yorkers might be more likely to tolerate weed use on a park bench whereas lighting a cigarette might draw side-eye.
Under New York law, weed smoking is banned in the same public places as cigarettes, including parks, beaches and pedestrian plazas. The penalty typically amounts to a $50 fine.
An effort is underway to quantify all these elements — chemistry, physics and human behavior — to inform the next phase of cannabis use where it’s legalized, like New York. These researchers are less concerned with smell complaints than with the negative ingredients of secondhand cannabis smoke — which are also inherently produced by cigarettes and wildfires.
Dr. Beth Cohen is a professor of medicine at the University of California in San Francisco and senior author of the JAMA study.
“Do we have enough reassuring…
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