Guys! Teens are smoking pot.
Surprised? I’m not.
In a recent presentation to the Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Commission, Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley Programs Director Dawnette Kingsley-Smith vouched for an ordinance restricting public tobacco and marijuana use. She said it would help “denormalize” pot smoking among youth.
“The myths around the health of cannabis use are just ridiculous,” Kingsley-Smith said. “We are seeing a huge decrease in perception of harm. So why is this happening? This is happening because they’re seeing it being normalized; everybody’s doing it.”
Um, “health” aside, the youth have been smoking marijuana for as long as it’s been around. It’s been a normalized part of renegade teen culture for forever. In other words, kids illegally purchased pot products and hotboxed cars long before recreational use was legalized. And it’s still illegal for them, btw.
I don’t think a public smoking ordinance on marijuana is going to impact how normalized it is—what it will do is force these little rebels back into hiding.
That said, I get it. I’m sick of inhaling vape smoke everywhere I go. Karen, we know it’s you vaping in FoodMaxx. We can smell it. You’re not fooling anyone with that little palm-to-mouth “trick.” It’s gross and the people who vape are gross, and I don’t want to breathe in their chemicals. So, yeah, get it out of public places!
Why is it still allowed in public places like outdoor dining areas and events? Get with the program, Santa Maria! This is one liberty that the conservatives are a-OK with taking away because a smoker’s right to inhale poison interferes with everyone else’s right not to.
However, I do take issue with the proposed signs that Santa Barbara County and Santa Maria are considering posting about the health issues associated with smoking both tobacco and marijuana. County Health Education Associate Eva Avila shared an image noting that secondhand marijuana smoke “contains many of the same cancer-causing substances and toxic chemicals as secondhand tobacco smoke,” including “mercury, lead, formaldehyde, benzene, hydrogen cyanide, and toluene.”
Excuse me? What kind of marijuana is she smoking?
Last I checked, all the pot sold in the state of California is required to be 100 percent organic, no chemicals or altering agents allowed. Just pure, unadulterated cannabis, baby.
The sign should definitely specify that those chemicals it mentions are in the concentrate sold for electronic smoking devices—aka vapes. Vapes are bad. Pot is pot. Both are normalized.
You know what’s not? Volunteering to help with the Orcutt Holiday Parade. The parade went strong for more than 60 years before the COVID-19 pandemic stopped that streak.
A lot of folks seem to like the idea of volunteering for the event meant to instill holiday cheer, showcase high school marching bands, and spur loads of imaginative and not-so-imaginative decorated floats. But when it comes down to it, all that “help” they offer doesn’t seem to materialize.
It’s time to put those words into action or the parade is never coming back to Orcutt.
The Canary is ready for a light. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 17-24, 2022.