Legalization
In Public Areas
The
previous article I wrote about has similar and not so similar topics. For
example in the first article it only discusses the issue at hand, rather than
what they are planning to do about the issue. With the other article they
inform the public with petitions and collecting signatures so they can have the
idea of smoking in public on a ballot. However, the bill did not pass because
there were a lot of restaurant owners concerned with adolescents being
influenced by pot smokers. However, couldn’t this also be an economical benefit
for those who own business? Despite their efforts and what the first article
has stated, they both connect with ending results of being shut down.
Since my last post I read an article from Colorado Public Radio called "Denver tackles pot tourists biggest problem where smoke it"
by Ben Markus. He describes most common marijuana smokers and their feud against
smoking in public. Although legal recreational marijuana has been implemented in Colorado, smoking
in general areas is illegal. Markus then continues with several situations
about tourists struggling with finding an appropriate place to smoke marijuana.
He then continues with a local bud-tender notifying tourists that they are not
allowed to smoke in public places. This leaves them with no where to smoke and
confused if they should break the law or not.
This was a good blog that showed me what this article was about. In this blog you talked about how restaurants don't want people to smoke in them but I dint blame them. My mother owns a restaurant and we would not like it if people would smoke in them. What if hotel owners let people smoke it them? Wouldn't that be more of an attraction to tourists?
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting issue. I like how you questioned the issue from an economical perspective. It seems that Colorado lawmakers are at somewhat of a crossroads in terms of whether or not it should be legal to smoke marijuana in public.
ReplyDeleteI think, in the end, it comes down to a comparison between the effects of tobacco smoke and marijuana smoke (since regular cigarette smoking is already legal in public). Perhaps some more research should be done on the effects marijuana before lawmakers make a decision?
You also mentioned that restaurant owners were concerned with adolescents being influenced by pot smokers. I think if it were legal to smoke marijuana in public, then it should be treated like tobacco smoking where restaurant, and other private property owners, should be able to decide whether or not smoking is allowed on the premises.
Overall I think you have an interesting topic, and I am quite curious how it turns out.