Matt Dionne | Editor-in-Chief
Featured Image courtesy of Jasmine Wiradharma
With new laws legalizing marijuana coming into effect, students will be free to openly smoke weed (not that it stopped many people before) anywhere that smoking cigarettes is permitted.
While many universities have adopted a “smoke-free campus” initiative, prohibiting smoking anywhere on campus, York is not one such institution.
Currently, York has a bylaw prohibiting smoking within enclosed spaces, which is enforced by campus Security Services; violators can face a fine of up to $5,000.
Additionally, the city of Toronto has a bylaw that prohibits smoking within nine metres of any entrances or exits to buildings.
This means everywhere else on campus is fair game to smoke, but should it be? In short—no.
While the decision to ingest something belongs to the individual whose body is affected by the substance, smoking is not one such example—someone can choose to ingest a substance such as alcohol, and it will affect only them, and no one else. However, unlike substances such as alcohol or even marijuana edibles, smoking doesn’t exclusively affect the person using it.
If someone chooses to smoke, it can affect everyone who comes within a certain radius of them via secondhand exposure.
According to a study done by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), exposure to secondhand smoke in well-ventilated areas resulted in minimal THC levels in participants’ bloodstreams—not high enough to fail a drug test. However, the same study found that exposure to secondhand marijuana smoke in poorly ventilated areas resulted in positive urine tests.
Furthermore, a follow up study by NIDA found that participants who didn’t smoke but were exposed to secondhand marijuana smoke with high THC levels experienced a contact high, and “displayed mild impairments on performance in motor tasks.”
Additionally, a 2016 study on rats found that secondhand marijuana smoke had a more significant effect on the circulatory system than tobacco smoke. “One minute of exposure to secondhand marijuana smoke impaired flow-mediated dilation (the extent to which arteries enlarge in response to increased blood flow) of the femoral artery that lasted for at least 90 minutes; impairment from one minute of secondhand tobacco exposure was recovered within 30 minutes,” reported NIDA.
According to Service Canada, secondhand smoke kills 800 Canadian non-smokers a year due to lung cancer and heart disease. However, while the dangers of secondhand tobacco smoke are well known, there’s still very little research on the dangers of secondhand marijuana smoke.
Before it is permitted to smoke marijuana wherever it is permitted to smoke tobacco, further research on the effects of exposure to secondhand marijuana smoke is needed.
