Opinion

NYC’s weed stench scourge: Letters to the Editor — Sept. 5, 2023

The Issue: Complaints of the smell of marijuana smoke through the city since the drug was made legal.

The smell of marijuana makes me sick, whether I’m in or around a crowd of people or even smelling it emitting from a vehicle driving by me (“Reeker madness,” Sept. 1).

If I’m on public transportation, the smell of someone walking by me who just smoked marijuana repulses me.

If you are not allowed to have an open container of alcohol, why would you be allowed to smoke a mind-altering drug in public?

Regardless of what advocates for marijuana say concerning pot smoking, it does embolden people, as does alcohol, and people tend to do more inappropriate things when high.

Brandon Harris

Rochester

Marijuana destroys human lungs. People already have a hard enough time breathing due to pollution and COVID.

The effort to legalize marijuana is an absolute cop-out to make more money. It is not a sincere effort to confront the issues of marijuana misuse and substance abuse across America.

Marijuana is extremely addictive, and it literally destroys both mental and physical health.

Arthur Mackey

Roosevelt

Cigarette smoke was banned as a health hazard in indoor facilities. The smell of cigarette smoke has been replaced by the smell of marijuana smoke in New York City.

So now I have to be subjected to somebody else’s nasty habit.

I think if someone wants to smoke pot in the sanctity of their home, so be it. But in public, you are encroaching on my rights to be drug free and live in a safe environment.

Yet now everybody can do whatever they want to do, and there are no consequences for it. This pot-smell epidemic is reflective of how we have lost control of our society.

Mindy Rader

New City

How far we have fallen.

Once upon a time people were told to “stop and smell the flowers.” Now they are forced to sniff the weed.

Sallyanne Ferrero

Naples, Fla.

The Issue: A physician saying Sen. Mitch McConnell was clear to work after he froze while speaking.

Any health-care professional, and many who have a very senior family member, can recognize a “period of lack of oxygen perfusion” to the brain (“Doc ‘freeze up’ Mitch,” Sept. 1).

These episodes can be due to a variety of reasons, but the net result is lack of blood to the brain.

Though Sen. Mitch McConnell may appear fine after the event, it signals a health issue that may or may not be treatable — arrhythmia, seizure, blood pressure dropping suddenly — and there can be lingering brain consequences after the event.

It is an issue that can impact physical capabilities to work at optimal levels. These are not “lightheaded” moments.

Amy Hendel

Manhattan

McConnell not only zoned out for 30 seconds, his expression was vacant as he tightly clutched the podium.

And yet he has gotten the all-clear to carry out his duties as a ranking member of the Senate

His colleague, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, is so gone that she needs constant prompts to do anything in committee.

Even in the final days of mom’s battle with Lewy body dementia, I never saw her checked out like these two, and I was with her daily.

It’s one more black eye for American excellence.

One of the most troubling parts is that none of the other members of the Senate have the brass to step up and call it what it is.

Rosalee Adams

Tigard, Ore.

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