What are the pot laws in CT?
Norml.org keeps the current marijuana laws for each state handy on their site, and unfortunately Connecticut laws still leave much to be desired. Hopefully our newly elected Governor Dan Malloy will step in before long to fix them. Frankly, they’re absurd.
First time possession of a “usable amount” of weed can yield you a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail, technically. Chances are you’ll end up with probation or some other reduced penalty, handed down by a realistic, understanding judge, but according to the law you could in theory spend a year in jail for it. A subsequent offense is then considered a FELONY, which could land you up to five years in jail and taint your job applications for the rest of your life. Really. Just for possession. Of a plant. Land of the free, indeed! Again, it’s not likely this will happen to you, but it’s in the books that way. It could happen.
Where it really gets tricky is if you have over 4 ounces, which implies you’re dealing, or if you get caught within 1,500 feet of a school or daycare facility. If your favorite toking spot happens to be in the woods behind your old elementary school, you could be facing a two-year minimum mandatory sentence. Yikes. Better find a new spot.
Are vaporizers really better for you than smoking?
Yes. When you smoke, you’re using a flame to burn the dried leaves of the pot plant, and that combustion creates carcinogenic by-products. This is unfortunate. But it’s not the marijuana that potentially causes cancer … just the process of breathing in the by-products.
With vaporization, the leaves are heated to a point where they’re hot enough to release the compounds that get you high, but not so hot that they combust. No combustion = no carcinogens = a happy, healthy smoker.
There are many different varieties and brands of vaporizers, all of which have different levels of cost and efficiency when it comes to lowering the toxins but still releasing the proper amount of THC. One of the most popular, and expensive, models is the Volcano.
A study in the November 2007 issue of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics titled “Vaporization as a Smokeless Delivery Cannabis Delivery System” ran tests using a Volcano vaporizer, concluding that, “CO levels were reduced with vaporization. No adverse events occurred. Vaporization of cannabis is a safe and effective mode of delivery of THC.” There are many other similar studies floating around out there. Maybe when they finally hit the mainstream we’ll all spend our Saturday nights in vapo-bars instead of destroying our livers with legal but harmful alcohol.
If you smoke in your car, what is the best way to prevent it from smelling?
Despite a study mentioned in High Concept #3 that implies pot-smoking may not impair certain driving skills at all, I still strongly recommend not smoking and driving. Potentially putting others in danger is never a good thing. But, say you’re at a show and you need to duck into your car to puff so you don’t stink up the club’s bathroom — then the car seems like a reasonable refuge in which to smoke.
If you’re really paranoid, the old college dormroom trick of stuffing a dryer sheet into an empty cardboard toilet-paper tube tends to work well. But then if a cop happens to investigate, your car smells OK but you’ve got to explain why you’ve got an empty cardboard toilet-paper tube stuffed with dryer sheets in you car.
The most time-tested classic car-pot-smoke cover-up tool, of course, are those little tree air fresheners. They’re made to be put in cars, so they’re not quite as suspicious to have with you, dangling in their trusty spot, just below the rearview mirror.
Send your weed questions to the weed man: highconcept@newmassmedia.com.
Find us on Twitter: @HighConceptCT
