Pot smoking legal, but stigma lingers

Just because marijuana is now legal, doesn’t mean people will admit to smoking it.

Cannabis became legal in Canada Wednesday for those over 19.

Yet although it’s no longer against the law, some citizens still don’t want to be associated with it.

The Examiner asked people downtown Wednesday whether they’d take a toke.

Most said they wouldn’t, a few said yes, and others immediately asked if they had to give their name.

Generally, it was those who shied away from sharing their name who said they’d smoke it.

There were various reasons why they didn’t want the truth to be told — all attached to stigma.

One young man said he didn’t want his grandma to find out. Another woman said she didn’t want her work to know. And a PhD student at Trent University said he may go into politics later and didn’t want to hinder his chances of getting elected.

A few weren’t afraid to be honest though, after some humming and hawing.

Dawn Pond, 28, said she’d try it. She thinks legalization is a complicated topic but is a good move overall.

“It’s great if we can govern it a little closer and potentially make some tax revenue off it as well,” the Peterborough resident said.

Premier Doug Ford made it legal in Ontario to smoke weed wherever cigarettes are smoked. That doesn’t really bother Pond.

“It already happens, so it’s no different than what I already witness downtown.”

Amber Pula said she might possibly try it, now that it’s legal. Otherwise, she wouldn’t touch it.

“Probably just to see what all the hullabaloo is about,” said Pula, 22, of why she’s tempted.

John Hamilton, 57, won’t be ordering any pot online. He’s not interested.

“I prefer the reality that I’m in right now, so I don’t seek any alternative reality, whether it be through alcohol or weed or any other form,” said Hamilton, who lives near Millbrook.

Yet despite his personal stance, Hamilton is all for it being legal. It’s about time, he said.

“People smoke it now. Nothing is going to change except people won’t get records for being caught with it,” Hamilton said.

There were those, however, who won’t do marijuana, nor do they think it should be legal.

North-end resident Ben Den-

hoed is one of them.

“I’m not going to smoke because I think it’s more of a mindaltering drug that doesn’t have a good track record for people,” said Denhoed, 38.

As for legalization, Denhoed said he thinks more research into the side effects of cannabis should’ve been done first.

Dorothy Barrow is dead-set against it. She’s 71.

“I don’t agree with it at all,” Barrow said.

She tried it once, but it didn’t “do a thing” for her and she won’t be doing it again.

Barrow said she thinks it’s going to get out of hand, comparing it to the opioid crisis.

And as for Ford making it legal to smoke where cigarettes are smoked, Barrow just rolled her eyes.

“Figures that he would say that,” she said.

In Ontario, residents have to order pot online through the Ontario Cannabis Store — which offers different types of pot with names such as Easy Cheesy, Super Sonic and Shiskaberry — until private retailers start selling it in April.

By mid-morning Wednesday, 38,000 orders were placed online through the Ontario Cannabis Store.