A few days ago my wife noticed a car that reeked of pot when she walked by a man getting out of the car. There was also a woman and a small child in the vehicle. I'm guessing the man and the woman were the parents, but I do not know this for sure. All the windows in the car were rolled up, and the odor of the marijuana was noticeable because the man had opened the door to get out.
I didn't get up and say anything even though I should have and I don't feel very good about that decision to be honest. I have called 911 about the exact same thing before for a different occurrence and been made to feel like I was wasting their time. In the past confronting people that engage in this kind of behavior only results in profanity and exclamations of the supposed legality of marijuana use in my state. This isn't even the issue, but it is irritating nonetheless because it isn't true.
It isn't legal anywhere in the USA period. Federal law supersedes state and local law. A failure to enforce the law or choosing to ignore localities attempting to contradict it is not the same as it being legal. Various states have decided to exercise authority in the matter that they do not actually have. Changes in elected leaders or appointed personnel at the federal level could easily change federal response to the matter. Until marijuana is reclassified as something other than a schedule one substance it will continue to be unlawful to use or sell anywhere in the USA for any reason.
Anyway, back to the point. The problem was the fact that they were smoking a drug in a vehicle that they had been driving with a child in the car and all the windows rolled up. Ignore for a moment the quasi-legal status of marijuana use in Washington State, there are so many other things wrong with what they were doing without even getting to that piece of things that it is just crazy.
Smoking, of any type, in a car with children ought to be a crime. It is child abuse for the sake of convenience and is just wrong. Smoking a narcotic just makes the matter worse.
How about being under the influence while driving? That is illegal here. It's called DUI and the man driving deserved to be charged for it. It is bad enough that they were risking their lives and those of others on the road, but they were doing it with a child in their care.
In the past I have called authorities, I have confronted individuals, I have alerted business owners of it happening on their property. It usually didn't seem to result in anything good. I should have taken down the plate number and called 911 anyway and when something like this happens again I will.
People have such a dismissive attitude towards marijuana in Washington state that they ignore all the problems relating to it out of hand. If that had been beer or crack cocaine I'm willing to bet that a call too the police would have carried more weight than one for marijuana.
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