Question of the Day - 28 August 2017

Since you say you don’t want to break ANY laws, we believe it’s best to play it safe and not consume edibles if you’re a visitor to Nevada and don’t have access to a private space.  

Our understanding is that all the regulations and ramifications concerning recreational marijuana consumption in Nevada have yet to be determined; after all, it’s been legal for less than two months.

But in Colorado, where recreational marijuana has been legal for several years and the policies are firmly in place, possession laws are the same for all retail marijuana types, from bud and concentrates to edibles and sublinguals, and public consumption is always illegal, regardless of what form it takes. 

Fair enough. But what if you rent a VRBO house or condo advertising that smoking is permitted? You’re on private property that condones or at least doesn't condemn, the consumption of tobacco and marijuana. So now the question becomes, what if you get high in private, then walk around in public? Is that breaking a law?

Public intoxication laws vary wildly throughout the nation, but most are predicated on a breach of the peace, harassment of others, or endangering lives or safety while being intoxicated in public. The laws in jurisdictions that have attempted to criminalize public intoxication have usually been struck down as unconstitutionally vague.

In Nevada specifically, public intoxication is not a crime; Nevada laws treat alcohol abuse as a health, not a legal, problem. If a person in Nevada is under the influence in a public place and unable to care for his or her health and safety, or is threatening the health and safety of others, a police officer must take the person into custody. However, the officer is supposed to transport the person to a treatment center; if that’s not possible, the person can be held in a local jail for up to 48 hours, but he or she isn’t under arrest.

Also under Nevada law, local jurisdictions aren’t allowed to criminalize being intoxicated.

So the answer is, if you smoke or consume edible marijuana in private and go out into public, you can be detained if you’re a danger to yourself or others, but you haven't committed a crime.

The reason we’ve gone into all that is that edibles are not to be trifled with. Especially if you’ve never before tried the wacky weed, edibles present a different situation than smoking. In many states, all packaged edibles, from gummies to brownies, must carry labels warning that the intoxicating effects may be delayed for two hours or more and that users should initially eat a small amount. The effects can sneak up on a pot newbie, such as yourself, and you might take too much without realizing how high you'll eventually get -- which can manifest in unexpected ways if you're out and about. (One way an "overdose" of edibles clobbers you is right in the paranoia bone.) 

By the way, a few years ago, we published a book called Reefer Gladness by bestselling author Michael Konik (The Man with the $100,000 Breasts, The Smart Money, and a number of others).  Among the stories, essays, and riffs on this simple weed that’s transforming American society is Konik's account of turning on to marijuana for the first time in his life when he was 38 (in Amsterdam).