
When cannabis was legalized in Canada I and a colleague invited questions about cannabis from our students. Here are some of those questions.
Is a second-hand high an actual thing?
It depends on your definition of second-hand. It turns out this is more complex than you might think. It depends on the issue of people’s intentions. Where tobacco smoke is concerned, the definition is fairly straightforward. Typically, we mean that people are inhaling exhaled tobacco smoke but they don’t intend to. In this case, we regard second-hand smoke as a big problem, and it has prompted the banning of smoking in public places, including bars and restaurants.
When we consider smoking cannabis, things change because users intend to consume exhaled cannabis smoke, especially if the THC content is high. Now, to answer the original question, one can definitely get high from second-hand cannabis smoke, especially if the smoke has a high THC content. Often second-hand cannabis smoke is inhaled directly after being exhaled by someone. A common practice is called “hotboxing”. This refers to smoking cannabis in an enclosed space (e.g. a car or a small room) in order to maximize the narcotic effect.
Another practice, known as “shotgunning” involves taking a drag, and then exhaling directly into the mouth of another person, either mouth to mouth (“shotgun kiss”) or through a tube of some sort (possibly a discarded cardboard roll). The photo in this post shows a soldier in Vietnam inhaling smoke blown into the barrel of a shotgun (literally shotgunning). This is an effective way to deliver THC to produce a second-hand high.
On the other hand, this is still smoke and many people would prefer to avoid it, just like with tobacco smoke. This accounts for the same smoking bans applying to cannabis smoke.
If I get pulled over by police, and I’ve smoked weed, how will they measure how high I am? What if you’ve smoked it in the past but aren’t driving high?
Gather round and listen to the tale of Ross Rebagliati. He was an Olympic snowboarder who won gold at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. When he tested positive for THC his medal was stripped from him. He insisted that he hadn’t smoked marijuana since 1997, and that he must have ingested 2nd hand smoke at a party his friends held for him days before. On the other hand, one has to question why THC, which acts as a sedative similar to heroin, would be a banned substance in the first place. It’s hard to see it positively affecting the adrenalin-fueled arousal that would accompany flying down a mountain on a snow board.
On appeal his medal was restored. The rest of this story is that he founded Ross’ Gold, a medical marijuana company.
The issue of testing positive for THC is a serious one. Currently, if police suspect your poor driving is due to some form intoxication, they are allowed to submit you to a simple roadside sobriety test. If you fail this test, they can take you in to subject you to further testing. THC has a long half-life in the body; it can last on the order of days. In addition, if one only smokes a bit every day, it can accumulate in the body, because it’s not being cleared out fast enough. All of this means that if you consume marijuana you will have the drug in your system. If it gets to the point where your urine is being tested, THC can show up weeks or even months later. THC also accumulates in hair, so it’s possible to tell someone’s distant THC history by analyzing hair.
In terms of the cannabis equivalent to the breathalyser, in 2018 Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould approved the Dräger Drug Test 5000, as “approved drug screening equipment” for law enforcement to use at the roadside to test for both THC and cocaine. Studies have found that the test is, unfortunately, inaccurate 13% of the time and is particularly ineffective when the temperature drops between four and 40 degrees Celsius, which is quite often the case in many parts of Canada.
On the other hand, given how lucrative it would be, I think it’s highly likely that effective cannabis rapid testing will be developed.
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