A Chicago Restaurant Kicked Patrons Out For Smelling Like Weed. Was It Wrong? Let’s Talk About It

So, a video has gone viral that shows a group of patrons being kicked out of a Chicago restaurant because they, apparently, smelled like cannabis, and sparking a debate on whether or not the restaurant worker who gave them the boot was in the right for doing so.

OK, now, look — we already know how the debate is playing out. For the most part, it’s weed smokers against the world. For some reason, whenever the subject comes up about people who partake of what the great orator Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. affectionately refers to as the sticky-icky-icky-ooweee, getting kicked out of public establishments because of the smell — because this isn’t a new issue at all — all of a sudden, people forget that the public sphere, especially in large, densely populated cities like Chicago, unpleasant odors are a thing we all have to deal with. Hell, there are a lot of people who complain about the smell of cannabis who, unbeknownst to themselves, walk around smelling like all outside and a thousand earring backs on a regular basis, and they’re only OK with it because they’re used to their own funk. The rest of us just had to suffer, just like we suffer from people who bathe themselves in cologne and perfume and walk around smelling like Bed, Bath & Booooy-You-Reek.

But, realistically, restaurant workers are not likely to boot paying customers because they’re musty. So, let’s talk about a more plausible comparison: cigarette smoke.

Cigarettes, Black and Milds, cigars, and other smokable tobacco products produce odors that are, at the very least, just as offensive as that of cannabis smoke, but restaurants aren’t putting people out over it. A person could smoke a cig right outside of the eatery and then walk right in, smelling like they were both the smoker and the ashtray, and other patrons might wince at them — some of them might even vocally complain — but Ashy McMalboro will still get a table. So, what’s the difference?

Well, as far as I can tell, it’s all about the degree to which each product is normalized in society. Tobacco smoke — which, by the way, kills roughly 8 million people globally every year, while there are still no conclusive cases directly linking cannabis consumption to any deaths at all — has been around for some 12,000 years and has always been legal in the U.S. on the federal level. (Interestingly enough, though, 15 U.S. states had banned the sale and public consumption of tobacco between 1890 and 1927.) Weed, on the other hand, has only been legalized in half the country and decriminalized in most of the country over the last several years, and apparently, society’s collective nose hasn’t adjusted to the new way of things. Still, is it really about the smell, or is it about the lingering stigma attached to a product that is still classified federally as a Schedule III controlled substance, and was still a Schedule I drug as recently as April?

Look, there’s no point in debating whether or not the restaurant had the right to kick these people out; they can deny service to anyone for any non-discriminatory reason. But this debate, as always, is fueled by respectability politics far more than it’s about practicality or the public good.

Anyway, happy 420 in June, y’all. (Yes, I’ve just decided that’s a thing, since we’re just selectively making up rules on the fly, and all.)

SEE ALSO:

What Does 420 Mean For Black People Shut Out Of The Cannabis Industry?

420 Laws: US Cannabis Legalization Through The Decades

Trump Admin Reclassifies Medical Marijuana As A Schedule III Drug

420: Why It’s Time to Celebrate Cannabis and Black Advocacy