If crime is the most-often mentioned reason locals don’t come to New Orleans and surveys show that crime and the murder rate are down significantly in the city - then what is now the reason so many locals don’t go into New Orleans? I have heard this excuse before, but not coming into the city because of the smell of marijuana smoke has become a common complaint.
One of the first responses to my question about why so many locals living in surrounding suburbs don’t come into New Orleans is the “smell of marijuana everywhere.” I work in New Orleans and I spend time in the French Quarter. I smell pot, but the smell of pot is not so pungent in the city that I would not come into the city because of it. Let me clear the air - New Orleans is NOT shrouded in the smell of smokey, stinky marijuana smoking. It’s just not true.
Marijuana has been decriminalized in New Orleans, but it is not legal. People are smoking pot on sidewalks and along streets, but the aroma of pot smoke is occasional and is not dominant.
To demonstrate my point, I left the WWL studio during the show and live on the air with my cellphone I walked from the station to Canal St. then to the first side street in the French Quarter over to Bourbon Street. I realize it was a Tuesday afternoon, but the way some people talk about the offensive smell of pot smoke in the city I wanted to walk through a few common areas and see if I saw anyone smoking pot or smelled any pot smoke. I didn’t. I didn’t see anyone smoking and didn’t smell any pot smoke. If the excuse of not coming into New Orleans because of the smell of marijuana was real - I would have experienced some of it even on a Tuesday afternoon.
It’s obvious that the smell of marijuana smoke as a reason to stay away from New Orleans is bogus, but it has become a popular excuse. First it was the crime in the city and now some people are saying it’s the marijuana smoke. I believe there are people who reject coming into New Orleans as a way of manifesting their political resentment of Democrats, who control city government. Yet, how many of these people would refuse to go to a city on vacation because the city was controlled by Democrats?
Again, there are some people smoking pot and you can smell marijuana smoke in the city, but it is no where near the problem some people are suggesting it is and I think that many of the people complaining about the smell of marijuana smoke don’t even come to the city and have not experienced it but have just heard it as an excuse given so they use it too.
Hear my adventure in the audio player above.