New York Daily News Op-Ed

Pot everywhere makes staying sober much harder: Young New Yorkers in recovery need support and each other

By Eve Goldberg

Lost in the weeds of our city’s marijuana legalization and the accompanying proliferation of cannabis shops are the on-going, heroic efforts by tens of thousands of young, recovering New Yorkers to stay substance-free.

The smell of marijuana seems to be everywhere these days, and at all times. A morning rush hour wait on a Manhattan subway platform, for example, was recently interrupted by giggling high school students taunting each other with whoops of, “Skunk! Skunk,” a reference to the pungent scent of the pot they’d just smoked.

Even Mayor Adams has observed that “The No. 1 thing I smell now is pot. It seems like everyone is smoking a joint now, you know. Everybody has a joint.”

Headlines warn that the number of toddlers getting sick from accidentally eating marijuana-laced treats has dramatically increased, but the challenges faced by young adults determined to stay away from weed receive scant attention.