@NJWrestlingmom well, now you’ve done it. I can no longer respect your opinions…jk. GO PATS!
IMO I think it’s OK to be judgmental when you are culling the applications list. I agree with Massmom, this is not being judgmental of “other people” think of it has being judgmental about what is important for the individual student and how they want to live for a year or four. You may not smoke, you may not want to be around other people who do, so don’t go somewhere where it is culturally prevalent…that is making a judgement call about what works for you. It is a different kind of being judgmental if you say that other people can’t do something legal just because you don’t like it. There is judging for yourself what you can tolerate and then there is judging other people for the decisions they make. If smoke bothers you that extent it ruins your day or makes you ill, then don’t go to a college where it’s allowed on campus where you might come in contact with it. This isn’t rocket science as there is not ONE college that a student MUST go to. Time for that comes again when the student enters the workforce and has to make a judgement about one job with alot of expats that like to smoke vs. an organically US organization where smoking is frowned upon or a healthcare organization where it is outright forbidden for employees to smoke There’s something for everyone out there in the big world.
I think it’s in part the same reasons that I smoked when I was in my teens, 20 (eg, peer pressure, wanting to look cool, wanting to look adult like, wanting to hang with a certain group of kids, just because (aka the go to reason to rationalize dumb behavior), etc. You can’t say anything to a young smoker about things like health reasons to stop smoking because I suspect kids today are like I was, believing that you’re invincible. Just thinking you have an “S” (superman) on your chest. My girlfriend, now W, had a strong aversion to my smoking and asked me to stop. I did, haven’t smoked for decades. I think the thing I was oblivious to at the time when I smoked is how bad I smelled, how my clothes smelled, how the inside of my car and apartment smelled, etc. Today I can’t stand to be around smokers.
Perhaps because pot smokers are mostly occasional smokers who try to do it away from others, while tobacco smokers include more heavier smokers, some of whom are “militant smokers” who are less considerate of others who do not want to smell their secondhand smoke.
That and the tiny minority of heavy pot users tend to fall by the wayside in academia or work because being heavily stoned isn’t conducive to school or most jobs.
Most pot users such as the ones at my undergrad during the mid-late '90s tended to smoke only once or twice a week at the most and did fine/graduated with high honors. The few heavy users usually ended up on academic suspension, being forced by parents to take a gap year, or dropped out of their own accord.
Is it just me or is the weed these days much stinkier than it used to be? Incredibly skunk-like when I catch a whiff of it these days, usually at music festivals.
I wondered the same thing, @doschicos . In fact, I thought the smell coming from my pothead neighbor’s house was a skunk that had been hit by a car, until I smelled it again and again and…my husband informed me that the guy was habitually stoned.
https://www.livescience.com/53644-marijuana-is-stronger-now-than-20-years-ago.html indicates that pot potency measured by percentage of THC and ratio of THC/CBD has increased. However, that is not necessarily the same as how strong the smell is.
It is certainly possible that the smell has gotten stronger, but there may also be a relative component as well, in that the air decades ago may have had more other smells in general (tobacco smoke, fumes from vehicles, etc.) so that pot smoke smell may have been less noticeable. Also, pot got more attention from law enforcement back then, so pot smokers may have been more careful about smoking it where others are less likely to notice the smell.
It is just stronger smelling. I’m talking about comparison in direct proximity.
Doing some digging and asking and it seems to be tied to quality which has gone up considerably since my college days. Quality pot is pretty easy to get these days compared to back then, supposedly resulting in more potency -
both in THC (strength) and terpenes (stink).
Sounds like those that develop strains are increasingly playing around with the terpenes side of marijuana composition.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-04-02/features/ct-talk-brotman-skunkweed-0402-20120402_1_skunk-reform-of-marijuana-laws-dan-linn
https://getharvestbloom.com/blogs/news/terpenes-are-what-s-next-for-marijuana
https://thefreshtoast.com/how-to/why-does-my-weed-smell-like-skunk/
I love that my D’s campus is smoke-free, including university owned off-campus housing.
S1 lived in an apartment with four others and there was a bong on the coffee table and a hookah in the kitchen. The two kids who did not smoke graduated and the three that did are back for their fifth year.
Just for the record, I know plenty of recreational pot smokers who graduate on time and with impressive grades and job offers. Kind of like people who drink alcohol within reason and still lead full and successful lives. 
It might also be because it’s much more prevalent and users don’t need to conceal their smoking as much because of recent changes in local/regional laws.
Other than two instances growing up in the high crime-ridden NYC of the '80’s and ear’y-mid '90s, the only other time I;ve noticed the “pot smell” was at Oberlin in the mid-late '90s.
Large part of that was due to pot being one of the vices of choice(the other was psychedelics) over those preferred at more mainstream colleges such as beer/liquor at the time. Large presence of pot users combined with the knowledge the campus authorities won’t really do anything so long as one wasn’t causing trouble meant pot smokers didn’t feel the need to conceal it nearly as much.
Similarly, after the legal liberalization of pot in many areas including my areas in the NE, the smell is much more commonplace and “stronger”.
People also seem to smoke it much more openly in the last 15 or so years than was the case before. And it’s not limited to the stereotypically artistic bohemian neighborhoods.
It is ironic and sad to see college students smoking cigs, as if it gives an odor of being hip and artistic and European Besides the stench and future of health issues, do they not see they are supporting the tobacco industry? Big business, Dad’s stock portfolio, Wall Street…and isn’t it the most strident anti-capitalistic kids who are the likeliest smokers?
When I was in undergrad, the smokers were mostly students from overseas, particularly Asian countries.
Depends on the campus and students.
I’ve seen quite a few strident pro-capitalist undergrads on various university campuses during my undergrad years in the mid-late '90s and now who light up as well.
Especially those who identify as Ayn Rand Libertarians or those who view the negative health warnings and PSAs from the medical/scientific community as unfounded bunk fomented for various nefarious social control purposes.
A handful of former colleagues of this ilk were engineering/CS majors in undergrad from respectable/elite engineering schools(i.e. Schools like CMU, Cornell, RPI, etc).
The University of California system bans smoking on its campuses. I used to work at Stanford and hardly remember anybody smoking.
Walking around San Francisco, I see very few smokers, at least compared to when I was younger. About the only smokers I see these days in town are art students hanging around outside the Academy of Art downtown.
Vassar became smoke free in '15. I surprised the college took so long to do so. https://smokefree.vassar.edu/
^Yes, I did mention that they went smoke-free since our visit. I just don’t understand why so many colleges are still allowing smoking on the grounds. At the very least set up staggered areas far away from public entrances to academic halls, dining room, and dorms/apartments so everyone doesn’t have to enjoy your 2nd hand smoke and late night discussions over a butt. Certainly they can decrease the affect on non-smokers better than they are now.
Public colleges have to follow state laws too. Colorado bans smoking in all indoor spaces (except cigar bars) and many outdoor spaces so there is no smoking on the public campuses. There are rules about smoking within 50 feet of a doorway of a building. Many office buildings have designated smoking areas in the lovely loading dock areas or alleys.
My office in Minnesota banned smoking in 1990. You had to be one dedicated smoker to stand outside when it is -20 just to smoke.
Just thought I would add that the incredibly beautiful young lady that I married 45 years ago just died from COPD while a second disease (lung cancer) was on temporary hold (no cure to date) thanks to radiation treatment. The nicotine had a lifetime hold on her. She suffered from these two incurable smoking diseases for years. I know 77 years sounds ancient to young people, but when you are that old, life is still precious and we had the free time to enjoy a longer good life. Our backpacking, camping and traveling life could have gone on another ten years.
After spending the last two days with my wife in the hospital, I can testify that this is NOT the way to go! It is hard to believe that people see no problem in growing and selling this human poison. It is hard to believe that over 20% of the population is still smoking.