In college, we would hotbox the shit out of my Buick. Myself and two of my stoner friends would pull into a McDonald’s parking lot and smoke until we couldn’t see each other. We’d then spend shameful amounts of cash on the dollar menu. Sorry, mom! But we always had one sober tag-along: Touchdown Timmy. He earned his nickname by being a sneaky savage on the intramural football field, but that’s erroneous. TT never smoked, just wasn’t cut out for it. But he joined us because he was our friend and he said “he liked the smell of weed.” He would usually indulge with us at McDonald’s and now I know why. Because he was high as fuck from our second-hand smoke.
Touchdown Timmy would be in the back seat on his high horse, literally, insisting he was not stoned.
But now I have science on my side.
In the first comprehensive study on the issue since the 1980’s, a team at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine found that secondhand pot smoke under “extreme conditions” aka unventilated rooms can intoxicate nonsmokers to the point of potentially failing drug test.
Researchers recruited seven people aged 18 to 45 who said they’ve smoked weed at least twice per week and tested positive for THC, and 12 other sin the same age range who said they have not smoked weed in the past six months and tested negative for THC.
Six smokers and six nonsmokers spent an hour sitting side-by-side in a 10×13 foot room in two different experimental sessions. Each smoker was given 10 high-potency joints to smoke. In one session, the ventilation was flowing and in another session, the air remained still, allowing smoke to permeate throughout the room. At the end of each exposure, smokers’ and nonsmokers’ blood, urine, saliva and hair were tested at regular intervals for THC.
All six nonsmokers in the unventilated room had detectable amounts of THC in their urine and blood and reported feeling pleasant. None of the nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke in the ventilated room tested positive for THC. They just reported being hungry.
“This study is a significant update in our knowledge of cannabis smoke effect on nonsmokers and has implications in many arenas, including drugs and driving,” says co-author Edward J. Cone.
Touchdown Timmy, if you’re reading this, you owe me about $500 in drug money you squinty-eyed freeloader.
[H/T The Verge]