by Kieron JH – The Reasonable Adjustment
Picture this: you’re standing in a pub garden. Pint glasses clink. Cigarette smoke wafts through the air. Kids are running around a sticky picnic table while someone’s uncle is four pints deep, shouting about potholes. Classic British afternoon.
Now swap the pint for a medical cannabis vaporiser, for prescribed use.
Suddenly the tone shifts. A few glances. Maybe a muttered “that’s a bit much.” Someone probably starts whispering about “the children.” You’re now the perceived problem in a space awash with legal intoxication, secondhand smoke, and emotional volatility.
Make it make sense.
🧠 Medicine vs Morality
Let’s get one thing straight: I’m not talking about illicit use or party vibes. I’m talking about prescribed cannabis, issued by a licensed specialist, to manage serious, often invisible health conditions. Medicine. Not mischief.
But cannabis, even when medicinal, still triggers panic in people trained to associate it with criminality, addiction, or antisocial behaviour. Meanwhile, alcohol and nicotine – both objectively more harmful and more addictive – get a social hall pass. Why? Because we’ve been raised to see them as “normal.”
This isn’t a conversation about harm. It’s a cultural hangover dressed as public concern.
🧪 Let’s Talk Science
The classic go-to from the pearl-clutchers: “But what if my kid breathes it in?”
Here’s the truth:
There is no credible evidence that secondhand cannabis vapour – especially from a personal medical device – can cause intoxication in bystanders. You cannot get high by being near someone using a vaporiser. You won’t test positive on a drug screen. You’re not absorbing anything meaningful into your system.
This isn’t a hotboxed student accommodation in 2009. It’s controlled, clean, and safer than the smoke cloud hanging over the pub garden’s smoking area.
So if the concern is about exposure, the science says: relax.
👶 Think of the Children™
Yes – let’s think of the children. Let’s think of how they’re growing up watching adults chain-smoke, binge-drink, down caffeine like water, and pop prescription meds like Tic Tacs… all without batting an eye.
But if a disabled adult dares to manage their pain, muscle spasms, or seizures with doctor-prescribed cannabis, suddenly it’s a moral crisis?
That’s not about kids. That’s about comfort zones. And when comfort zones override compassion, it’s time for a rethink.
⚖️ Role Modelling Responsibly
Of course children shouldn’t be taught to smoke or abuse substances. But medical cannabis isn’t about “getting high” – it’s about functioning. And pretending it’s somehow more dangerous to witness than a pub full of slurred speech and pint glasses is just dishonest.
Use responsibly. Be discreet. Respect the setting. But don’t accept the idea that visibility equals harm – especially when it doesn’t hold up to science or scrutiny.
💬 A Closing Puff of Perspective
I’m not here to glorify cannabis. I’m here to normalise access for people who rely on it. If you wouldn’t flinch at someone using insulin or an inhaler in front of a child, don’t flinch at someone using a medically prescribed vaporiser.
Because the double standard? It’s smoke and mirrors. And we all deserve better.
Got thoughts? Had an awkward encounter over your prescribed meds?
📩 Write to me at The Reasonable Adjustment – let’s clear the air.
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