Jean doesn’t have anything against smoking marijuana. Or cigarettes.
She’s done it a lot in her time, but only in situations where she is not bothering other people.
“Too bad my neighbours don’t think of others because they’re making my life miserable,” says Jean, who rents in a Burnaby apartment building that is managed by a company. “Nobody is allowed to smoke in the building but these pot-smoking monsters make a point of smoking it everywhere so you can’t escape. On their decks, in the hallways, in the elevators and in the lobby. They think it’s funny.”
Another resident of the building named Pam contacted me as well and says that it’s became a bit of a war with people even notes in the elevator about it.
“People aren’t supposed to smoke in their apartment units, hallways, common areas, underground, or even on their balconies,” Pam said. “Time and time again, people defy the rules set forth by management and smoke anyway. More recently, a new tenant moved in about a month ago and told me that management ‘said’ he could smoke - which, according to management, was a lie. Following this, management put notices through everyone’s door as a reminder of the no smoking policy. This has since resulted in tenants engaging in an ‘elevator war’ and leaving back and forth notes for one another. The first note kindly asked people to stop smoking marijuana every night. A few days later, someone wrote ‘try smoking’ in response (with an arrow pointing up to the word marijuana.) Then, just yesterday, someone vandalized the plastic with paint and wrote ‘full stop.’ These are the types of people who live in this building. No regard for rules, no regard for anyone around them, and no regard for property of others. What I don’t understand is why people move into a non-smoking building if they are smokers. Do they actually think they’ll get away with it and that people can’t smell their gross habit?”
Jean says it's escalated from notes to shoving matches, especially after one smoker blew smoke at someone else in the building's lobby.
That’s probably what gets me – there are other places where you can safely smoke and not getting hassled by non-smoking tenants.
Just move there.
These policies are designed to protect these buildings from fires as well as protect the tenants from dangerous second-hand smoke - in the case of cigarettes. As far as pot goes, people with breathing issues shouldn't be exposed to this.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
