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VIRTUAL SPEAKER SERIES: Dr. Jane Steinberg
May 19 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm PDT
Free
Public Consumption of Cannabis: Threats to Smokefree Environments in Cannabis-Legal States
Dr. Jane Steinberg
Eleven US states and Washington, DC, legalized recreational cannabis and nine states allow cannabis retail sales. A public health concern is that states or localities will create exemptions in their smokefree laws to allow public cannabis smoking or vaping, which could weaken local smokefree laws, expose cannabis industry workers and the public to secondhand cannabis byproducts, and renormalize smoking. We conducted a comprehensive review of how cannabis-legal states have addressed public cannabis use, challenges faced in maintaining smokefree laws, and social equity concerns among communities that live in properties that ban public cannabis consumption—often the same communities negatively impacted by US drug laws. Using elements of a tobacco control framework, best practices in cannabis regulation were identified by comparing each state’s smokefree laws and allowances for public cannabis use. Results and recommendations will be highlighted on the important role that states/localities play in closing gaps in smokefree laws and not making allowances where cannabis use is permitted, to ensure health protections for the public at large.
Speaker Background: Jane Steinberg, PhD, MPH is a full-time assistant clinical professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC in the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research. She teaches on-campus and online graduate courses in the Master of Public Health program and serves as the program’s Practicum Director.
Her research focuses on public health impacts of local/state tobacco and cannabis regulation and associated impacts on youth and vulnerable communities. Currently, she is a co-investigator on a grant from the California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) to study associations between proximity to cannabis retailers and adolescent cannabis use; and a grant from the California Tobacco Control Program.