A Hazy Issue for Couples: One’s on Pot, the Other Isn’t

CHEECH WITH NO CHONG? –

Oct. 26, 2023 – ith recreational marijuana now legal in more than 20 states, a joint or cannabis gummy has become as routine as a glass of chardonnay in some quarters. But as the drug enters the mainstream of American social life, the rules surrounding its usage can be, well, hazy. And many couples are trying to figure out how to fit it into their lives with the least disruption.

Ms. Sparks, 40, and Mr. Pietrangeli, 41, have had a close-up view of changing societal attitudes toward marijuana as the owners of LA Confidential Caregivers, a cannabis dispensary in California, which they operated from 2009 to 2019. They are still in the same business, working for Woodstock Heritage Strains, a cannabis company in New York.

Ms. Sparks said she came to marijuana at a young age. She recalled smoking in the parking lot outside the high school she attended and said she continued while growing her own marijuana plants when she was in her 20s. Mr. Pietrangeli was already in the cannabis business when she started dating him in the early 2000s.

After the birth of the first of their two sons, Ms. Sparks found that even the smallest dose of marijuana brought on panic attacks. She stepped away from pot even as her husband’s influence in the cannabis community grew.