Now that it’s legal to smoke pot in the District, lighting up at parties is no longer just for those few bold folks huddled on the back patio.
While smoking may be coming out of the shadows in some venues, don’t look for it anytime soon at soirees where Official Washington mingles. Georgetown hostesses aren’t going to break out silver platters of cannabis-laced canapes, many denizens of the scene say.
That’s mostly because federal law still bans it, in a town where nearly everyone’s angling for a job that requires a squeaky-clean record.
“At least among my public-servant friends, it’s still about TSS [top-secret security] clearance and Senate confirmations,” says Juleanna Glover, a Republican consultant known for throwing parties where journalists, Hill staffers and administration types mix. “Will it ever be as common as ashtrays in the back yard? I doubt it. ”
Another reason? Like with any other trend, that crowd is just a little behind the curve.
“I don’t think you’ll see anyone serving it, even at quasi-establishment parties,” says Kevin Chaffee, a senior editor at Washington Life magazine and a veteran observer of the social scene. “I’d expect the hipper crowd to do that first.”
But the city’s new stance on pot might still lead to some pearl-clutching moments. On Friday, Adam Eidinger, the pro-pot provocateur who chairs the DC Cannabis Campaign, lit up a joint in an unexpectedly conservative setting: the tony, wood-paneled George Town Club, which functions a bit like a country club that’s not in the country.
Eidinger, who was the guest of the public-access TV interview series “Q&A Cafe with Carol Joynt,” casually took a few puffs before extinguishing it.
Was that a gasp or two in the audience? He probably wasn’t the only one who inhaled.
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Emily Heil is the co-author of the Reliable Source and previously helped pen the In the Loop column with Al Kamen.
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