Several residents in one area of Saint Clair asked Borough Council members on Tuesday to do something about their neighbor they say is constantly smoking weed outdoors and it’s high time it stopped.
One person said the smell of marijuana is getting into his house and it’s been going on for a while. He believes his problematic neighbor has a medical marijuana card but says he “rolls his joints and smokes” all day long on his front porch.
This happens day and night and he’s often not alone when smoking.
During the week, several residents say, it’s this one neighbor and another guy or several people who visit. They sit on a porch, roll joints, and smoke.
On the weekends, family comes to visit and there are sometimes up to 20 people over at this particular house and they’re usually outside and many are smoking weed.
The resident said he spoke with police to have his neighbor stop smoking weed outside. He said once the officer left, the neighbor “lit up again and he walked around the whole yard with a doob in his mouth.”
“It’s getting in the house and it’s really getting sickening,” the concerned resident said. “I can’t deal with it.”
Another concerned resident who lives several doors away told council members that the smell is so strong that it reaches his house, too.
As far as what the borough can do about their residents’ concerns, Acting Police Chief Brad Blanner deferred to what he said is state guidance. That is, if someone is legally consuming marijuana, police are told not to interfere.
However, Solicitor Ed Brennan said that in Pennsylvania, “The smoking of a joint is recreational.”
He said that a medical marijuana card allows someone to consume THC gummies or oils but when it comes to what’s known as flower, or the buds of the actual plant, that can only be ingested through the use of a vaporizer.
Blanner said he’d contact the Schuylkill County District Attorney’s Office to see how those rules can be enforced at the municipal level.
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S.T. Oner
July 4, 2025 at 9:42 am
So Saint Clair residents want the borough council to crack down on a neighbor’s marijuana smoke—but where’s that energy when the wind carries the hops haze from Yuengling or the musty seed dust from Kaytee in Cressona? We glorify the brewery aroma as “local charm” and tolerate seed plant funk as “part of the landscape,” but when it’s a private citizen lighting up on their porch, suddenly it’s an emergency. Let’s be real—this isn’t about smell, it’s about stigma. If we’re going to police the air, let’s be consistent and hold bingo night pot roast, coal smoke, and backyard barbecues to the same standard. Otherwise, it’s not about nuisance—it’s about control.