Back in 2018 when Elon Musk and Joe Rogan smoked weed on a video podcast it left many people asking “Can they do that?! Isn’t that illegal?” after it. After all, in most places smoking weed is recreationally or otherwise is actually illegal. But, they did it and nothing came of it – must have been legal then, right?
Nowadays, many are wondering if the same is true when you’re streaming on Twitch? If they can do it so can we – or can you? Let’s find out.
Is Weed Smoking allowed on Twitch?
You would be surprised to know that smoking weed is allowed on Twitch, so long as its legal to do so in the area you’re streaming from. And by legal we mean recreational and not medicinal.
Breaking the law on a stream is not allowed on twitch (duh). But they make it clear, if it’s legal and not breaking the ToS then it’s fair game.
You must respect all applicable local, national, and international laws while using our services. Any content or activity featuring, encouraging, or soliciting illegal activity is prohibited.
Twitch Community Guidelines
It would be legal to smoke weed on a twitch stream in the following states
- Alaska
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Illinois
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- Oregon
- Rhode Island
- Vermont
- Virginia
Source: Legality of cannabis by U.S. jurisdiction
Outside of the US, it would be fine to smoke weed while streaming on Twitch in the following countries
- Canada
- Georgia
- Malta
- Mexico
- South Africa
- Thailand
- Uruguay
Source: Legality of cannabis
Here’s an article on when Snoop Dogg did it and was saved by Californian laws.
A point we wanted to raise here is that Twitch’s Terms of Service and their community guidelines do not specially mention smoking of any kind but it does contain these interesting points:
Harming yourself, or discussing self-harm recklessly, can be dangerous for not only yourself but for viewers and those around you.
Twitch Community Guidelines
Ingesting smoke is harmful to your health which does make smoking weed an act of self-harm. Going into discussions and perhaps encouraging or glorifying smoking marijuana is technically against Twitch ToS. So, are they turning a blind on eye on this one?
So, there are plenty of places where blazing up on a stream would be fine and not result in a suspension or a ban by Twitch. But, just as we covered in “Can you vape on Twitch?” article the real question is – should you smoke weed on Twitch?
Should you smoke weed on Twitch (if you can)?
Now, the real question we think is not whether or not you can smoke weed but whether you should. If your following and subscribers are there because of the community, your personality or the gameplay then what would sparking up bring? Nothing much, in fact it’ll more likely bring the overall quality down a bit.
If a celebrity did it who’s persona is linked with weed culture, then sure that would work. Or perhaps if someone like Amouranth organised a one-off smoke sesh it would work as it would likely bring in a lot of viewers to that stream. But for a regular streamer? We don’t think it would work well.
Want to smoke a blunt on stream? Here’s how to do it
First, make sure it’s legal where you are. The second, don’t draw attention to it – do it casually. Perhaps disguise it as a regular cigarette and not even mention there’s marijuana inside it.
Ultimately, we’d recommend having a smoke during a break or take a hit when the camera is turned off.
