Forest Stream states "while Forest Stream is the active location poisoned characters cannot quest"

Does this mean they simply can't commit to quest?

or

If Lazy lob comes out on a poison free questing party and deals one poison to everyone questing are they all removed from the quest if Forest Stream is the active location

I wondered that myself when I did a playthrough recently, and I treated it as absolute. It simply says "cannot quest," so I had Lazy Lab force everyone out of the quest. Made for a very nasty combo that the encounter deck could whip up.