I've never smelled cannabis before in my life and don't know what it's supposed to smell like. I live in an area of the world where it's illegal and I guess not many people are smoking it. I may also have had a quite sheltered education.
This year, I went to British Columbia, and there was this weird scent everywhere that I could not describe. My wife said it was cannabis. I'm still not used to it so I don't know if I'll be able to recognize it next time I travel to North America.
In my experience, weed smells like a skunk. Which makes it really annoying to be around people who smoke, that stuff is really unpleasant to have to smell. Honestly I don't know how people can stand to smoke it with how bad it smells.
I never smelled a skunk, but the first time I smelled this weed smell I immediately loved it and still love it to this day when I occasionally smell it on the street. Even though I don't smoke. I even bought cannabis scent incense few days ago.
I guess perception of this smell, like many others is genetic.
Am I the only one that doesn't find skunk smell not so horrid as it's generally made out to be? It's very strong, yes, but between skunk and asa foetida, it would be hard to choose ;)
I’ve never smoked it or been around anyone smoking it. It’s more of a lower class thing in the U.S.: https://news.gallup.com/poll/642851/cannabis-greatest-among-... (16% of households making under $24k smoke cannibis regularly, versus 5% of households making over $180k/year).
This 100% matches my experience in Washington. I know a lot of upper middle class who use cannabis. I think the consumption of edibles might be higher in the upper middle class vs smoked. But that’s very anecdotal.
Explaining why I never encountered it. Even today usage is quite unevenly distributed. I’m from an affluent, WASPy town in Virginia. By contrast it was common even in the 1990s in the lower class parts of Oregon where my wife grew up.
Interesting. In my experience, the self-described affluent WASP-y types are exactly the kind of people that should probably smoke a joint and chill the fuck out every once in a while, lest they end up as close-minded conservatives.
You’re more likely to find tattoos and marijuana smokers at a Trump rally than in the congressional district where I grew up. It was solidly red when I was growing up, but today is the orderly and industrious wing of the democratic party (Biden +18).
Is that because strong Republican-voting states are such bastions of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
Last time I checked, places like Texas are using traffic cameras to track down women who get healthcare out of state, bragging about killing people, and posting State Troopers outside of bathrooms.
Or maybe you're talking about Arkansas, where they recently deregulated the employment of children under 16.
Or maybe you meant Florida, which led the nation in banned books for 2025.
Or maybe Tennessee where they allow for the refusal to solemnize gay marriage after the passage of HB 878.
Maybe you're alluding to states like Louisiana and Mississippi, which have the highest per capita incarceration rates in the US.
Seriously, humor me here - what in your opinion has become more "entropic" in VA since they started voting more consistently blue?
Youth these days tend to say “this weed has gas” rather than “this weed is dank”. I’m unsure if that is just due to gassy strains becoming more popular or just lingo. Garlic is another rising scent.
I mean weed really doesn't smell good. If you're not turned off by the smell, it's a learned pleasure. Similar to how nearly every child will dislike the taste of alcohol, yet after drinking for a while they'll learn to tolerate or enjoy it.
It can be a very overpowering smell. When an odor overpowers, it's harder to discern one scent from another.
A few years ago, I moved from San Francisco to a rural area. Smelling weed in SF was not at all unusual. One summer night in the rural area, I smelled it coming through open windows for the first time. I wondered which house it was coming from and how it still smelled so strong after traveling a hundred feet or more. Then I spotted the actual skunk in our yard.
You're always going on about the Netherlands, surely that is based on some experience of being here and if so then you must have smelled weed it is impossible to miss on the streets of any city with more than 100K inhabitants and an active inner city.
It’s very skunky. I thought a skunk had been killed on an industrial road I drive sometimes. The smell was there for months. I finally realized there’s a cannabis processing facility there. Still stinks years later now.
this is surprising to hear - thanks for sharing! i still can’t help but wonder if there are some perceptive differences at play here versus something learned.
Also the amount of people in DC who drive while smoking weed seems very high(no pun intended). Based on the number of cars that can be smelled from another car while in traffic.
Living in proximity to people who don't care enough to not be annoying to others has a few ways you can look at it. But I suggest you consider upgrading the cabin air filter in your car. There are likely options with activated carbon to help reduce odors. This was actually a factor in my decision to go Tesla: their models S and X have an additional massive HEPA filter, and absolutely no outside smells make it into the car.
