Marijuana

Mandy-Jane · Feb 9, 2007

Please forgive me if I sound like a totally ignorant person who knows nothing about life, but I'm wondering about the after-effects of Marijuana. Not on a person (I've just been reading an old thread about that), but on a room. If someone was smoking it in a room, finished it and then left, would the room smell of it? And for how long? Would his clothes smell of it? Would he smell of it? Would the smell just drift about and permeate other things in the room?

Thanks.

kborsden · Feb 9, 2007

It's pretty much the same as regular nicotine smoke, I should think.

WriterInChains · Feb 9, 2007

Hi Mandy-Jane,

Pot smoke isn't quite the same as a regular ciggie -- the smoke is sweeter & has a shorter hang-time, especially in a normally-ventilated room (say, the size of a regular living room). Of course, this depends on the strength of the pot, & how much is smoked over how long a time, and if a window is open. My -- er -- my friend's mom never sniffed the air when she got home a few hours after a joint, but cigarettes, wow, she could smell it every time (and she knew what pot smelled like).

If your guy, say, brewed a pot of strong coffee or cooked something (the cooking goes well with a good buzz too

), that would probably overpower the smell in the room. If he changed his shirt and used visine, he might be able to hide it.

How much is your character smoking? Who is he trying to hide it from?

Someone with more recent experience (or a better memory :tongue

) will probably chime in before too long!

~C

Mandy-Jane · Feb 9, 2007

caren1701 said:
How much is your character smoking? Who is he trying to hide it from?

Hi Caren

Thanks. The character smokes one joint in a room, (just an average living room) then leaves the room. Within about 5 minutes, another person comes into the room. Would they be able to smell it?

WriterInChains · Feb 9, 2007

Unless he does something to mask it, I'd say yes, person #2 will smell it. But, if you don't want them to, that would also be easy to arrange. Give them a head cold, or have the wind blowing through an open window. 5 minutes is a little tight of a window, though.

KCathy · Feb 9, 2007

In my limited experience, you would still smell it after five minutes but not after an hour, especially if a window is left open. I just started being exposed a few months ago because of a friend who smokes it and I'm shocked at how quickly the smell fades out of most things. If you need a character to get rid of it faster, though, just have her burn incense, which completely overpowers the smell of pot. I always have my suspicions about people who seem a bit dopey, VERY hungry, or have lots of incense around.

Mandy-Jane · Feb 9, 2007

That's great! Thank you so much!

Kentuk · Feb 9, 2007

Regular cigarettes also mask pop smoke. I had a hippie girl friend who didn't smoke tobacco but always kept a cigarette in the car in case she got stopped.

BottomlessCup · Feb 9, 2007

I don't smoke pot, but most of my friends do. IMO, it smells very strongly. I wouldn't call it sweet, I guess, but more pungent and plant-like.

You would definitely smell it after five minutes, but not after an hour.

And in general, it doesn't soak into your clothes like tobacco smoke, because almost nobody smokes 20-30 joints a day. If you did, you'd probably smell like it.

As for the room smelling, I've been in apartments where obscene amounts of pot is smoked and never noticed that it smelled like pot smoke. Then again, many pot smokers are also cig smokers, which would cover up and combine with the smell.

A. Hamilton · Feb 9, 2007

A good way to remove the smell from the air is to burn a candle, or use an air-neutralizer. People who smoke pot often don't realize that the scent lingers in their hair and on their skin and clothes. They may not smell it themselves, but others can. I have a strong sense of smell and catch whiffs of pot all the time out in public. Brushing their teeth and washing their hands after smoking will help eliminate the smell, and opening a window to ventilate a room helps too. I have smelled it on clothing days after there was contact.

kborsden · Feb 10, 2007

It depends what he's smoking. If it's solid, hasheesh, then the smell, although very recognisable, will only hang for a short while and will be more like incense. If it's weed then the smell is more pungent and will be more noted by others, yet that too will disappear in time. I'd say ten to fifteen minutes in an open room, maybe longer in a closed one.

Mandy-Jane · Feb 10, 2007

kborsden said:
It depends what he's smoking.

I hadn't thought that far ahead yet. I didn't even know there were different kinds!

Jamesaritchie · Feb 10, 2007

Pot

Nothing on earth masks the smell of pot smoke. It's very strong, and very distinctive, and the smell lasts a long, long time.

If you smoke yourself, you won't notice the smell after a fairly short while, but it's still there, and those who don't smoke can sometimes smell it many days later.

Trust me, I've seen drivers use cigarettes, cigars, various sprays, air fresheners, and all sorts of other things in an attempt to mask the smell of marijuana, but none of it works. The only thing that really helps at all is to keep all the windows rolled down, and to drive fast.

People who think they're masking the smell are really only masking it from themselves. It's like cigarette smokers losing the ability to smell cigarette smoke. But those who don't smoke, or who aren't around it constantly, can smell it a block away.

Luke flees the scene · Feb 10, 2007

I don't smoke, but some of my friends do at parties, and yeah I'd agree that it's hard to mask the smell. If I had to choose one to put up with, I'd rather put up with the smell of weed than normal cigs. My soon-to-be stepmom smokes normal cigarettes, and I can't stand the smell. If she wouldn't smoke so many in the same day, it wouldn't bother me so much, but she smokes an excessive amount. I have really bad allergies though, so alot of the time I can't smell it.

KCathy · Feb 10, 2007

It's like cigarette smokers losing the ability to smell cigarette smoke. But those who don't smoke, or who aren't around it constantly, can smell it a block away.

I really respect your opinion and have to assume there must be different kinds, then. I've never smoked pot in my life and have only been exposed to it in the last year. I honestly haven't been able to smell it within a very short time of someone near me doing so, even if they smoked it before I arrived at their home so I had no chance to be acclimated to it. Cigarettes, on the other hand, even though I've been around them far more and used to smoke them myself, I would notice after hours.

For your book's purposes, I think if you wait a short time and do something to mask the pot smell, it will be believable that another character wouldn't smell it. People familiar with the stronger kind would assume it was milder or that your second character was one of the many people who don't notice it.

sdarb · Feb 10, 2007

It totally depends on how sensitive the other character is to smell. I'm really sensitive to odors (or aromas) but my husband couldn't smell smoke, even if the house was burning down. As for pot, smell doesn't linger as long as other kinds of smoke - like cigarette or wood smoke. Five minutes is cutting it close, though.

Rabe · Feb 10, 2007

I agree with Jamesritchie on this one.

Last week I had a guy come in who had been on an extradition transport for about a week, and had been in custody elsewhere for about a week before that. yet one of the first questions I asked him is when he last smoked pot because it was all over him. Faint but there.

I may be more sensitive to it, but I even knew when an upstairs neighbor's friend had been smoking it out on the balcony because the scent was still there.

And I would definitely not call it a 'sweet' smell because it makes me extremely sick to smell it. More so than bad BO or just about anything else. Even the really, cloying greasy and sweet smell of a detergent used in the ICU.

Rabe...

Marijuana

Mandy-Jane

venturing ever further into the unknown

kborsden

Has a few recurring issues

WriterInChains

Feed my eyes

Mandy-Jane

venturing ever further into the unknown

WriterInChains

Feed my eyes

KCathy

Writer when I grow up

Mandy-Jane

venturing ever further into the unknown

Kentuk

I want to write what I want to write

BottomlessCup

Getting settled

A. Hamilton

here for a minute...catch me?

kborsden

Has a few recurring issues

Mandy-Jane

venturing ever further into the unknown

Jamesaritchie

Luke flees the scene

philosopher.

KCathy

Writer when I grow up

sdarb

You want me to write what?

Rabe

the living dead