We can all agree that cannabis has a distinct cannabis odor – specifically, it smells a lot like Otto’s jacket. But why does weed smell so strongly? The answer lies in the terpenes, aromatic compounds found in plants like cannabis, which are released when they’re heated or burned. Terpenes give cannabis its distinctive smell, ranging from citrusy to piney and even skunky.
But who cares? You just don’t want your home to smell like weed. You don’t want visitors coming over and drawing conclusions about your lifestyle – your smoking weed is not their business. If you live in an apartment you don’t want your cannabis smoke to annoy your neighbors. And if you live in a state where marijuana is illegal you don’t want someone calling the fuzz!
Nose Blindness
The biggest problem with the cannabis smell is that, as with any other odor, you get used to it. You can’t smell it. To you, your home never smells like weed. But does that in fact mean it actually always smells like weed? This is the anxiety that the knowledge of nose blindness can inspire.
Nose blindness is a phenomenon where the brain becomes accustomed to certain smells and can no longer detect their presence due to olfactory fatigue, which occurs when receptors in the nose become desensitized after exposure to an odor for long periods. Basically if you smell something all the time your brain figures it is just normal and stops telling you about it.
The good news is that this condition is reversible and your sense of smell will return once you are no longer exposed to the same scent for a while. If you’re worried that your home reeks, forbear from smoking for at least a few hours and go for a walk. Spend some time in the fresh air, and when you go home you will know as soon as you open your front door if you have a problem (unless you smoked while on your walk – don’t do that).
Effective Strategies
So, that’s how you can tell if you have a problem, but how do you fix it? There are options, ranging from the cheap and homemade (you probably have a toilet paper roll and a dryer sheet or two) to the large and pricey.
Change Your Habits
But first, the most effective thing you can do is change the way you smoke weed. Vaping produces a much weaker odor than smoking. Smoke goes everywhere and really sticks around. Vaping produces a weed smell for sure, but it tends not to linger so much. And, of course, edibles have no odor at all!
How To Vape Weed
Vaping is a great way to imbibe cannabis without inhaling burning vegetable matter (in case you don’t like that) but without the delayed effect and uncertainty of edibles (is it working yet? Should I take more?). Vaporizers work by heating…
You could also smoke outside, climate permitting. This is a surefire way to spare the interior of your dwelling. Keeping a window open can help, but probably not as much as you would like.
You could also restrict your smoking to a room that is well-ventilated (like a bathroom), put a towel under the door, and just keep that door closed. The room will certainly be redolent of weed, but it won’t spread (much). And if the room is small, well-ventilated, and you’re not smoking constantly it won’t smell much at all after quite a short time.
Make A Sploof (Or Buy One)
If those options don’t work for you (sometimes you just don’t want to stand up and go somewhere else, and why should you?) you can use a device called a sploof – this is an apparatus you exhale into that traps odor particles and releases only mostly clean air back into the environment. You can make a DIY sploof with a cardboard toilet paper roll, some dryer sheets, and an elastic band. Just stuff a few dryer sheets (and/or a paper towel or some other filtering material) into the cardboard tube then use the rubber band to hold another dryer sheet over the end you’re going to exhale smoke into. Or you can buy a Sploofy to get full HEPA-quality air filters in there.
The problem with a sploof is that it only filters the smoke that you breathe into it, not all the smoke that is produced. If you’re burning weed then quite a few of those smoke and odor particles aren’t going into your lungs at all, but floating up directly into the air. A sploof certainly reduces the amount of weed smoke hanging in the air, but it doesn’t eliminate it.
Filter That Air
And so to the more expensive solution – a full-on air purifier. This can sit in your room and be running quietly all the time. It won’t prevent the cannabis smell initially, but it will keep it from lingering. Be sure to get one that contains both HEPA and activated charcoal filters – smoke particles are tiny and won’t be captured by filters that are only concerned with dust, pollen, or pet hair. Get one that specifically says it can handle smoke. Then just leave it running! I can testify that this works far better than you might expect it to.
Conclusion
Ultimately, reducing the cannabis smell requires some experimentation and creativity. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but with a little ingenuity, you should be able to find a way that addresses your concerns. If this matters to you, the most important thing is to be aware of the possibility of nose blindness and don’t just assume that your homemade toilet paper roll sploof is working. Go for a walk, or invite over some trusted friends and ask them as soon as they walk in if they can smell anything. It is quite possible to have regular smoking sessions and still have an odor-free home (well, when you’re not actually smoking).
