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Comment by whateveracct | Hacker News Reader

> In practice I have heard on podcasts based in places like Washington and California where hosts say they almost can't leave their home without being hit in the face with the stink of weed.

These podcasts are meant to scare people to farm engagement. I live in WA and barely smell weed (except when I myself am smoking it.) And when I do, it's usually just the scent and not clouds of smoke or anything.

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> just the scent

I think you underestimate how much weed smells to someone not used to it. Even the tiniest hint of it makes me uncomfortable.

I wish the UK had something like the smoking chambers in China where people can do what they want without affecting others too much

I don't think people are scared about it, it's more of an annoyance. And it's not being wildly exaggerated. In NYC nowadays it's more common than not when walking anywhere to get at least one strong whiff of weed per trip, if not multiple. It's also become quite common for people to light up in subway stations. I'm a former user who's not offended by the smell but still find it a bit annoying, for fear of it clinging to me.

I live in Northern Europe and almost never feel the smell of weed here. In my travels around the USA and Canada, it was very clear to me it's far, far more common over there.

Well it is more legal here :)

You may not live in the city. I smell it all the time. Regardless of whether I agree or not, its pretty prevalent depending on where you live/spend your time.

Part of living in a city is smelling a bunch of stuff you don't really want to. No need to special-case weed there heh :)

The last podcast I heard this on was Slate Magazine's Political Gabfest. Hardly the kind of publication that's trying to scare people away from weed.

You are a pot smoker yourself. You probably are so used to it that you don't realise how incredibly pungent the odour is.

I live in NYC and travel semi-regularly to both CA and WA, and this is completely overblown. You might catch a faint whiff every once in awhile, but it’s very far down on the list of annoyances a major city offers.

And no, I don’t smoke weed.

> I live in WA and barely smell weed (except when I myself am smoking it.)

You're probably noseblind to it, since you smoke yourself.

idt I'm noseblind to it. When I go downtown in various WA cities I smell it more often. Often from far away / as it's fading. Since it's so rare to be exposed to actual second-hand weed smoke.

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