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Comment by boston_clone | Hacker News Reader

Genuinely asking - had you never smelled cannabis before living in DC?

To claim the odor is mistakable for sewer gas is borderline funny, unless you’re slyly trying to name a new strain.

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.

Different weed smells different, skunk weed has volitale sulfur compounds, others varieties lack this and may smell like fruit or rosemary.

I always describe the smell like a cross between a skunk and a Christmas tree.

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 ;)

Any strong smell is unpleasant, especially when it's unavoidable, from perfume to petrol fumes, even along to food smells.

Asa foetida is way worse than skunk

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).

hell yeah for being in that 5%! but why bring classism into it? in states where it’s more normalized, it’s pretty even across those differentiators:

https://doh.wa.gov/data-and-statistical-reports/washington-t...

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.

Thanks for sharing!

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).

An inspiring tale of progress and change for the better! May more southern states unfetter themselves from regressive views.

It’s entropy, not progress.

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?

You will be. This scent is very distinct.

I had never smelled it before. It smells identical to sewer gas to me—I know what that smells like because our house was missing several drain traps.

Fascinating. I wonder if this is a genetic thing similar to people who sense soap for cilantro, except with terpenes instead of aldehydes.

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.

> If you're not turned off by the smell, it's a learned pleasure.

For me it's was love at first smell. And I didn't smoke. Just smelled it from th adjecent room. It must be genetic.

Alcohol is always dreadful for me. Same goes for cigarettes.

there are strains that, to me, smell pleasant. maybe you’re extrapolating a bit? terpenes are what make up most essential oils, in fact.

I’ve never smelled pot that didn’t stink. It does not smell like a sewer to me but it distinctly smells like skunk.

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.

Mango, especially dried, smells and tastes of terpenes sometimes. I sometimes question why I like Mango ;)

most essential oils also smell bad in their pure form, you can always sense a smoker or a big essential oils person from their scent from afar

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.

The first time I smelt weed it reminded me of a skunk.

I could see how that might be mistaken as sewage.

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.

As somebody who has no problem whatsoever with weed, it smells like pus from a tooth infection to me.

I have had dental abscesses in the past that made my mouth taste like I was in a room full of cannabis smoke.

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.

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