3 Ways to Get Rid of Weed Smell
For some people, the smell of cannabis is similar to the smell of incense. It’s a comforting, natural smell that sets a vibe in the room. However, other people may disagree.
While there’s no shame in using cannabis, people may not want to broadcast to the world or to their pizza delivery guy that everyone in the house has been partaking in an ancient herbal indulgence.
Why Does Weed Have Such a Distinct Smell?
There are hundreds of strains of cannabis. Each has its own effects and benefits due to its unique balance of cannabinoids and terpenes.
Terpenes are aromatic compounds produced by plants, and cannabis is a terpene powerhouse.
The cannabis plant produces terpenes as a way of communicating. There are a lot of pollinators and predators in a plant’s natural environment, and they all use scents to navigate the world.
The cannabis plant produces and releases these aromatic compounds, encouraging them to evaporate into the air. When they evaporate, they create a cloud of messages.
Pollinators flying by will smell something tasty. They’ll stop in to say hello. Predators think the plant smells terrible, and they disregard it as a potential food source. This cloud of aroma is the key to the plant’s survival.
When you smoke cannabis, you’re rapidly sending all of those strong aromatic compounds into the air, coupled with the sooty smell of burnt plant material. The terpenes and burning smells linger in the air, absorbing into fabrics, clothing, and even your hair.
The smell is a necessary and integral part of the plant. You can’t prevent your cannabis from emitting a smell, but you can contain or combat the smell to minimize its impact on your environment.
1. How to Get the Weed Smell off of You
The easiest way to keep yourself from smelling like cannabis is to get a hooded smoking jacket. They look really fashionable, and they serve an essential purpose. When you wear a smoking jacket with a hood, you’re putting a barrier between the cannabis and your body. Your clothes and hair are less likely to carry a lot of the smell if they’re all covered by a jacket.
If you don’t have a smoking jacket and you kind of reek, your best option is to change your clothes and take a shower. A soap fragranced with an intense natural smell like lavender, eucalyptus, or rosemary may help to mask any lingering cannabis aroma.
Brushing your teeth can help to take the cannabis smell off your breath. If you don’t have a toothbrush or toothpaste with you, grab a travel-sized bottle of mouthwash from the gas station or drugstore.
If you ever have to make your cannabis use discrete, mouthwash will help. You can even use a little bit of mint mouthwash on your hands after washing them to disguise any lingering odors with their fragrance.
2. How to Get the Weed Smell Out of the Room
If you have an indoor smoke sesh and get a call 20 minutes later that your parents are in the neighborhood and want to stop by your place, you’re going to have to do some quick thinking. If your smoking room is simply getting a little pungent, you’ll have plenty of time to thoroughly clear the air and purify the room.
Air the Room Out
If smoke is trapped in a room, it doesn’t have anywhere to go unless you open the windows. Keep your windows open for as long as you can to allow the smoke to exit and encourage fresh air to enter.
If you have a few electric fans handy, placing them near the window and pointing them outward will help to quickly move the smoke out of the room.
Launder All the Fabrics
Fabrics hold smoke odors. Curtains, carpets, bedsheets, pillows, and tablecloths in a room where someone has smoked cannabis will continue to smell like cannabis. You need to launder all the fabrics in the room and shampoo the carpets to get the odor out.
This step is more of a long-term solution. If you don’t have the time or ability to wash all the fabric in the room, skip to the next step for tips on reducing the odor.
Use an Odor Neutralizing Spray
If you smoke a lot of cannabis in a room and then run around spraying an apple cinnamon air freshener, you’re not going to get the results you want. The room is going to smell like cannabis and pie. The other fragrance won’t overtake the cannabis. It will simply make the room smellier.
An enzymatic odor remover will actually work to eliminate odors at the source. Some of the best products to use are odor removers designed to be used near a pet’s litter box. They’re designed to fight tough odors effectively, and the ingredients are safe enough to be used near animals.
Spray odor neutralizer liberally on every fabric surface in the room. Fluff the pillows and curtains as you spray.
Use a Dehumidifier with an Air Filter
A dehumidifier with an air filter can work surprisingly quickly to eliminate most airborne odors in a room. If you smoke cannabis indoors frequently, it’s undoubtedly worth the investment. If you keep it running continuously in your smoking room, it will work to keep the air clear round the clock.
3. Emergency Last Resorts for Disguising Weed Smells
If you only have a few minutes to hide the smell of cannabis, the only thing you can do is cover it with a stronger and more pungent smell.
One of the most popular college dorm tricks is to burn microwave popcorn. Burnt popcorn smells horrible, and it will probably set off a smoke detector. Do this one at your own risk.
The Best Weed Smell Defense Is a Good Offense
It’s much easier to prevent a room from smelling like cannabis than it is to get the smell to leave once it’s already there. Taking preventative measures and changing the way you indulge in a smoke session will prevent the problem from occurring in the first place.
Keep the Smell From Filling Up the Room
The easiest way to prevent a space from smelling like weed is to avoid smoking in that space. Many people forget that there is no reason to smoke inside as a way to hide cannabis use.
If you live in a recreationally legalized state, or if you’re a medical registry ID cardholder in a medical state, you can use cannabis on your porch in front of your neighbors, community workers, and law enforcement officers. It’s no different from sipping a glass of sangria.
Outdoor smoke sessions practically clean themselves up. Set up a relaxing area to enjoy a joint outside if you have a backyard, a balcony, or a porch. Even if you spend a little money setting it up to your preference, it’s worth it. If you use cannabis regularly, this spot will essentially become your outdoor living room.
If you don’t have access to an outdoor area, make a comfy place to sit on or near a windowsill and try to direct your smoke out the window. It’s not a perfect solution, but it will significantly reduce the amount of residual odor you’ll have to contend with.
Put Your Cannabis in a Smell Proof Container
Cannabis has a strong odor whether or not it’s being smoked. If you were to leave cannabis sitting out in the open air, it would make the entire room smell like cannabis for a few days until the air circulation and evaporation destroys it.
You need an airtight container not only to contain the weed smell but to keep your cannabis from prematurely drying up and degrading.
Here’s How You Should Store Your Cannabis
Stori has the perfect cannabis storage solution, whether you’re discrete or open about your cannabis use. Even though there’s no shame in using cannabis, there are still occasions when it’s a little more polite to be inconspicuous or avoid marinating everything in weed smells.
Cannabis needs to be protected from air, heat, and light while being kept at a stable humidity level. It sounds like a complicated process to work out, but it really isn’t. We’ve made it as simple as possible to store your cannabis perfectly with almost no effort.
The Stori case is a cannabis storage case with locking sides. The top doubles as a rolling tray, and the interior has a place to put your papers and lighter. Each case comes with six pods and six tubes. The tubes are lightproof, smell-proof, and fitted with color-coded child-resistant caps.
Every pod has a place to insert a size 1 Boveda pack. Boveda packs convert every pod into a humidor, locking in the terpenes and keeping the cannabinoids fresh until you reach the bottom of the pod.
Sources:
What are Terpenes and How Do You Use them? | CannaCon
How Evaporation of Terpenes in Cannabis Can Cost You | Boveda