So, it seems that we do NOT have a family of SKUNKS living in the woods behind our house...

[NurseJackie]

So, it seems that we do NOT have a family of SKUNKS living in the woods behind our house as I'd previously thought.

Over the past months, at dusk or in the early evening, I'd step outside and smell the unmistakable odor of an angry or frightened skunk. Two or three times a week, I'd smell that skunk and wonder what it is that has frightened him, threatened him, or made him want to mark his territory.

I have now become a little more enlightened ... and I've learned that the awful smell is coming from a neighbor (one block over and two lots down) who is behind his house smoking a variety of marijuana known as "Skunk Weed".

OMG! The stench is horrible. Even at this distance and having been dissipated... it is nauseating. How can anyone stand it? Why would anyone CHOOSE to smoke that? (Is it cheaper?) Back in my day, pot smelled kinda "earthy" and sometimes fruity or peppery.

[Sanity Claws]

1. Good way to keep socially distant

But vaccination seems like a less sociopathic way to go.

[NurseJackie]

4. Le-meow!

[malaise]

2. First time I'm hearing about skunk weed

[marble falls]

5. Usually a sign of serious potency. Or so I'm told.

[DownriverDem]

29. They should try

using a vaporizer. Total change results in the smell.

[marble falls]

32. Pot's becoming the new Bubba Gump Shrimp. "Boiled, fried, saute'd, bonged, vaped, wax, hash ....

[brewens]

9. It's been a common and accurate term for some bud for a long time in my part of the US.

Good weed, but I'd rather have something a little more pleasant to smoke. Sometimes that shit is like cutting up and smoking a real dead skunk.

[Cracklin Charlie]

39. I smelled it at a Chiefs game a few years ago.

I really thought it was a skunk, because I have seen skunks (the animal kind) inside the arena fence before.

My nephew pointed out the culprits. They were humans.

[chowder66]

64. I heard the term "skunk weed" back in the late 70's and early 80's in KCMO.

I smell it regularly here in Hollywood now. We do get skunks from time to time but the skunks are typically a little more acidic smelling.

[wnylib]

41. Wish it was the first time I ever heard of it.

I had a neighbor directly across the hall from my apartment who smoked it - often. The stench permeated my apartment and the entire hallway.

Marijuana was not legal in NY then so I decided not to complain to the apartment complex management. I did not want to get him evicted or in legal trouble. After all, I smoked pot years ago when I was younger. (It definitely smelled better then.) It was just a social thing for me, with a couple of friends occasionally, or at a party.

But I have a lot of allergies. The odor made me nauseous and gave me asthma attacks. I asked the guy to open his windows and smoke near them, and block the little gap between the bottom of his door and the floor. I ended up doing that with my door but it didn't help.

He apologized but the stench continued. (I used to spray the hall and my apartment with Fabreze to get rid of it). Another tenant down the hall did complain and he ended up leaving.

It was literally a sickening odor.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

49. I'd have cheerfully let management know.

If he kept an actual skunk in his apartment, you'd have complained, right?

[wnylib]

54. If it was an actual skunk,

he could have been evicted, but would not get a criminal record, or do any time.

We are allowed to have small pets in the building, so he might not have been evicted. Probably would just need to have the gland that causes the odor removed from the skunk.

It was getting to the point where I considered reporting it, but only because I just could not live any longer with the daily nausea, headaches, and asthma attacks. Before I could say anything to anyone, someone else did.

Makes me wonder what will happen as NY legalizes marijuana. Will people in apartment buildings just have to put up with the odor (and sickness) from neighbors who smoke it at home? I really don't care about people using it as long as it's not harming me.

[Treefrog]

55. I would think a no smoking ban would cover marijuana smoking too.

I’ve never lived in an apartment building except for a short time in college, so I don’t know if they have rules about smoking or not. Surely there must be smoke-free buildings?

[wnylib]

56. Some landlords ban it. Some don't.

[Treefrog]

58. That would be horrible to live in a building where you had to smell smoke. Of any kind.

I’d hate that, and I’ve got nothing against weed or tobacco.

[wnylib]

60. In my building, no one is allowed to smoke

in the hallway or any common area, e.g. the laundry rooms or the vestibule. But they can smoke inside their apartment with the door closed.

I have not noticed any odors from cigarette or pipe smoke in the building.

[EYESORE 9001]

3. The odor seems more potent than I remember

‘Skunk weed’ was around in the ‘70s, but I don’t remember such pungency as I’ve encountered in recent years.

[5X]

6. My favorite.

My neighbors are running a major commercial grow operation so I don't worry about the smell.

[marble falls]

7. A friend gets mine to me and it smells like coffee.

[zuul]

8. My neighborhood is densely populated.

My front door is about ten feet from the back door of another house. The owner rented his house to a guy about 30 years old. He smokes pot in the little back yard several times a day.

My front patio usually reeks of pot. Sometimes it’s skunk weed, sometimes it smells pretty good.

Half the neighborhood thinks it’s coming from my house.

[niyad]

10. It all smells like skunk to me. Being allergic to the entire hemp family makes things

interesting around here, with all the pot shops. Just walking past them gives me a nasty headache, especially when they are harvesting.

[NurseJackie]

11. I understand. It grosses me out too...

... I'm not allergic, but I guess I just have a sensible or sensitive nose. (But it's amazing to realize that I smoked cigarettes for so long. Five years smoke-free, and even cigarette odors make me nauseous. I'm retroactively embarrassed at how I must have smelled to other non-smokers.)

[niyad]

15. I am also allergic to cigarettes, so it makes life very interesting. I am grateful that most of the

smokers I know have quit. Makes things a bit easier.

By the way, love your sig pics!

[marble falls]

42. I used to work in smoke filled bars and restaurants, that's where the money was in the old days ...

... (old geezer here). It never bothered me past it made my clothes reek.

Then I got a second hand smoke cancer. Now if I smell tobacco smoke its almost like an asthma attack.

I'm an agricultural small town kinda guy and skunk scent doesn't bother me. A lite hit actually smells good in the morning.

[spike jones]

23. I must be allergic to weed too.

When I smoke it my eyes get all red and watery, my throat gets dry, I cough and get light headed and sometimes get uncontrollable laughter, and always later have an insatiable hunger for junk food.

[marble falls]

43. Or high. Or both. Hmm ... both what?

[samnsara]

12. if its that strong you have a neighbor growing 'skunk weed'

[NurseJackie]

13. What makes you say that?

Because it's stronger when it's fresh? Or because he's not blending it or cutting it with other types? Or because he's purifying and enhancing the strain?

[multigraincracker]

21. Yep, that's what I was thinking.

The smell from a grow is 24/7 and stronger than the smoke. I can smell a grow from a block away. Pot smoke goes away fast out side.

[NurseJackie]

24. I did not know that. It certainly makes sense.

I don't smell it all the time. Just certain times of the evening... and when there's a slight breeze coming from that direction.

[KPN]

40. That sounds like a grow. In Oregon, you can actually smell grows

while driving on I-5. There was one I could actually see in the fields I was driving past a year or so ago that smelled just like skunk. I’ve also smelled them behind wooden fences I’ve walked past at times in a couple of towns here. Grows are particularly pungent — more so than the smoke to my nose.

[Rorey]

14. I also don't like that aroma

I've smelled it a few times in my neighborhood, and also in store parking lots.

There's someone a few houses away who I strongly suspect is a grower/dealer. He moved here a few years ago and he and his wife keep to themselves. Another neighbor told me that they're not very friendly. He had gone over to tell them that he didn't care what they did at their house, but to please keep the middle-of-the-night traffic off of the cul-de-sac because he has kids. The dealer couple lives on the corner, so their "visitors" can easily stop on the cross street, rather than driving up our quiet hill. I guess the middle-of-the-night traffic must have slowed down because I never heard anything more about it.

Pot is legal here, and people are allowed to have a limited number of plants for personal use, but they're not supposed to be smoking it outside, but of course people do. I'm not a complainer, and our houses are far enough apart that it really doesn't bother me anyway.

But that skunk smell is gross.

[George II]

16. Growing up we had something called stink weed, but it didn't smell like skunk. So I looked up....

...."skunk weed", Here's some information:

In English, ‘skunk’ has become slang for any potent, high-THC strain of cannabis. The media often uses ‘skunk’ to define ‘street weed’, usually in a derogatory fashion. In fact, Skunk #1 is the official name of one of the oldest and most popular strains of cannabis, and there is a ‘Skunk family’ of its descendants.

There is a lot of misinformation surrounding the term ‘skunk’. Many cannabis connoisseurs know Skunk #1 as a legendary strain that’s been used to breed countless modern varieties. However, most mainstream media use ‘skunk’ to mean powerful ‘street weed’ (and ‘street weed’ to mean illegal cannabis).

https://sensiseeds.com/en/blog/what-is-skunk-weed-a-beginners-guide-to-skunk/

Skunk #1 is a hybrid marijuana strain that has influenced cannabis on a global scale, parenting a horde of Skunk crosses since it first bloomed in the late 1970s. Sacred Seed Co. originally bred Skunk #1 using diverse genetics from around the world; Afghani, Acapulco Gold, and Colombian Gold varieties converged through an intricate selective breeding process that spanned several generations, and finally the genetic cornerstone of countless cannabis hybrids was born.

The original Skunk #1 gave rise to several variations that were later harvested in the gardens of Sensi Seeds, Dutch Passion, Flying Dutchmen, Nirvana Seeds, and Royal Queen Seeds. As its name suggests, Skunk #1 buds radiate with an aromatic blend of sour skunkiness and subtle earthy notes. This hybrid offers elevated creativity through its high-energy buzz, while stress and appetite loss melt away with Skunk #1’s potency.

https://www.leafly.com/strains/skunk-1

[Lochloosa]

19. I sold Colombian Gold in high school. I was popular.

[Raven]

17. Here's my story...

Some years ago, my college roommate came to visit me in NH. She was from Dallas, TX. She brought some weed with her, unbeknownst to me. One night we were sitting in the living room and she was smoking some. I thought we had a skunk outside on the deck and asked her if she smelled it. She smiled and showed me her stash. When she was leaving, I made her leave her stash with me because she was flying home and I was afraid she'd be stopped by security at the airport. I had a small stone urn on my mantle so I put the small amount of the stash that was left in the urn. I don't smoke the stuff so it remained in the urn. A few years later, after I had become a Selectman in my town, the Chief of Police and his Deputy paid me a visit in order to discuss some town business. We were sitting in the living room and the Chief was admiring my stone urn and asked where I had gotten it. As I was telling him, I remembered what was in the urn. He asked if he could take a closer look at it and I said "I rather that you didn't handle it, my mother's ashes are in it."

[Ferrets are Cool]

35. Nice escape.

[crud]

38. reminds me of the episode of

sanford and son where Grady eats marijuana salad with the neighborhood cops and Lamont was freaking out. funniest episode ever.

[ornotna]

18. Maybe not skunks

But if there is moist soil in those woods you might have skunk cabbage growing out there.

Symplocarpus foetidus

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symplocarpus_foetidus

Symplocarpus foetidus, commonly known as skunk cabbage[2] or eastern skunk cabbage (also swamp cabbage, clumpfoot cabbage, or meadow cabbage, foetid pothos or polecat weed), is a low growing plant that grows in wetlands and moist hill slopes of eastern North America. Bruised leaves present a fragrance reminiscent of skunk.

When I used to live in NY we had it growing in our woods and it smells just like a skunk.

[KPN]

45. We have skunk cabbage here in wester Oregon

as well. But it’s huge relative to the skunk cabbage I was used to growing up in Massachusetts. The ferns are bigger too - dramatically so, as and of course are the trees. There’s a national estuarine reserve nearby that has a boardwalk on a trail that passes through an acre or so of dense skunk cabbage. The cabbage is higher than the boardwalk which is a few feet off the surrounding boggy ground. It’s pretty amazing.

[Demsrule86]

20. Yep, I smell 'skunk' quite often...don't understand how that hides your smoking...

I could never smoke stuff that smelled that bad. I wouldn't smoke anyway. As a teen, I smoked a couple of years and once a smoker, too easy to go back.

[Me.]

22. Hilarious

Been there, still doing that. Someone in our building smokes that particular stuff and yes it smell like skunk. Can't tell which apartment it's coming from. But late at night or early in the morning it comes wafting up. Friends a few blocks over thought it was skunks too.

[NurseJackie]

25. I'd hate to imagine what the inside of their trailer smells like...

... or inside their cars. Yuk!

[Me.]

61. Made Me Laugh

I'm still on the hunt to figure out who it is just for fun cause I don't care if they smoke. I will add, I've also noticed there is no contact high with this stuff...

[NurseJackie]

62. What about...

What about "contact nausea" ... that applies for me. 🤢🤮

[Stainless]

26. So what is the point of this thread?

Cannabis paranoia is obvious but what else have you got? It isn't even funny IMHO.

[NurseJackie]

27. Haaaaa!

So what is the point of this thread?

To share something new that I learned and didn't know about before. To express my surprise that I was mistaken and that it wasn't actually skunks. That's pretty funny.

Cannabis paranoia is obvious but what else have you got?

Paranoia? What a strange thing to accuse me of being!

It isn't even funny IMHO.

I'd hate to be the type of person who was so uptight that I couldn't even laugh at myself.

Okay, well... whatever. It's all good! But, thanks for sharing how you feel. It made me LULZ!

Have a nice day!

[Mr. Evil]

34. Humorous life experiences just seem to escape some people.

I've experienced skunk weed (personally and at a distance). It does have quite a pungent aroma. I thought your story was a nice, funny change of pace. You're right, some people are so uptight you couldn't drive a railroad spike up their ass with a 20 lb. sledgehammer.

[NurseJackie]

68. Thanks for the support! Also, you certainly have a way with words...

... OUCH!

[Mr. Evil]

71. You're quite welcome!

I have my days.

[Ferrets are Cool]

36. This

[Hortensis]

57. Really, Jackie, what's the point of LIFE?

Please don't waste my in between with this stuff.

[JohnSJ]

52. Are you people only allowed to post things that "have a point" according to YOU?

and then be accused of paranoia because it doesn’t meet some criteria?

[NurseJackie]

63. I like to read profile statistics. It reveals much.

And that's all I have to say about that.

[ChazInAz]

28. I've encountered it.

It's been some fifty years since I've smoked pot, so I'm not really familiar with it any more.
A couple of years ago at Saguaro Man (Arizona's regional version of Burning Man.) I was assaulted immediately upon arrival by the pong of eau de mustalid and commented upon it to lady friend Mary. She took my age into account and explained the situation. Then she mused "Hungarians are reallywhite White people!" I think she was being pitying, since she proceeded to give me a thorough smooching over.
So...I have fond feelings for Skunkweed, without ever having used it..

[Pobeka]

30. We have all three skunk smells around here.

Real skunks.
Skunk weed.
Skunk cabbage.

I can barely tell the difference between real skunks and skunk weed. Real skunk smell is slightly more acrid, or intense, I think, than someone smoking skunk weed.

Skunk cabbage has a little bit of a vanilla or tobacco note, and a little more "earthy" than the other two.

Found out you can actually eat skunk cabbage leaves, I guess you have to boil the leaves a couple of times. I think I'll just stick with grocery store cabbage!

BTW, thanks for the Phillis Diller gif, I hadn't thought of her for a long time and it made me laugh!

[FSogol]

31. BTW: Foxes also leave a musky odor to mark territory, warn opponents, and attract the ladies.

It smells like skunk lite or faint skunk. That's could have been what you are smelling if it wasn't the neighbors.

Foxes like to yell at night and it sounds like a asthmatic kid yelling.

[NurseJackie]

33. That's interesting to know.

It was definitely the neighbors. Now that I know what it is, I can be "Mrs Kravitz" and peer through the fence and confirm that they're out in their back yard.



PS: We do have an occasional fox that wanders through the area.

[FakeNoose]

37. Well maybe he grows it himself

Or he might have even found it growing "wild." I know it sounds unlikely, but the indigenous hemp used to pop up in odd places all around the Midwest as a native plant. During my college days in northern Indiana I remember seeing just that - wild hemp that looked like marijuana - if you were observant and knew where to look.

So hopefully your neighbor is going to run out of his stinky supply and grow something else that smells a little better next time. I wouldn't drop a dime on the guy.

[beaglelover]

44. That's the lovely smell of most of L.A. now.

Especially when one is driving down Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood!

[H2O Man]

46. Recommended.

It's "sinsemillia," or seedless female flowers. By keeping it away from pollen, the buds do not have seeds, and are higher in THC content. This was rare back in "the day." The stuff we smoked was pollenated, and thus had the fruitier smell and taste.

Younger generations are funny. They want to buy well-trimmed buds, without the leaves of the flowers, which are actually used to make one type of hash. So they want some of the stronger parts removed for appearance sake.

[Me.]

66. Go Figure

[JohnnyRingo]

47. Ahhh... Skunk Weed. Do you want me to talk to them?

I could stop over a couple times a week if you think it will help.

[NurseJackie]

48. Ha! Would you please?

[Thtwudbeme]

50. I would bet anything you have a fox family near

Their urine, etc smells remarkably like skunk.

Doubt it's ditch weed you are smelling.

[BobTheSubgenius]

51. For whatever reason, that is the smelly strain either he, or his supplier, has chosen to grow.

There is a vast array of choices now, some smelling pretty pleasant - blueberry or bubblegum, to name a couple of surprising ones. Starting from seed is a PITA for a grower, because it takes a lot longer to get your plants to full ripeness, but starting a couple and growing them along with the 'money' strain is easy enough. They'll know what to do from there, if they have a clue about growing.

Variety is the spice of life, after all. Suggest to him that he find a seed purveyor. I know people that happily give up some potency for better flavour and smoothness. No strain will ever yield a smell that smells 100% like fruit and 0% like burning plant matter, though. Not even 60/40.

[Thyla]

53. Odd

Skunks must smell delightful then.

[TexasBushwhacker]

59. God that stuff is awful

It earns it's name!

[gldstwmn]

65. Now that so many varieties are available

why do people still smoke skunk weed?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

67. Love this thread! How long have you smelled it? So weird

To go down memory lane ! Last time we went to Vegas the hotel corridor smelled like skunk. A maid then told me it was pot. Have great memories of how great pot smelled back in the day.

[NurseJackie]

69. It started right after the new year...

... about the same time that they moved-in.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

72. Good clue:). Can't wait to hear what's really going on nt

[Cuthbert Allgood]

70. So I learned that a lot of you had a misspent youth. And adulthood.

And so did your friends.

Like did you not even listen to Cheech and Chong?