what does pot smell like?  I heard burnt oregano, is this true?  How do I find out?

Greetings Birkett7:

If you are a concerned parent wondering if your child is smoking
marijuana, you would need to smell samples of it burning as well as
not burning to correctly ascertain the scent.  This might possibly be
achieved by querying a police station with your concerns and asking if
they have a sample available for review.

Many police stations or sheriff's departments have anti-drug materials
including samples of various drugs - they take these to schools to
show students what the drugs look like so that they will stay away
from them or be able to report drugs accurately to a parent or teacher
(law enforcement does NOT burn the marijuana for students, to my
knowledge).  If you are a concerned parent, a law enforcement office
may be able to assist you in identifying the odor.


From my college memories, many years ago, I can attest to the scent of
fresh marijuana as being a heavy oily herbal scent, sort of like
catnip but stronger.  When burning, it often resembles a burnt popcorn
smell.  The smoke has a heavier scent than tobacco smoke because of
the oils present in the plant.  Should you ever smell it, you will
know you are not smelling tobacco.

In looks, shake marijuana does resemble oregano.  The term "shake" is
when the marijuana is not in the stemmed/bud form as is represented at
the site http://www.marijuanapictures-seeds.com/MarijuanaBudPictures.htm
but is broken up - leaves and buds have come apart and the result
looks very similar to oregano in a plastic bag.  The marijuana users I
knew during college preferred complete buds to shake because more oils
are present in the bud form - the pot begins to dry out more quickly
when broken apart.


"Good marijuana gives off a clean, sharp, pungent smell. Some
marijuana varieties have a citral smell similar to the scent of a
lemon tree, other marijuana variaties have a spicy scent or even an
ammonia/chemical-like smell, this is perfectly normal. If you can
smell something resembling freshly mown grass, the marijuana is still
too "green" (wet) and was not given enough time to dry, or "cured"
properly..."  This text is from
http://www.smokersguide.com/sg/index.html?page=http://www.smokersguide.com/sg/marijuanatest1.html
and refers to non-burning marijuana.


http://www2.gasou.edu/public_safety/marijuana.html offers the
information "How Can I Know Someone Uses Marijuana?" and please see
"Drug Paraphernalia" at http://nickscape.net/recoveryzone/parafern.htm


"For some MPs, this was the first time they have ever seen or smelled
marijuana. "It's nothing like I have ever smelled before," said Sgt.
Melinda Laborde, a platoon sergeant for the company. "It is hard to
describe...it had a sweet burning smell."
From http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/drugawareness/usmcnews04a.html


Again, until you have smelled marijuana burning at least once, you
will not be able to identify it as marijuana although you will be able
to identify it it "definitely not tobacco."  A side note is that since
my college days, I have run into many Marlboro cigarette smokers who
would swear that trace amounts of marijuana is present in Marlboro
cigarettes.  Also, my ex-husband smoked the Marlboro brand and I can
attest to the fact that occasionally one of his cigarettes would smell
just like marijuana burning when he would light it - he would remark
about it, too.  It is an odd speculation of many Marlboro smokers. 
See http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Cigs_20that_20look_20and_20smell_20like_20marjuana
for references to this phenomenon.

To learn more about the medical effects of marijuana and scientific
studies of the plant's effects, please visit
http://www.medicalmarihuana.ca/ and http://www.medmjscience.org/.


Should you require clarification of any of the infomation I have
provided, please request it and I will be happy to respond.


SEARCH STRATEGY:

what does marijuana smell like?
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Clarification of Answer by journalist-ga on 19 Mar 2003 10:58 PST

Dear Birkett7:

My colleauge, PinkFreud, happened to review this question and emailed
me suggesting the purchase of cannabis incense.  I had never heard of
this incense until she alerted me to it and smelling it may well be
the closest you can get to the actual smell of burning marijuana.

From the link she sent, Mazatec Garden at
http://www.mazatecgarden.com/incense/Cannabis.htm offers cannabis
incense, $1.50 a box of 8 to 10 incense sticks.  Having never smelled
the incense, I can't promise it smells exactly the same as marijuana
but I'd wager it's fairly close.

I then searched "cannabis incense" for you and found other locations
where you may purchase it.  Please see
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=cannabis+incense&spell=1
for the Google results page for that phrase.

As well, if you can find some hemp rope (some hardware stores
still carry it) the smell of marijuana will be similar.

Hemp rope is made from a variety of the marijuana plant, hence
the traditional description that marijuana smells like burning
rope.  This is from when virtually all rope was made from hemp.

I remember being told that the smell of a burning tea bag will give
you a pretty good idea of the smell of pot.

Unfortunately I get a lot more chances to smell pot than I do to smell
burning tea bags.  It's pretty unmistakable.

Look for pink around the eyes, and watch for rampant munchies.

Thank you for your rating and your added generosity!  I hope that you
will soon be able to define the smell of burning marijuana for
yourself - once smelled, you will always know the scent.

In  my opinion it smells really good. Some believe the churches used
it as incense. If you notice a very pungent smell its likely
marijuana.