# Pot smoking neighbors - what to do? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 16, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808 "2010-11-16T01:13:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/21 "2010-11-16T03:29:48Z")
A damp towel across the bottom of the floor does wonders to keep the smell inside the apartment. Ditto over ducts. Hmmm, I guess you could talk to the landlord and ask for help moving/refunds if he can’t clean up the place. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/22 "2010-11-16T04:08:02Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > This, I do not believe. I think you’re bullshitting. I have had a pretty fair exposure, over the years, soaking myself and my clothes, permeating, marinating. No one has ever, ever said that I smell like pot. Taking my exposure as a benchmark, I’m trying to imagine smoke wafting from another apartment with such intensity as to render your clothes redolent, so redolent that other people will notice. Can’t happen. Its herb, it ain’t mustard gas. > > Balderdash, sir! Tommyrot! > [@Blalron](#): > > I second that notion. Marijuana smoke just doesn’t linger that strongly. I doubt it would stick to the neighbors clothes even if the Kottonmouth Kings lived next door. 🙂 > [@EmAnJ](#): > > My parents smoke pot all the time. I can smell it on their clothes and in their home, especially in their bedroom where they smoke it. It stinks at the same intensity as cigarette smoke and lingers just as long. If you’re a pot smoker and people have never said anything about the smell, it’s probably because you’re hanging out with other pot smokers or people just decide not to say anything about it (just like people don’t say anything to stinky cigarette smokers). First-hand smoke is a different animal. This is ostensibly describing a situation a floor below that is apparently hotboxing his apartment enough to achieve the same effect. Not that it isn’t possible, and not that someone who met him in the hallway two seconds after he walked out of a cloud of smoke (and after he inadvertently dropped a handful of tea leaves and oregano on the stove) may have said something, but this is one of those hmmmmmmm things. Doesn’t mean that there isn’t a problem–I think the dubiousness was about there being so much smoke that he’s getting complaints about him smelling outside the house. Wasn’t there some thread about getting high off of rosemary or something? Or someone mistaking pot for rosemary and getting high off that? I don’t get the thrill of \*pretending \*to get high, let alone embellishing stories for the Internet. On preview: Ah, found the link: [A “X-Mas Dinner to Remember” or “Yes, this really happened to us.”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=545376) Shenanigans! ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/23 "2010-11-16T04:43:04Z")
I’m a pretty passive person. Buy some incense, a bottle of Fabreeze, and one of those beanbag things you put under doors to stop drafts. Nobody has ever won a fight against a neighbor, and your real options are to leave or learn to live with it. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/24 "2010-11-16T05:55:21Z")
Did they really say “fuck off?” That’s really obnoxious and almost makes me want to say cops, but landlord is the better idea. You could even ask the landlord to say he’s had several complaints or that he/she noticed it independently. Not all stoners are mellow, so using the landlord might be the best way to avoid an unpleasant confrontation. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/25 "2010-11-16T06:02:23Z")
I’m having a hard time seeing the downside. Ask them for a toke or two. Or a hundred. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![InterestedObserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@InterestedObserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InterestedObserver)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/26 "2010-11-16T06:03:28Z")
Just report them as “inconsiderate smokers” to the landlord/manager. You’d have the same issue if they were spewing tobacco smoke all over, right? No need to even bring the “pot” issue into it. They are smoking, stinking up the communal areas, and have not responded to your requests that they stop. Simple. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/27 "2010-11-16T06:18:02Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > They’re doing something illegal. When you witness someone doing something illegal, you call the cops. It really is that simple. > > Now, I don’t think that smoking pot should be illegal, but it is, so call the cops. Smoking pot is not necessarily illegal in every state. We don’t know what state the OP is in. The OP also only claims to have witnessed anybody smoking pot once, and technically he can’t even prove that it was pot. I don’t see why the cops would come out because he said he once saw somebody smoking pot in that apartment, and I imagine they have better things to do than investigate pot smells in an apartment building. What are the cops going to do anyway? They can’t search the apartment without a warrant, so all the tenants have to do is tell them to fuck off. If the cops really want to get a warrant to find out if somebody is smoking pot in their own apartment, then it’s easy enough for the stoners to flush the bud bfore the warrant gets there. I don’t see how the landlord is going to be able to do anything either if they deny it. This is a case where the OP should probably just mind his own business. There are worse things that can happen to somebody than having to smell pot smoke in an apartment building hallway. That’s apartment living. He should probably just ask them if he can blaze up with them. They’d all end up a lot happier. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/28 "2010-11-16T06:21:46Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > This, I do not believe. I think you’re bullshitting. I have had a pretty fair exposure, over the years, soaking myself and my clothes, permeating, marinating. No one has ever, ever said that I smell like pot. Taking my exposure as a benchmark, I’m trying to imagine smoke wafting from another apartment with such intensity as to render your clothes redolent, so redolent that other people will notice. Can’t happen. Its herb, it ain’t mustard gas. > > Balderdash, sir! Tommyrot! I concur with this. I’ve practically cured myself in the stuff and never heard anyone tell me I reeked like pot. I’ve also lived in buildings where there was some pretty frequent experiemnting going on in other apartments, and while you could sometimes smell it right outside their doors, it wasn’t stinking up the hallways. Presumably, if the smoke in the OP’s building is that problematic the landlord would be able to smell it too. If the landlord doesn’t notice it, it can’t be that bad. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/29 "2010-11-16T06:49:58Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > I’m a pretty passive person. Buy some incense, a bottle of Fabreeze, and one of those beanbag things you put under doors to stop drafts. Nobody has ever won a fight against a neighbor, and your real options are to leave or learn to live with it. I’m with this. Sure, it’s reasonable to not want to smell like other people’s pot (even though I have to wonder how much pot they could be smoking to make YOU reek in another apartment), but you’re not going to solve this. You’ll turn them in and get retaliation. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/30 "2010-11-16T06:55:35Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > What are the cops going to do anyway? They can’t search the apartment without a warrant, so all the tenants have to do is tell them to fuck off. If the cops really want to get a warrant to find out if somebody is smoking pot in their own apartment, then it’s easy enough for the stoners to flush the bud bfore the warrant gets there. As usual, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. If the cops knock on the door, they open it, and a cop sees pot, or the guy hitting the bong, that’s plain view. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/31 "2010-11-16T06:57:13Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > As usual, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. If the cops knock on the door, they open it, and he sees pot, or the guy hitting the bong, that’s plain view. A cop isn’t always going to do shit about it if you’re in your own home. Pot isn’t OMG JAIL WORTHY in every jurisdiction in the United States. I realize it’s fun to jump on everything **Dio** says but it’s not a guaranteed arrest. Plus, you’re assuming that he’s going to answer the door to the police while hitting it. Lots of assumptions ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/32 "2010-11-16T07:02:51Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > Plus, you’re assuming that he’s going to answer the door to the police while hitting it. Lots of assumptions The OP said they opened the door when he knocked. That could have been a cop for all the stoners knew at the point they opened the door. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/33 "2010-11-16T07:08:10Z")
We should heed the words of one who is wise in the ways of the narc. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/34 "2010-11-16T07:09:06Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > This, I do not believe. I think you’re bullshitting. I have had a pretty fair exposure, over the years, soaking myself and my clothes, permeating, marinating. No one has ever, ever said that I smell like pot. Taking my exposure as a benchmark, I’m trying to imagine smoke wafting from another apartment with such intensity as to render your clothes redolent, so redolent that other people will notice. Can’t happen. Its herb, it ain’t mustard gas. > > Balderdash, sir! Tommyrot! Agreed. If the smoke emitted from the neighbor’s apartment is really permeating the OP’s clothes, then it isn’t pot they’re smoking. ---
**Author:** ![pericynthion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/85e7bf/32.png) [@pericynthion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pericynthion)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/35 "2010-11-16T07:12:33Z")
Post this in the corridor: [FAIL Blog - Funny Fails](http://failblog.org/2010/10/27/epic-fail-photos-note-to-your-neighbors-win/) ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/36 "2010-11-16T07:38:33Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > The OP said they opened the door when he knocked. That could have been a cop for all the stoners knew at the point they opened the door. Yes, because there are no apartments anywhere with peepholes. So that takes us back to your belief that all jurisdictions will drag someone to jail for pot smoking. I can tell you have this all nailed down. A real legal expert. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/37 "2010-11-16T07:39:46Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > So that takes us back to your belief that all jurisdictions will drag someone to jail for pot smoking. I can tell you have this all nailed down. A real legal expert. Cite me to where I said that, or kiss my ass. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/38 "2010-11-16T07:42:32Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Cite me to where I said that, or kiss my ass. Oh please. If you didn’t believe there would be trouble then why would it matter if the cops saw it? Plus, you’ll have to chalk off a spot because you’re pretty much all ass. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/39 "2010-11-16T07:46:45Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > Oh please. If you didn’t believe there would be trouble then why would it matter if the cops saw it? > > Plus, you’ll have to chalk off a spot because you’re pretty much all ass. If you weren’t such an unctuous twat, you’d note that Dio was talking about the need for a warrant. He was wrong, as he usually is. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808/40 "2010-11-16T07:50:01Z")
Awww I’m starting to think you have a thing for **Dio**! Maybe he lives in Nopeepholeland and you can give him a knock! Keep it up, you’re a riot when he gets you worked up [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-smoking-neighbors-what-to-do/560808.md?page=3)