Ask a Stoner: What Smells Like Cannabis — But Isn't Cannabis?

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Dear Stoner: Everyone talks about the other stuff weed smells like — like fruit and flowers or whatever. But what things smell like weed...but aren't weed?
Ned

Dear Ned: Just take a look at the names of popular strains like Blueberry, Strawberry Cough, Lemon Skunk and Lavender. Sure, blueberries, strawberries, lemons and lavender don’t have the same skunky smells that cannabis does, but they still carry very similar scents — and isn’t that technically smelling like cannabis? Even science agrees with my overzealous answer, as terpenes responsible for these fruity and floral smells are found in those aforementioned cannabis strains as well as the fruit that inspires their names.

click to enlarge

You can thank terpenes for that lemony-fresh scent in your house, or the relaxing smell of a coffee shop.

iStock/yarygin

Terpenes are also responsible for the usual smells that we associate with cannabis, like those whiffs of new rubber tires, a skunk in open air, resinous pine needles or even your grandpa’s closet. (Smell some of the OG strains out there before you tell me I’m wrong.) Even fresh lawn trimmings can carry dank whiffs reminiscent of pot.

Or maybe it just depends on where your head is.

Send questions to [email protected].