About 30,000 Dutch households are to receive marijuana-scented scratch cards in an effort to uncover illegal urban cannabis plantations. Authorities in Rotterdam and The Hague say they are distributing the cards to help people recognise what cannabis smells like.
— Read more at Dutch sniff cards to help find cannabis plantations at BBC News.
Hilarious!
It is. Would love to get this mailing…
I agree that it’s funny, but honestly, so many people smoke dope in public, or the smells waft out of coffeeshops, that it’s hard for me to believe anyone living in the major cities would not recognize the smell!
It really is hard to imagine, esp. in a place where pot is not generally illegal.
Except if no one ever points it out while you’re smelling it, you have no idea what you’re smelling. Ahem. 😀 I was going to post “There! FINALLY something to back me up when people laugh at me for claiming not to know what it smells like…” What can I say, I’ve lived a sheltered existence.
I don’t think I know either. 🙁
I’ve lived a sheltered existence too. I have only knowingly smelled it once, about 4 years ago in downtown Denver, and I cannot say that I actually recall the smell now, only that it was rather strange. My husband and I were walking around doing the tourist thing, taking pictures. As we were waiting for a walk signal to cross a street, I noticed an odd smell–it didn’t smell like exhaust or sewer gas or burning oil or burning rubber or any of the other smells you might expect to find in an urban environment and I honestly did not know what it was. As we crossed a street, two girls were coming the other way, one of them pushing a stroller. As they came near, the one with the stroller asked “You want to take a picture of this?” and waved a little brown cigarette in my face. Only then did I realize what the smell must have been. After we had passed them, my husband leaned toward me and said “I know they call Denver the mile-high city, but I didn’t know they meant it THAT way!”
Well, if they are looking for the plants, they smell different than when it is being smoked. Sort of a green, sticky, resinous smell.
Of course, I don’t have time to look at the article right now so I might be talking out of my butt.
You know, I haven’t smelled it in a long time, but that is just one smell you never forget and recognize instantly!
And I hope the citizens of Gotham do their duty!
what a lovely way to engender a sense of community amongst your citizens….
LOL!
I don’t need a scratch card… I was around in the 60s and 70s.
I’ve never even seen weed in person, but I sure do know that smell!
How interesting! I was recently reading “What The Nose Knows”, and there was a bit on searches for marijuana in the US being tossed out because odor evidence was intangible.