One topic I have had a crazy amount of interest lately has been over the topic of smoking weed in an apartment. Is it legal to do? Can a landlord prevent a tenant from smoking weed even if it is legal in the state? What if they have a medical marijuana card? Can they evict you for doing something that is completely legal?
While the rules governing weed are some of the most dynamic and changing of any set of rules in the country, it is still never good to give your landlord a reason to kick you out or give you a bad reference.
Each state has laws that govern the people that live there, so depending on where you are reading this, medical or recreational weed may be completely legal, but that still doesn’t mean that you won’t be kicked out for smoking week in your apartment.
Moving Soon? Get quality cardboard moving boxes for less! – Click Here – Fast and Free Shipping!Why Would I, As A Landlord, Give Advice On Not Getting Caught?
Firstly, Apartment School doesn’t condone the use of drugs of ANY kind, but we recognize the fact that they exist, the rules and regulations on some of them are changing, and landlords are most occupied with protecting their property, not being people’s mother.
I am going to address this issue from a property owner/landlord business perspective and keep the social issues out of it.
A landlord has two objectives. The first is to make a profit on his apartment complex business. The second is the duty that landlords have to their tenants by the way of “Quiet Enjoyment” and the Warrant of Habitability.
The first obligation is to themselves to make money, and the second is to their tenants to provide them with a safe, peaceful place to live.
When you boil it down though, a landlord is going to stay out of the personal lives of tenants as much as possible, especially if they don’t have a reason to get involved.
Smoking weed is one of those fringe issues that a lot of landlords don’t really want to handle in a head-on manner but would rather deal with any issues that arise on a case-by-case basis.
At the end of the day, if the landlord isn’t getting complaints from the neighbors, and there is no damage to their property, then they aren’t going to get involved. I wrote an article on a similar note in regards to Vaping in your apartment if you want to check it out.
Almost every apartment lease is going to have some provision in it about prohibiting the use of illicit drugs. Marijuana falls into the cracks in the lease on this one.
At the state level, it may be perfectly legal, but at the federal level, it is still illegal, 100%. The states allow landlords to decide how they want to handle it, but still, it is always better to be safe than sorry.
Better to indulge on the sly than attract the attention of your neighbors or landlord.
What is a Sploof?
A Sploof is a little device that you exhale the smoke into while you are smoking. There is a little filter on the end of the device which absorbs the smoke and doesn’t allow it to leak into your own apartment or seep to anyone else’s apartment either.
The easiest way to make one of these is to take an empty toilet paper roll. Get it, then get a couple of drier sheets and tape or rubber band them over one end of the toilet paper tube. That’s it. Then just exhale the smoke into the “Sploof” device and your smoke will be absorbed by the drier sheets.
Now, I have heard that you can use a plastic bottle or other things, using in conjunction with drier sheets, I haven’t tried them out myself personally, but the common denominator with these “Sploofs” seems to be the drier sheet. Some of them even have a sock taped over the end of the drier sheet for extra filter action I guess. But the whole “sock thing” is a bit too American Pie for me, so I will let you decide on that one.
Why would I research about Sploofs and tell people how to make one? Because I own an apartment complex, and the last thing I want is for people to be damaging my walls and carpets due to a ton of smoke going on.
And if a Sploof is going to help keep my walls and carpet clean, I know that the other thing it is going to do is prevent other tenants from smelling it as well. So, it is a win-win.
I want to make sure that my apartment is free of smoke, and I don’t want other tenants to be bothered by someone who IS smoking. Now, obviously we all know that cigarette smoke is much more destructive than vaping is. By a long shot.
In comparison, vaping has virtually zero ramifications in comparison to cigarettes. So, why wouldn’t a landlord want to promote vaping over smoking? The answer is, if they are logical, they would.
In the same way, if there are ways in which people, who are going to do what they are going to do, can do those things with the absolute MINIMAL damage to the apartment and nuisance to other people around them, then that would be the optimal situation.
It’s not that I am telling people to pick up smoking weed. Those that do it are going to do it regardless of WHAT I say. But if you are already doing it, you may find this information helpful.
Which helps out your landlord, your neighbors, and by extension, YOU.
In conclusion, make a Sploof. You help everyone out!
Do I Have The Right To Smoke Weed In My Apartment If It Is Legal?
Well, cigarettes are legal. Can you smoke them in your apartment? If you can, then chances are your landlord isn’t going to care if you smoke weed either.
As I have brought up in the other articles I have written on smoking in an apartment, I mention the fact that smokers aren’t a “Protected Class”. So, while smoking is completely legal, the right to smoke wherever isn’t necessarily.
When you are in an apartment owned by a private person or a company, it is their property. That means they can make whatever rules they want for the people living on their property.
Personally, I keep cigarette buckets outside the buildings of my apartment complex. Does this mean that I am PROMOTING smoking by making it easy for people to ditch their butts? Heck, no!! I am just making it so the outside of my apartment buildings stay free of cigarette butts.
How To Keep My Apartment From Smelling Like Weed
So, what are all the ways you can prevent your apartment from smelling like weed? You already know you have an affinity for the bud, what are you going to do about not being found out about your habit?
Below are several ways in which you can prevent your apartment from smelling like bong water.
If you lived out in the woods with nobody else around, you wouldn’t have to worry about these things. But because you live in close proximity with other people in your apartment building, and because the apartment building is someone else’s property, it is a good idea to keep the smell of weed smoke down to a bare minimum.
Make A Sploof
We have already gone over what a Sploof consists of above. It is essentially just a tube with some drier sheets attached to one end to collect the smoke as you exhale.
This is a good way to stop the smell of smoke from permeating the walls and carpet of your apartment. Your landlord is not going to know you were doing anything inside your apartment if you keep everything to a minimum.
The other benefit it gives is not allowing the smoke to escape to any of your fellow tenants. There is nothing worse than a nosy neighbor, and apartment complexes are renowned for having nosy neighbors. Don’t give them something to call the landlord about. Keep your habit on the down-low and everyone will be happy and you can still enjoy what you want to enjoy.
Smoke In The Bathroom
The old high school solution turns out it wasn’t that dumb, to begin with.
Bathrooms typically have vent fans in them. These vent fans usually vent that air straight outside. If you have to smoke and have to smoke flower, then turning the bathroom fan on and smoking in your bathroom is going to be the best bet.
ADDITIONALLY, you will want to turn the water on hot and let a good steam get going. Put a towel in the crack at the bottom of the door so no smoke or steam can get out, and then have at it.
The steam and towel will prevent the bathroom and rest of the apartment from smelling like weed smoke, and the fan will suck whatever is in the bathroom outside in an efficient manner.
This is one of the most courteous ways to indulge in your habit and not bother others or hurt property in the meantime.
Open A Window And Turn On A Fan
The old’ common-sense move.
You have to use common sense if you are going to smoke in an apartment that doesn’t allow smoking. They don’t allow smoking in the apartment for a reason, all the other tenants, including your neighbors, know this, so it is going to be to your benefit not to try and skirt the rules on this one.
At the very least, you can open up the window and sit a box fan so the air is blowing out of the apartment. The most complaints come from when neighbors complain that the smell of weed is coming in from their own vents above or below the apartment. The other reason they complain is because the hallway or stairwell smells like weed.
Prevent anyone from ever having that complaint by just being smart and courteous about it. Just like you want people to respect your habit, you also should give them the respect of not infringing upon their right NOT to smell weed smoke.
Use A Vaporizer
Also called Dabbing, you can smoke weed without ever really “smoking” the actual weed or flower. Weed technology has gotten to the point where you can just inhale the extract, concentrate, or “Dub” of the actual plant. It still works the same as you normally would expect, but the benefit is that it has virtually NO smell whatsoever.
Also, depending on what source you read and want to believe, vaporizing weed from concentrate is much healthier for you because you are not inhaling all of the carcinogens that come with actually firing up a bowl.
Do yourself, your landlord, and your neighbors a favor and check out vaporizing with cartridges instead of smoking the actual flower.
Vacuum Your Apartment
Weed smoke, just like every other type of smoke, sticks around in those porous places in your apartment. The walls and the carpets being the main two things that landlords are concerned about because those two things are their property.
If you smoke weed in your apartment, you can freshen up your living space at almost anytime by simply vacuuming it well. Make sure you get all the furniture and the carpets, and you will be amazed at how good your apartment smells.
I wrote an article on if neighbors will know you have a cat in your apartment. And the reason they do is because your apartment smells like a cat! The same thing goes for smoking weed. If you smoke weed in your apartment, YOU may not notice it, but everyone else who comes into your apartment absolutely will.
Do yourself a favor and vacuum your apartment good every week or so to get all that dust and particulate out of the air. It will be good for your health, as well as keeping any suspicion off you.
If you want to smoke weed in your apartment, you have to be smart about it. Use a Sploof to make sure that the smell doesn’t get out to everyone else. Either that or use a vaporizer so that you are not actually smoking the flower.
Regardless of the option you choose, make sure you are giving as much respect to the people around you as you are wanting them to give you.
