Living here can be really stinky.
New Yorkers are being chased out of their apartments by the stench of marijuana. Since marijuana was legalized in New York City in 2021, its pungent odor has become increasingly common on New York City streets, and now people in Gotham can’t escape the smell even in their homes. saying.
“The odor is so strong that it wakes you up and makes it difficult to relax and go back to sleep. The high concentration can cause nausea and itchy eyes and sore throats from allergies,” says a business owner who lives in Cobble Hill. said Delaney, 25. For the past 6 months, the smell on the 4th floor where she walks up has been unbearable.
“I spent most nights in my bedroom, mostly from 10pm to 2pm,” she said.
She went to college right after Oregon legalized marijuana, so she’s used to the occasional sniff. But this smell is next level and literally driving her crazy.
“I live alone, so I often find myself second-guessing myself or feeling like I’m overreacting, but I had family in town, and they came into my apartment and I was like, ‘Oh, I used a hot box.’ They said it smelled bad,” she said.
Delaney emailed the building manager and landlord about the issue. While they sympathized with her plight, they said there wasn’t much they could do as long as people were using marijuana in their apartments.
And I don’t even know where that smell is coming from.
“I’ve even run around the building in the middle of the night in my pajamas and slippers to see which apartments the sounds are coming from. It’s quite a sight,” she said. “I narrowed it down to a few, but they all had doors and windows closed, so it was just my best guess.”
She’s hopeful that if she can figure out who her smoky neighbor is, they can talk and find a solution, and she recently decided to renew her lease. During that time, I was able to get some benefit from using an air purifier.
Claire, a 39-year-old consultant who is married with two children, does not have the option of not renewing her lease. She owns an apartment in Brooklyn, which she shares with her husband and her two young children. Her neighbors smoke pot 24/7.
“We talk from 8 a.m. on weekdays to 5 p.m. during bath time and all night long,” she said. “With our ventilation setup, their fumes go directly into the children’s bathrooms. We definitely have conversations with our nanny often, and even once she was asked about the smell by our young children. Not twice.”
Alison, a millennial entrepreneur who lives in a luxury rental building in Dumbo, has been battling the smell of weed since May. “A new neighbor moved in next door to hers, and shortly thereafter, I began to smell a strong odor of marijuana smoke in the apartment and in various common areas, including the hallways, elevators, and lobby,” she said. Ta. “Some nights I wake up at 2 a.m. because the smell is so strong.”
The situation is especially frustrating because her lease makes the building officially a non-smoking residence. According to the New York City Department of Health, the “no smoking” label prohibits not only tobacco smoke, but also smoke from marijuana and other substances.
She filed complaints more than 30 times, but little action was taken.
“Management always gave us workarounds, directing us to report the incident to the concierge or referring us to another person within the organization,” she said. “They frequently told us that they couldn’t take action against it because it was difficult to identify the source of the smoke.”
Eventually, the building sent an email to the neighbors, which helped a little.
“Although the smoke that wafts into our bedroom every day is gone, I can still smell marijuana smoke in the common areas and hear neighbors smoking joints in front of the building on the sidewalk. I see it a lot,” she said.
Meanwhile, Claire lives in a small building and is nervous to talk to her neighbors because she doesn’t want to ruin relationships. She wishes they would be more considerate, but she doesn’t want to seem like a hypocrite.
“Listen, we are cannabis users ourselves,” she said. “We don’t want to take that away from people.”
