Submitted by TheGreenSubmarine.

College is a place to explore and try new things, so it is no wonder that so many people choose to first smoke marijuana on college campuses.  While college is a great place to experiment with marijuana, smoking in dorms can be a potentially dangerous activity.  This article provides a simple guide for keeping smoking in the dorms a safe and enjoyable activity.

This article originally appeared on the GrassCity forums.  It was reproduced with the author's permission with minor modifications to be consistent with the other THG articles.

Prereqisites

Whether or not it is worth it depends on a couple different factors:

1. Your University's Policy: At some schools, the most that will happen if you get caught with marijuana or alcohol in the dorms is confiscation and a mandatory drug/alcohol class that costs less than $100. The police are not involved unless you are uncooperative, and it only goes on your dorm record.
If, however, the policies at your school are more strict and unforgiving, it may be wise to weigh the pros and cons of smoking in your room.  Know your school's policies as written in the school's disciplinary code and also ask around to see what has happened to others.

2. Your Roommate: Your roommate has to be OK with it. It's even better if he/she smokes. If they are not alright with it, don't do it! This can cause a lot of problems for your relationship as roomies.  Be communicative and talk to them before smoking in the room.

3. Your RA: The safety of dormroom smoking also depends on your RA. Some are out for blood, but most, in my experience, try and turn a blind eye unless it is painfully obvious. Make sure your RA is not roaming the halls during your session, and make sure he/she has no reason to come and talk to you.

Techniques

Now, provided that all these conditions are met to your satisfaction, we can move on to the actual smoking.

1. Seal the bottom of the door with a towel. You have to be careful about this and turn off most of the lights, because I know some RAs are trained to look for this. I have even heard that at some Universities, recognizing there is a towel sealing the door is instant grounds for search and/or drug dogs. BE SMART about it. You can take this even further by sealing all around the door using a bed sheet and tape, but this can be difficult to deal with if someone knocks on the door; especially an RA.

2. Know your ventilation. Open the windows to your room, seal the bottom of the door, and open a bag of cooked/burned popcorn. Have a friend waiting outside to see if he can smell it. Cooked popcorn is a LOT stronger than marijuana aroma, but if you can disguise the scent of popcorn, then you are defintely GOOD TO GO.

3. Sprays. Ozium and Citrus Magic seem to be the best odor eliminating sprays from what I have read and heard. Things like febreeze and oust work too, but they are more obvious and take more spray to cover the smell. Notice I said cover. Ozium and Citrus Magic are the only ones I know of readily available that actually gets rid of the odor, instead of just covering it.

4. Smoke Control. The smoke straight from the bowl or cherry usually has the worst odor, so many people cover their bowls with a quarter or the lighter after taking hits to prevent this smoke from escaping. This method goes well with the sploof method, since using a sploof but not doing this can be somewhat pointless, which brings us to...

5. Sploofs. Sploofs are another great defense against weed odor. Blowing your hit into one will cover most of the smoky smell.  A sploof is a simple device using a paper towel roll and dryer sheets to filter the smell of the smoke.  They are surprisingly effective, easy to make, and a very popular tool in the vast arsenal of surrepticious smokers.

Here is a great and easy to follow tutorial on making a sploof.

If you're feeling saucy, you might want to try Hashmouf's Secret Spy Sploof.

6. Fan. A fan pointing out the window can only help get rid of the smell, and its a great way to get some circulation in the room. However, don't keep it setup point out the window permanently as that can also draw suspicion.  Also, be sure to have an open stream of ventilation, because sometimes even with a fan blowing out the window, the pressure difference can be so great as to force smoke back into the room.  If you have more than one window, open both to alleviate the effects of this phenomenon.

7. Negative Ion Generator. These babies can be expensive, but from what I have heard, work great! If you know how to solder at all, I recommend building one, as they are extremely simply and easy to construct. A great line of smell defense if you can pull it off.

8. Music. Music can be a great way to cover the sounds of the lighter, bong bubbling, and coughing. More complicated and full bodied music tends to be better, since it tends to hide the sounds more. This brings me to my next point...

9. Your brain. Don't have your music playing too loud! Don't be obnoxious. Don't talk too loud and don't do anything that will draw attention to your room. This is VERY important. This, besides the smell, is how most people get caught.
When you are smoking, all your other shit better be in order so that no one has ANY reason to give you shit.

10. Safety Spot. Have a space to put your smoking paraphernalia that is close, safe, and hidden. For example, we have a spot in our cupboard that we can easily put any bongs/pipes/baggies and then they are instantly out of sight.  Another great safety spot is the bottom of a garbage can.  While it may be gross, it is pretty unlikely an RA will take the time to look there.

11. Vaporize! These can be great for smoking in a dorm. The odor is much less penetrating and strong than smoking. Still should have a sploof and maybe a fan, but is definitely much less of a hassle in terms of odor control. Also, no lighter click!  The downside is that if you get caught, you're out all the money you spent on the vaporizer.

12. Soldering Iron. If you are paranoid about people hearing the endless click of lighters, you can always use a soldering iron. While more expensive and more of a hassle than lighters, these can provide extremely quiet smoking. Also good if you live with your parents.

Here is a tutorial for using soldering irons to light bowls: http://forum.grasscity.com/recreatio...ight=soldering

Conclusion

It isn't that hard to smoke in a dorm and get away with it as long as you are SMART about it. DO NOT get arrogant and skimp on the precautions. That is how you get caught. Period. As long as follow most, or all, of these tips I have typed up, you should be good to go.