Of all the plants in the world, cannabis is easily one of the most aromatic and pungent—and with its sticky trichomes, oils, aromatic terpenes, and fluffy, crumbly flowers, it’s highly (pun intended) prone to leaving smelly, sticky residue. When you want to keep the sensory experience of cannabis to yourself, whether you’re traveling or around others who may be offended by the smell or judgmental of cannabis use, we’re here to help you keep it kovert with some tips on how to cover up and contain the smell of cannabis.
Cannabis exists in many forms and states—from dried flower to oil and from solid to smoke—each with different scents, intensity, and residues. Whether you’re transporting flower, oil, ground herb, or spent roaches, the same five principles apply to hiding the smell:
- Use airtight containers to store your cannabis
- Vacuum seal your cannabis containers
- Keep your cannabis in a discreet smell proof bag or case
- Avoid getting residue, smoke, or vapor on the outside of your stash bag
- Eliminate any cannabis odors in the air and on the outside of your stash bag
Before we expand on these principles, one method that deserves an honorable mention is using a can of coffee. This entails burying your stash inside a coffee can underneath the grounds or beans to mask the aroma of the cannabis by overwhelming it with the aroma of coffee. This method is usually used for travel, because it’s thought to prevent the smell of herb from filling a vehicle, as well as potentially fooling dogs’ noses in the event of a pooch sniffing around. While this method is a classic, it has some problems. First, coffee cans are generally not fully airtight, and they’re hard to completely remove air from. While they do offer discretion by virtue of being an inconspicuous coffee can, air and odor particles can escape, and if the cannabis is danker than the coffee it could be detected and invite further scrutiny. We don’t recommend this method, but it is popular and more effective than nothing. If you decide to go this route, you need fresh, highly aromatic coffee, and the rest of the principles here apply; but if you’re looking for a more sophisticated solution than using your morning joe to hide your morning dro, read more about the 5 principles below:
Use airtight containers
When choosing a container to store your cannabis in, the key is preventing air from getting in or out. Air coming in will dry out your stash over time and reduce its freshness, potency, and pungency; and air escaping will diminish moisture and put odor particles in the air. For example, most ordinary plastic baggies are far from airtight and made from porous enough material to allow air exchange through—hence the unmistakable aroma in the air wherever a sack of dank is present.
There are many other stash containers on the market today, some more airtight than others, and many more effective than ordinary plastic baggies. Generally, containers with solid walls and a tight-fitting lid with a rubber or silicon seal around the rim offer the most airtight storage for your cannabis. The most effective options are airtight stash jars or traditional canning jars. If you don’t have one of those, or if space is limited in your stash, you can use a quality plastic or mylar bag with a zipper seal—just be sure to squeeze as much air out of the bag as possible when you close it, and zip it all the way. Our Disposable is a great option for this approach.
Take the air out
Even when using airtight containers, there’s generally still a potential for some air exchange, especially over longer periods of time. This is where vacuum sealing comes into play. Vacuum sealing works by pulling most or all of the air out of a container, forming suction from the inside of the container to tightly fix the lid to the container and prevent all air exchange, even over longer periods of time. This ensures nobody can smell your stash, and it has the added benefit of keeping your cannabis fresher for longer by preventing air from degrading it.
The classic option for a vacuum-sealed container is a standard canning jar. They’re compatible with most vacuum sealers and are designed to preserve consumables over long periods of time. Canning jars keep air and odor particles from escaping, help keep your cannabis fresh, are inexpensive, and are conducive to refrigerating or freezing your stash—a great way to preserve freshness and potency for even longer. There are also several stash containers on the market today designed for vacuum sealing.
Use discreet stash bags and containers
The best stash containers don’t look like stash containers—again, that’s one of the advantages of the old coffee can method. Not drawing attention to your stash in the first place helps prevent others from sniffing around your stuff. Kovert smell proof bags are designed with this in mind. We offer a wide range of discreet and secure styles designed with appearance in mind, so they’re noticed for being fashionable bags, not loud packs.
You can read more about smell proof bags here, but we’ll cover some of the basics: Smell proof bags usually have some kind of activated carbon layer (science), as well as fabric and/or polymer layers to trap odors inside. Our advanced fabric has five layers total, including two layers of fabric, a layer of activated carbon, a durable and water-resistant outer fabric, and a polyester mesh lining. They also have zippers or velcro that close tightly to keep air in. We also offer several styles with combination zipper lock to give you an extra layer of security. We have bags that can go in your pocket, across your shoulder, on your back, on your wrist, or carried by hand—something for any occasion and size stash. You can view all the bags we offer here.
Keep cannabis from contacting the outside of your stash bag
By this point, you’ve placed your cannabis inside a vacuum-sealed jar and placed the jar inside your kovert smell proof bag, and you’re ready to close everything up and hit the road. Before you touch the outside of your kovert bag, stop and make sure you don’t leave smelly residue on the outside of your stash bag. Getting residue, smoke, vapor, or other cannabis byproducts on the outside of your stash bag can ruin all other efforts you’ve made to keep smells at bay, especially if you’re worried about dogs or other scrutiny. To avoid this, make sure your hands are clean before handling the outside of your stash bag. If you’ve handled your cannabis directly, come into contact with resin, or smoked, you’ll want to wash your hands extra thoroughly and possibly apply some alcohol (especially if you have resin on your hands) to fully remove residues and odors left behind. If you need complete assurance that the outside of your stash bag is free of cannabis, you can use clean gloves when closing the bag (the trick is not transferring residues to the main part of the gloves when you put them on). If you do get residue on the outside of your stash bag, you can wipe it off with some rubbing alcohol or spray it with Smoke Cloak.
Keep cannabis odors outside of your stash bag at bay
Finally, there’s the air outside your stash bag—it does little good to the cannabis aroma inside your stash bag under control if the air outside the bag is full of dank smoke, vapor, or smells from when you were handling your cannabis, so it’s important to have something handy to cover and eliminate those odors as well. One of the best steps you can take initially is to ventilate the air so odors are able to escape and don’t build up and adhere to nearby fabrics.
While this drastically reduces the volume of smelly particles in the air, there can still be a residual odor for some time after ventilating (and sometimes ventilation isn’t an option). The best thing you can do, regardless of whether you’ve ventilated the area, is to spray Smoke Cloak in the air and on fabrics and surfaces where you need to cover and eliminate odors.
That’s all there is to it! To wrap it up, all you need to do to keep it kovert is use an airtight container (preferably vacuum-sealed), place that in your kovert smell proof bag, avoid touching your stash bag with cannabis residue on your hands, and use Smoke Cloak to eliminate any odors in the air or on fabrics.