An artist's impression of BO that smells like weed. Background photo by Nathan Mac via Flickr
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I needed to confirm this hypothesis, ideally from someone who isn't named after a breakfast dish. "The smell of cannabis is produced by its terpenes," Dr Franjo Grotenhermen, Executive Director of the International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines, told me. "The consumption of other plants with the same terpenes may result in a similar smell."Thanks to weed enthusiasts constantly breeding new strains, there are now a host of cannabis varieties that share terps with many other plants; famous strains like Blueberry Cheesecake and Orange Bud are two notable examples. So there are plenty of plants out there that could make sweat smell like skunk.But if cannabis-smelling terps are so common, why don't more people smell like Hyde Park on 4/20? Well, BO is not just caused by terps, but also by skin-dwelling bacteria that break down sweat molecules into smaller, volatile compounds that evaporate into smells. Apocrine sweat is also a cocktail of minerals, pheromones and urea. It seems the skunky smell is down to a particular combination of these composites, making it unusual but not outlandish.There could be many more people out there who have the right combination of factors to produce the chronic whiff, even if they don't smoke weed. Naturally, they wouldn't notice because they've never smoked marijuana and so wouldn't know what to sniff for. Or maybe they know what it smells like but just don't care enough to spend all night on Google, before bothering multiple scientists about it.TRENDING ON MOTHERBOARD: You Might Want to Think Twice About Putting Weed in Your Vagina to Ease Cramps
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