There are few pleasures in life greater than smoking weed and driving. I grew up in the Midwest, where you could follow the same road for hours, passing blunts with your friends, listening to rap music, feeling all the freedom a 16-year-old could want or need. “Routing” – slang for smoking weed and driving – is a classic American activity for anyone who enjoys the open road and the good herb.

However, the most harshest of mellows will occur should you look up and notice two screaming red-and-blue lights in your rearview mirror. Concurrent with the legalization of marijuana is the regulation of smoking weed and driving – 9 states currently will give you a DUI if they suspect or test you to be high (use this guide to look up your state’s policies). Police can also search your car if your eyes are red or there is a smell of marijuana. For you younger stoners, you also have to worry about your parents catching a whiff of any residual smell.

Smoking weed and driving nothing like driving drunk, and is safe as long as you follow our protocol. Here’s the “Cannahacker” guide to smoking weed and driving.

smoking weed and drivingPrecautions

Select your playlist

Don’t be that guy who smokes a blunt, fiddles with the radio, sends a text to his girlfriend, and makes an illegal U-turn all at the same time. Either make your passenger the DJ, or choose your music playlist in advance.

Put eyedrops in first

The most obvious way, other than smell, for police, parents, and citizens to tell if you’re high is if your eyes are red. Get a bottle of Visine (generic “Clear Eyes” work great too), and put it in your eyes before you drive – this will prevent them from ever getting red in the first place.

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Keep weed in the trunk

In many states, cops cannot search anything beyond the reach of your hand. Put your weed in a bag or bundle of clothes in the back of your car – this will mask the smell and give you a cover should you be pulled over.

boston-weed
The definition of “riding dirty.”

Pro-tip: Don’t put weed, swishers, a bowl, or even a lighter in the glove compartment. If a cop pulls you over and you open your glove compartment to find insurance, only to have a sack of weed tumble out, you’re cooked. Put all your smoking paraphernalia in one hidden place.

Instructions for Smoking Weed and Driving

Go the speed the limit the whole time

This is incredibly important. Be a good, cautious driver. You won’t have to deal with the cops if they don’t pull you over. Follow the speed limit exactly, use turn signals on time, wear your seatbelt, etc.

Pro-tip: If it’s nighttime, make sure your lights are on. Many a stoner has been nabbed by this simple oversight.

Roll the windows down a bit.

Hotboxing – smoking weed in your car with the windows up – is not recommended while driving. Roll your windows down just a few inches – this will let the smoke escape, without turning your car into an ungodly vortex of wind on the highway. If you have a sunroof, crack it open a bit as well.

Blast the heat towards the windows.

Turn your heat to the highest temperature, and point it towards the windows. The rising heat will help push the smoke out the window.

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smoking weed while driving
The smoke goes up and out the window.

Light it up!

smoking weed while driving
Light that shit up, son.

After the Route

Air the car out

After you’re done smoking, open all four windows and find a highway or street you can speed on. Sixty seconds of that will air your car out.

smoking weed while driving
Airing the car out.

Pro-tip: Experienced “routers” keep a Febreze in their car. Considering adding one if smoking weed and driving becomes part of your daily routine.

Enjoy your day

There you go! In the small chance that you’re pulled over, you’ll have no reason to give the cop suspicion, because your eyes will be clear and the smell will be gone. Another day, another blunt…

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