>I believe this is mostly a European thing. Out in Europe tobacco + weed rolled in a joint appears to be the default way to consume cannabis.

I wouldn't want to speak too confidently, I was very straight edge until about 21, and I really only smoked weed in the EU either in a cafe in NL, or once or twice around Berlin, and I don't want to dicuss the latter here.

>My working theory is that because Europeans generally tend to live in smaller apartments

Weird. Does it actually overpower the smell? I always thought it's just two of them in parallel but I'm not super... smell sensitive... if it's not aritficial (eg a wave of axe body spray or expensive French (or whatever) perfume that makes me want to change bus seats).

>Americans generally tend to live in larger houses

Oh you're right on the house thing, you'd be amazed how hard it is to find a decent studio sized condo in a building full of people who actually act like neighbors in this country. (I'm American.) Meanwhile, you'll go slowly insane keeping it clean, maybe even have respiratory issues as the dust and grime builds up. And then the property taxes chip away at your savings like poker blinds depleting your stack as someone who walked into the casino with a massive bankroll sits and waits for their coveted pocket aces.

>it's significantly harder for the youth in Europe to hide paraphernalia (pipes/bongs) from their parents.

I'd have thought you'd want folks smoking weed since it seems to not get into stuff as much... you can ventilate and it won't seep into the room like tobacco smoke will.

Also if you're *not an adult*, maybe it's *good* you have to hide it from your parents -- it fucks with your brain. TRUST ME. I've met enough people before and after their first toke, memorized the ages and stuff.

If you're a grown adult, and can't go outside, I'd suggest using cones -- you don't need to learn to roll, and you can ash into a cup with a bit of water in the bottom, then you just can dispose of that out on a walk. (Well, except in places like England where trash cans are rarer than... some animal that is rare.)

Absent external stresses around housing and income, I suspect if folks here swapped alcohol for cannabis a lot less fights and other bad things would happen.

I couldn't write a reply like this as quickly I am if I'd gotten drunk last night.

(I didn't get high either, but my allergies are terrible and I had too much salt so I feel a bit off.)

Also since I'm giving out folk advice, I want to hedge what I'm saying by pointing out that in my experience a lot of urban legends around weed are false, it can ABSOLUTEY cause depersonalization[1] and if you're not in the right set and setting, you'll freak out bad.

I'm sorry if the above is oversharing/mansplaining/wall-of-texting, but I simply cannot allow folks to keep making the same bad decisions generation after generation -- I'm tired of legal marijuana being like fusion power plants from Simcity 2000 they'd talk about on Slashdot or whatever, always two-ish years away, so I gotta write walls of text like this :-)

TL;DR: Thanks sincerely for your reply, use cones, don't smoke young, be mindful of depersonalization.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depersonalization