THE NOTE UNDER THE DOOR

The smell hit first: strong weed drifting through a bathroom vent, into an apartment in DE, and straight to a neighbor who wanted it gone. But when the poster went to the administration for help, the answer came back bluntly, it's legal to smoke weed now, and there was nothing they could do.

So the poster started looking for the source.

They believed the apartments shared a bathroom duct, and that the smell was coming through it. In the post, they laid it out plainly: "So I live in DE and I reached out to the administration and they say it's legal to smoke weed now so there is nothing they can do." With management out of the picture, the next move was a note under the neighbor's door.

The draft was polite, almost overly so. It opened, "Dear neighbor," and continued: "Hope you're doing well! I just wanted to bring something up real quick; I've been noticing a strong weed smell coming through my bathroom vent pretty often. I think our vents might be connected, so it's been filling my place."

Then came the ask. "Would you mind smoking somewhere else besides the bathroom if possible? Maybe by a window or outside? It's just been a little tough on my end with the smell hanging around."

The poster framed the whole thing as a question before dropping it: "I am dropping this note to my neighbor since we share the bathroom duct I believe since the smell comes from there." And finally: "Is this an acceptable note to leave under their door?"

That was the dilemma, not whether the smell was real, because it clearly was, but whether the note was the right way to address it. Administration had already washed its hands of the problem, citing legality. The poster had traced the odor to the vent and drafted a message that asked for a simple change: smoke somewhere else, if possible, maybe by a window or outside.

What remained was the note itself, waiting to be slipped under the door.