When a skunk is not a skunk

     I learned something new yesterday.  My husband, daughter, son-in-law, and I were outside in the beautiful town of Trinidad, Colorado, enjoying the mountain air, well at least trying to, because an older gentleman had his stodgy cigar going, but still, we could smell wafts of the clean pine air, when a couple about my age sat kitty corner behind us.  All of sudden the smell of skunk ensued the air.  We all started laughing, although I really thought it was a skunk.  My husband made the comment to the people, "Did you a open a Bud?"  Well, at least that is what I thought he said, because I can't stand Budweiser and would equal that to a smell of a skunk, they laughed and everyone at my table laughed, and my daughter made the comment about the smell, "That would probably be a regular smell around here."  I kind of pondered on that, because we had a farm and always smelled skunk, so I thought why would it be any different here?  About 10 minutes we heard the lady start yelling at her partner, "Hey, are you ok?  Wake up, wake up!"  We looked around and he was kind of catatonic, mouth and eyes wide open but out of it.  She then splashed her beer in his face and started throwing ice cubes at him, we asked her if we could help, and she said yes, please call 911.  My daughter ran into the hotel lobby to have someone call, and my son-in-law called 911 from his cell phone.  While my son-in-law was on the phone trying to explain where we were and what was happening, the gentleman awoke startled, shook his head and looked around.  He had no idea he had been out.  The woman with him said they didn't need 911 anymore so my son-in-law then advised the 911 operator that everything seemed to be ok.  My daughter in the mean time had talked with the front desk and they had called 911.  Just as the fire truck was pulling up, the couple said they were going back to their room and then the hotel manager came out looking for them, we told them which direction they went.  It wasn't until later that night when recounting the incident at a local pub to some of our other relatives that were in town for our family reunion that I heard the word marijuana.  Me, innocently asking, "So that wasn't a skunk?"  They all started laughing.  The last time I had smelled marijuana was about 13 and my family's reunion in Michigan and my cousins were smoking it in their hotel room.  It had a sickly sweet smell.  They kept asking me if I wanted to try it, but I said no, first, if my dad ever found out, he would kill me, and secondary, I just didn't need it.  After several attempts of trying to convince me it was ok, I retorted, "I don't need that to be happy."  In which they all laughed. The next morning my face and lips were all swollen and I had hives.  My grandmother, who was not aware of what had transpired the night before thought it was something I had eaten at dinner.  So, having that reaction, I never put myself in situations where I was around it.  Kind of hard to do in Colorado now.  I asked the my kids why would anyone smoke anything that smelled like skunk and one of them replied it had something to do with it being more potent.  I looked it up on Google, (thank goodness for Google) and found a Chicago Tribune article written back in 2016.  I liked the journalist because she had the same thought I did, she couldn't understand why Chicago was all of sudden getting invaded by skunks.  Anyway, according to her article, about 20 years ago there was a strain of marijuana made that was very potent but smelled like skunk.  So, that smell now is associated with high potency, although it may not be the case anymore, but I would say the Colorado strain the gentleman had yesterday was quite potent.  I could end this with some commentary on the fact that even though I have never tried marijuana and am hoping I never will have to use it, as I know it does help with some medical conditions, I would much rather smell the beautiful mountain air of Colorado.