Residents of Rock Hill, Missouri, say they can’t escape the overpowering smell of marijuana — and they’ve had enough.
The small, liberal-leaning city just outside St. Louis has been hit with a wave of complaints about the odor of cannabis in recent months. From parks to pools, and even as far as city hall, locals say the stench is everywhere.
Between April and December 2025 alone, the city logged 99 separate complaints — a major spike that has city officials scrambling for solutions. The culprit? A massive cannabis cultivation facility run by Proper Brands, located in Rock Hill’s Industrial Court.
Proper Brands CEO John Pennington admitted the odor inside the company’s 60,000-square-foot warehouse can escape when employees enter or exit — and the wind does the rest. The smell has reportedly reached as far as Tilles Park, 1.5 miles away.
“We would sit at the pool all summer, and we could smell it all summer long,” said longtime condo resident Nancy O’Reilly. “It smells like skunk weed, there’s no other way to describe it.” She claims the problem is now so bad, it’s hurting her property value.
Though recreational marijuana was legalized in Missouri in 2022, and medical use even earlier in 2018, many residents in Rock Hill weren’t prepared for this side effect of the cannabis boom.
Despite installing air filters, scrubbers, and bringing in environmental engineers, Proper Brands hasn’t been able to contain the problem — and city officials are frustrated. Rock Hill’s municipal code clearly requires marijuana businesses to prevent odors from leaving the property, but enforcement appears to be lagging.
City Administrator Garrett Schlett confirmed that officials can smell the odor from city hall itself, nearly half a mile from the warehouse. Now, the city has created a dedicated email line for complaints and is collecting timestamps and locations in hopes of cracking down.
State regulators have also stepped in. A spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services confirmed an investigation is underway to determine whether Proper Brands is in compliance with odor regulations.
Pennington insists the company is going above and beyond state requirements, and that full elimination of odor just isn’t possible. “It’s the nature of it,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Still, with public frustration growing, Rock Hill’s Board of Aldermen is set to meet again with Proper Brands in February to demand answers — and possibly push for tougher enforcement.
Whether it’s a byproduct of progress or a quality-of-life issue gone too far, the scent of controversy is unmistakable in Rock Hill.
