In this blog series, Altitude Dispensary explores marijuana terminology through the ages. This is meant to be a fun examination of all the terms we have used for the beautiful flower through the years. We will look at the term, its meaning, its origin, and its use. We will also look at other marijuana specific terms used to talk about smoking it, using it, buying it, and enjoying it.

In the first blog in this series we explained the need for various slangs—as a way to speak about the flower with discretion. We also explored the first slang term for marijuana, pot.

The next most common slang word Altitude Dispensary will explore is ‘weed.’ While you may think that the term ‘weed’ simply comes for the word ‘weed’ as in, ‘there’s a weed in my garden.’ You would be wrong. (So was I.)

For some reason, discovering the origin of the slang term, ‘weed’ was a bit harder than for pot. There just were not as many google pops when I typed it in. But, alas, I persevered and found this little tidbit about the origin and possible meaning behind the term ‘weed.’

It is believed that around the start of the twentieth century the term ‘weed’ entered into the common vernacular. The thought is that it is a shortening of the word ‘locoweed.’ This is a type of plant that grows in Mexico. The theory goes that Mexican farmers and ranchers would take their horses and cattle to graze on this locoweed. It was not long before the ranchers started noticing the strange effects the plant had on the animals.  

Even though locoweed is not the same thing as a marijuana plant, correlations were made. The effects of the plant on the animals being so similar to the effect of the marijuana plant on humans may have led us to start calling it ‘weed,’ short for locoweed. Not surprisingly, ‘loco’ in Spanish means ‘crazy.’

The research I conducted seemed to believe that the term ‘weed’ was even more common than ‘pot,’ though this has not been my experience. This may, indeed, be the topic of our next blog series—how do the terms and slang for marijuana differ from region to region in The United States and abroad?

The next term Altitude Dispensary would like to explore is ‘grass.’ If you’re like me, this term brings up happy feelings of hippies and peace signs, joints being passed in circles while people danced all around, flower power. That is because this term most surely evokes that most nostalgic of eras—the 60s and 70s.

It is thought that the term ‘grass’ comes from the appearance of marijuana back then. Not the lovely, buddy, flower we know now and can purchase at Altitude Dispensary, but the green lawn clipping like, lower quality marijuana as was typical of the 60s and 70s.  

There are also references within the Hindu text, Atharvaveda. There are references to one of the five sacred plants of India, called ‘scared grass.’ This sacred grass is used both medically and 
ritually as an offering to Shiva. So it appears the term may have been around even longer.

This concluded our second blog in our blog series on the slang and terms for marijuana. Head on out to Altitude Dispensary to get everything you need to get stoned and sit around and contemplate these terms and their origins.