Sam Martin - The Leafly Guide to Cannabis: A Handbook for the Modern Consumer

FOR MOST OF its history, cannabis has remained shrouded in code words, mystery, and misinformation. Its time we ended all that. This book, crafted by our staff of cannabis connoisseurs at Leafly, is your guide to clarity and understanding.

Cannabis, marijuana, weed, reefer, pot, ganja, joints, tokes, hash, blunts, dabs, wax, shatter: To those not steeped in the subculture, the jumble of terms can be as confusing as a foreign tongue. Relax. Its okay. That was their intended purpose. For decades, obfuscation has gone hand in hand with illegality. Before legalization, a cannabis sale required dexterity in a language as hidden as the space in which the transaction occurred. One did not simply offer up marijuana for sale, or request a half ounce of same. There were murmurs of herb, kine bud, dime bags, and Maui Wowie.

That strange argot served a double purpose. Vernacular fluency marked a buyer or seller as an experiencedand hence trustedparticipant. It separated the authentic consumer from the undercover narc. In Richard Linklaters classic film Dazed and Confused, the endearing stoner Slater grills a newcomer to the scene: You cool, man? Another character translates the Slaterism: He was just asking if you get high. More to the point: He was asking if the newcomer could be trusted to not report the illicit goings-on.

The groovy terms also acted as brand names in a market that allowed no legitimate branding. When cannabis came in unmarked plastic bags, the sellers words were the buyers only assurance of quality. Those words often conjured exotic localesPanama Red, Acapulco Goldthat served to mask the poor quality of the Mexican brick weed under discussion. Mexican brick weed is a slang phrase for inferior cannabis, usually a mix of dried leaves, seeds, and stems. The name is taken from the way the product is pressed into brick form to be packed and smuggled from Mexico.

See? Now you know what Mexican brick weed is, and why to avoid it. Mystery solved. At Leafly, this is what we do.

Fortunately, for more and more Americans the days of plastic bags and brick weed are behind them. (Of course, you have to check if youre in a legal state first.) In most medically legal states, and in an increasing number of legal adult-use states, cannabis is grown by state-licensed farmers, bundled in smart packages, and sold in well-appointed dispensaries and retail boutiques. Cannabis flowerwhat you might have called weednow appears in hundreds of varieties known as strains. An array of new products and delivery systems fight for space on the dispensary shelves: vape pens and oil cartridges, shatter, rosin, wax, edibles, inhalers, infused beverages, tinctures, capsules, suppositories, transdermal patches, and topical balms. Though regulations vary by state, most products are tested for potency and purity. All are backed by real brands, which means the market will reward the maker for delivering a consistent, high-quality product. Unlike, say, whoever stuffed that brick weed into the bag.