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 Q: What are the current slang terms for marijuana?
A: There are many different names for marijuana. Slang terms for drugs change quickly, and they vary from one part of the country to another. They may even differ across sections of a large city.
Terms from years ago, such as pot, herb, grass, weed, Mary Jane, and reefer, are still used. You might also hear the names Aunt Mary, skunk, boom, gangster, kif, or ganja.
There are also street names for different strains or “brands” of marijuana, such as “Texas tea,” “Maui wowie,” and “chronic.” One book of American slang lists more than 200 terms for various kinds of marijuana.
Q: How is marijuana used?
A: Most users roll loose marijuana into a cigarette (called a joint or a nail) or smoke it in a pipe or a water pipe, sometimes referred to as a bong. Some users mix marijuana into foods or use it to brew a tea. Another method is to slice open a cigar
and replace the tobacco with marijuana, making what’s called a blunt. When the blunt is smoked with a 40-oz. bottle of malt liquor, it is called a “B-40.”
Marijuana cigarettes or blunts sometimes contain other substances as well, including crack cocaine—a combination known by various street names, such as “primos” or “woolies.” Joints and blunts sometimes are dipped in PCP and are called “happy sticks,” “wicky sticks,” “love boat,” “dust,” “wets,” or “tical.”
 Q: How many people smoke marijuana? At what age do children generally start?
A: A recent government survey tells us:
- Marijuana is the most frequently used illegal drug in the United States. Nearly 98 million Americans over the age of 12 have tried marijuana at least once.
- Over 14 million had used the drug in the month before the survey.
The Monitoring the Future Survey, which is conducted yearly, includes students from 8th, 10th, and 12th grades. In 2006, the survey found that 15.7 percent of 8th-graders have tried marijuana at least once, and among 10th-graders, 14.2 percent were “current” users (that is, have used within the past month). Among 12th-graders, 42.3 percent have tried marijuana at least once, and about 18 percent were current users.
Other researchers have found that use of marijuana and other drugs usually peaks in the late teens and early twenties, then declines in later years.
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Marijuana: Facts for Teens (Revised)
La marihuana - Información para los adolescentes (Versión
Revisada)
Marijuana: Facts Parents Need to Know (Revised)
La marihuana: Lo que los padres deben saber (Versión
Revisada)
These publications may be reprinted without permission.
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