In two polls we conducted over the last 10 days, the word "weed" topped "pot," "cannabis" and "herb" when people were asked what is the their favorite name for marijuana.
Based on 484 responses, here are the Top 12 vote-getters:
Weed - 25%
Pot - 15%
Cannabis - 12%
Herb - 9%
Bud - 8%
Smoke - 7%
Ganja - 7%
Marijuana - 5%
Reefer - 4%
Grass - 3%
Dank - 3%
Chronic - 2%
According to Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language & Life (co-written by this author), the term "weed" for marijuana is more than 80 years old. The entry for "weed" reads:
1. The most popular slang for marijuana, it dates back to the 1930s when prohibitionists referred to cannabis as "the weed with roots in hell," "devil's weed" and "killer weed." Simple usage, minus pejorative adjectives, took hold in the 1990s, as in, "Let's smoke some weed." 2. Name of small Northern California town near Mt. Shasta.
