For 420, we explore some history of old cannabis slang words and where they came from
By Ken Magri
Slang terms for cannabis have existed for centuries in many languages. Not only can their use say something about the speaker, cannabis slang may be able to identify how long someone has been a user or how they feel about the plant.
News & Review thought it would be fun to explore the origins of some older slang words. If you need an explanation of current terms like a “dab rig,” “rosin,” “terps” or “diamonds,” your favorite dispensary budtender can handle that. We’re going old-school for this year’s 4/20 holiday.
So maintain, dopers. Don’t bogart that stash. Flame up the maryjane and pass that reefer over to a fellow head for this groovy article.
The etymology of slang words for “cannabis”
Before 1910, there was no such word as “marijuana” in the United States. Scholars are still arguing about its true origin which may come from the Spanish word ‘mejorana” or the Aztec/ Nahuatl word “mallihuan.”
Yet another theory says that it came from West Africans in the Caribbean who were using the Angolan word “mariamba.”
Nevertheless, “marijuana” was commonly said while the plant was being used by Mexicans immigrating to the United States in the early decades of the 20th century. Historians claim that the word, sometimes written with an “h” instead of a “j,” was exploited for a racist US campaign against the drug because it was foreign sounding. That campaign eventually led to the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.
The word “pot” may have come from the Spanish “potación de guaya,” a drink made with cannabis leaves. According to Uzio.com, a cloud-based software platform for businesses, “pot” was also popularized in the early 20th century by Mexicans.
African-American crime novelist Chester Hines (Cotton Comes to Harlem) is credited with being the first to use ”pot” as a fill-in for cannabis in his 1938 short story “The Way We Live,” according to aPotforPot.com.
“She made him smoke pot, when he got jagged, she put him on the street,” wrote Hines.
“Maryjane” is considered an Anglicization of marijuana. The words “grass” and “weed” arethought to have been popularized by Hippies in the 1960s as a part of their code language.
According to Leafly.com, use of the word “dope” for cannabiscomes from a Chinese word that means “fool” and was coined to describe opium smokers. Opium addicts were the first to be called “dope fiends.” It became a popular negative reference for cannabis in the US until the early 1970s when American teenagers turned it around and began calling themselves “dopers.”
Today the phrase “that’s dope,” now has positive connotations, meaning anything good. So saying “That’s dope dope,” would translate into “That’s great cannabis.”
How the Doobie Brothers came up with their name
The News & Review contacted Patrick Simmons, one of the co-founders of the Doobie Brothers, who have a new album out June 6th, “Walking This Road.” We asked if he would explain how the legendary band came up with their name. Here is the story Patrick told:
“When I first started playing with Tom Johnston and “Little John” Hartman in 1969 we hadn’t done any gigs as The Doobie Brothers. I think we had played a free show at San Jose State College before I was even a member. I was just sitting in for a couple of songs and the band at that time had another name. I always enjoyed playing with them and admired their musicianship.
“Finally sometime I think in the early Summer I got a call from the guys saying they had booked a paying gig at The Chateau Liberte’ up in the Santa Cruz Mountains. They asked me if I would like to rehearse with them and play as part of the band. By this time we had jammed together quite a few times and become good friends. The prospect of a paying gig and an official position as singer and guitar player sounded good to me. We began rehearsals in earnest and determined to be ready for the weekend to come.
“One day that week we were sitting around the kitchen table in the house that John and Tom shared with a few other college kids. We rehearsed in the basement and would come upstairs between practice sessions to brainstorm and smoke a few joints in an attempt to inspire ourselves with some creative stimulus. While we were sitting there someone from The Chateau called and asked what name we wanted in the advertisements for the gig? We looked at each other perplexed…??
“One of the guys living in the house laughed and said ‘You guys smoke so much pot you should call yourselves The Doobie Brothers!’ Tom was holding the phone and says, ‘We’re The Doobie Brothers.’ At that time our biker friends, the Gypsy Jokers and others were calling joints ‘doobies’ and we had picked it up as our own preference for the terminology. Anyway it stuck and 56 years later here we are.”
–Patrick Simmons
The differences between a joint, a pre-roll, a spliff and a blunt
“Joint” is still the most commonly used slang word for a cannabis cigarette even though “doobie,” “fatty,” “jay,” “number” and “reefer” had their runs of popularity.
Paul McCartney used to call joints “herbal jazz cigarettes,” which may indicate how long he knew about them or where he got his first one from. But in A Day in the Life, he simply used the words ”had a smoke” which secretly alluded to the Beatles’ habit of running up to the roof to smoke joints while recording the Sergeant Peppers album.
“Joint” is a variation on the French word “joindre,” or “to join,” and may refer to the act of joining cannabis with paper. In the late 20th century, rolling a good joint was an acquired skill and the absolute best stoners could do it using one hand with a single un-gummed rolling paper!
“Pre-roll” is a more specific and modern term which began somewhere in the 1980s and got popularized in the era of cannabis dispensaries. Nowadays, a pre-roll is cone shaped with a paper tip on the narrow end and looks machine-rolled even if it’s not. Pre-roll is not to be confused with a “pen roll” or “penner” which was a 1970s term for a very thin joint, indicating high quality.
A “spliff” is a combination of cannabis and tobacco hand rolled into one joint. Spliffs are popular in Europe and Asia, but be careful if you never tried this. The added tobacco can make a regular cannabis smoker dizzy and a bit nauseous.
“Blunts” are all cannabis, but wrapped with cigar paper or packed onto hollowed out cigars for a slight flavor change. Cigarillos with their wooden tips are also popular for turning into blunts.
What’s in your code language?
In high school during the early 1970s our peer group had a code language that allowed us talk about cannabis even within earshot of our parents. “I need to go borrow a volume from Craig’s folks ’encyclopedia” translated into “Smoke session in the guest house at Craig’s!”
“Going over the levee,” meant someone had a joint and to literally meet up over the levee behind our school campus at the next break.
If you lived back in the day, did you call yourself a “doper,” “freak,” “head,” “loadie,” or a “stoner?”
In the 7th grade I bought a button with a photo of George Washington captioned “The first head.” It took years to realize that the use of “head” was a double-entendre, meaning the father of our country was a cannabis user too. Not only did he grow it, Washington wrote in his diary that cannabis, or “hemp” as he called it, did not impair his ability to ride a horse or operate a carriage. He and Thomas Jefferson exchanged it and wrote to each other about its benefits.
Sometimes the same words mean different things depending on which generation you belong to. The word “chronic” is commonly used to describe highly potent cannabis in 2025. But after being arrested for possession in 1974, my own pre-sentencing probation report labeled me a “chronic,” or according the Sacramento Superior Court, a consistent user of cannabis “at least two times a week.”
The term “black market” has been replaced in recent years, especially in journalism, by the more specific terms ‘illicit market” or “unregulated market,” which removes any indirect racist connotations from the reference.
When reading an article using the words “marijuana,” and “black market,” this vocabulary could be coming from a conservative or unenlightened journalist. But when you see the words “cannabis” and “unregulated market” being used, the writer is most likely liberal, or at least more word savvy.
So enjoy your 4/20 holiday this year with some good old slang terminology. And when you hear a great song on the radio, light up a doobie and listen to the music.
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