Welcome to the Wayback Machine

Every Wednesday throughout the month, we’ll be publishing a new blog post with stories and ideas we had while looking through our company stash of vintage High Times Magazines.

This week we read an article from March of 1979 that discusses the various names for cannabis and how those words carry different feelings, conotations etc. You see how we call it ‘cannabis’? The Flowery generally tries to stay away from saying ‘weed’ because of the negative stereotypes with that word. The article ”What Do You Call This Stuff” demonstrates that naming cannabis was (and still is) a huge part of the cultural battle surrounding the plant we love;

[…excerpts begin]
Don’t you think it’s about time we had a better word to call the stuff we smoke? Aren’t you a bit sick of hearing it called pot?
[…]
And don’t you loathe the presumptuous condescension of people who use the word “pothead” as an epithet. Generally people who call others “potheads” are feeble nerds who never can get high themselves but envy the pleasure of anyone who does and use the intrinsic ugliness of the word pot to disparage the high they fear and envy.
[…]
What’s wrong with calling it “grass,” for instance? Well, nothing wrong. But don’t you think grass is a bit dry, a little flat, even boring? Does it really capture the subtle complexities, the fertile moist mysteries of marijuana? Does “chopped liver” capture the spirit of Foie Gras?
[…]
“Herb” is eminently modern, mellow, soft-spoken sophistication. In addition, “herb” has healing, medicinal implications just right for the health-food-conscious ’70s. The problem is “herb” is so sophisticated it can verge on affectation. Anyone who is not a full-fledged rasta who utters the word “herb” risks sounding like someone trying to sound like a rasta, trying too hard to be cool and using dope slang to advance this losing cause.
[…]
“Reefer” appeals to the delight cannabis consumer stake in adapting tongue in cheek the inflammatory propaganda of the narc establishment. That explains the continuing popularity of “dope” as a nickname for marijuana. After all the hysterical warnings about “dope fiends” and the dumb confusion of marijuana with “dope addiction,” smokers get a kind of pleasure in savoring the ridiculousness of these overblown warnings by saying they’re “smoking dope.” Indeed, I would not favor the title “dope connoisseur” were it not for the self-mocking irony implicit in the counterpoint of the two words.
[…]
Suddenly I realized that “pot” must be a mistaken corruption of the originally innocent and beautiful word for weed: Pod.

Pod.

Say it aloud. It’s so much better than “pot.” A marijuana mantra. The final “d” reverberates gently rather than falling flat like the “t” in pot, giving “pod” a far more resonant, resinous sound than the lifeless “pot.” In addition, pod suggests seeds, buds, pollen, odors, all the multi-dimensional sensual life of the fine plant, while pot ought to remain a word for a thing you plant pod in. Pod has the additional advantage of suggesting the friendly congeniality of its roots in the heroic early smuggling communities of the Southwest, people who dealt with each other like true “podners.”

It’s a word that takes us back to roots deeper and more authentic even than the often cited early jazz-musician pod smokers. It takes us back to the plant, to the people who grow and harvest the pod, the noblest pioneer podners in smuggling and dealing, to the culture that made it possible for jazz musicians to turn sweet pod smoke into sweet soul sounds.

So what I suggest is that people begin to try out “pod.” Every time you find yourself about to say “pot,” try to shade it into “pod,” gradually. See how nice it sounds.

There are a lot of good words for the stuff we smoke. I’m not saying weed, herb, dope should be abolished. I do think it would be a big improvement if we banished pot and started using “pod” in its place.
[…excerpts end]