PEI

Ready to hoot your bud? A guide to lingo for legalized marijuana

Talk about marijuana that has been associated with the street is going to become mainstream in Canada Wednesday when legal stores open. Here's how to talk about it like a pro.

Marijuana moves from street to store Wednesday

There are different kind of water pipes to consider. (Mitch Cormier/CBC)

Talk about marijuana that has been associated with the street is going to become mainstream in Canada Wednesday when legal stores open. Here's how to talk about it like a pro.

CBC's Island Morning host Mitch Cormier visited the cannabis accessory store Grow Daddy in Stratford where Brenton Garnhum helped him with how to talk the talk.

Bud

This is the part of the plant that you're smoking. While the leaves also contain psychoactive ingredients, there are much higher concentrations in the bud.

Once the flower buds mature the plant is pulled up and cured. The buds are then harvested and sold in the shops.

Hoot

When you take a single puff of marijuana smoke and blow it out, that's a hoot.

A hoot can also be called a hit or a rip, the latter typically being used when referencing a water pipe.

How am I smoking it?

There are three basic choices.

You can smoke a joint, a pipe, or a water pipe.

Don't want to smoke but want to consume cannabis? There are options, says Brenton Garnhum. (Mitch Cormier/CBC)

A joint is bud rolled up in cigarette paper. It can also be called a doobie, a fatty (reserved for large joints), a bone, a blunt (typically rolled in cigar paper), or that old favourite, reefer.

A pipe is a simple tube with a bowl on the end. You put the bud in the bowl and light it, then breathe the smoke in through the tube.

A water pipe cools the smoke with water, making it easier on the throat. There are different types of water pipes, the most popular being the bong.

What if I don't want to smoke it?

What you're looking for is a vaporizer.

While a pipe, water or otherwise, will apply direct heat that burns the bud, vaporizers apply indirect heat that releases chemicals without burning.

"We're only vaporizing the medicine aspect," said Garnhum.

"It's only cooking that. At the end there's no ash leftover. There's just a brown marijuana."

As with any activity that's been illegal for almost a century, a large lexicon has been developed to describe using it, but this should be enough to get you started.

Happy hooting.

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With files from Island Morning