Why there's no such thing as a stoner girl...

Reading marijuana-devoted websites can be both educational and frustrating. The frustrating part begins when people who are in charge of attracting more visitors make up silly meaningless listicles, like this one that claims to provide 17 reasons to date a girl who smokes weed. Of course every girl who smokes weed will click on this. And some of them will also forward the link to their boyfriends, so it works. 

I need to say that I highly respect the High Times magazine. It is probably the most important media outlet for drug culture of the 20th century. They still do quality journalism, although they have some competition now. But can’t they do better than trying to imitate Buzzfeed? 

Really, this GIF idea is not even working for them: number 17 has a Chris Brown Smokes Up Rihanna GIF. And look what the caption reads: “The couple that smokes together, stays together.” The troubled story of Rihanna and Brown’s relationship was covered by tabloids, so anyone who is interested is free to read up some TMZ archives. 

Besides that, Buzzed is not a model cannabis-covering media. They have been harshly criticized for promoting a lazy unfocused stoner stereotype. 

But the real problem is in the message. We criticize mainstream media for cultivating the aforementioned pothead stereotype. We know that anyone can be a stoner, and, frankly, we prefer to call it ’a cannabis enthusiast’ or something like that. So why do we support creating a stereotype of ‘a woman who smokes weed’? There is no such thing. There are women who smoke weed, and not all of them are relaxed chicks who are open to threesome experience (as number 11 implies) and have cool friends (or any friends.) 

Some of them are stay at home mothers who relax by getting high when the kids are asleep. Some of them are career women who use marijuana to deal with daily stress. Some are students who use daytime strains to feel energized at their part-time jobs. Some are creative professionals who have mastered the art of high brainstorming and stoned planning. Each of them is unique. 

Another issue is over-sexualizing marijuana smoking. There are whole websites dedicated to erotic photos of women who smoke weed. And this piece of infotainment also implies that sexy stoner chicks wear stockings (you can keep joints in them!), are good with their hands and tongue, and love to try new things. It is not a secret that in stoner humor women are often shown as sexually attractive ladies who like weed, but don’t know where to buy or how to smoke it. 

Meet my friend Helen. She’s a photographer and a digital media professional, she’s in her mid 20s, and she smokes weed several times a week. She is definitely a high-maintenance young woman; her jewelry is perfectly organized, her looks are very thought-through. She will not laugh at your jokes if they are not funny. Helen prefers smoking through a bowl. 

And this is my friend Maria. She is in her late 30s, but if I asked you to define her age basing on her looks, you would probably say 31-32. Maria knows how to roll a spliff and how to run a company. She is happily married and she has a teenage son. Before the recent recession in Russia, her career had been thriving; she’s now a freelance translator, and a successful one. 

Diana works as a waitress in a cafe that belongs to a famous designer. Sofia is a researcher at a biotech lab. Jessica is a radio host and TV producer. They are all normal woman, not some mythical relaxed sexy chicks. The society would have done a very good job if it stopped treating women who smoke weed differently than other women. Cannabis consumption does not define us.

Article written by: By Maya Novikov from www.MonroeBlvd.com

Is your endocannabinoid system balanced?

Leafly came out with an article back in April of last year with some pertinent information. The primary question posed was, as our headline states, "Is your endocannabinoid system balanced?"

To briefly review, the endocannabinoid system is a group of specialized lipids, their receptors, and the enzymes that produce and degrade them. Through direct and indirect actions, endocannabinoids are known to modulate and influence a variety of physiological systems, including appetite, pain, inflammation, thermoregulation, intra-ocular pressure, sensation, muscle control, energy balance, metabolism, sleep health, stress responses, motivation/reward,mood, and memory.

The endocannabinoid system is known to control the proliferation, differentiation, survival, and immune competence of the often-neglected integumentary organ system (i.e., skin cells and hair). Targeting and manipulating endocannabinoid balance with the intent to normalize unwanted skin cell growth and skin inflammation might be beneficial for a variety of human skin conditions (psoriasis, eczema, acne, dermatitis, systemic sclerosis, etc).

Read the full article HERE.

Weed, pot, bud, Mary Jane - The Etymology Of Marijuana Slang

Yes, weed is apparently the broadly hippest current term for marijuana, that venerable fount of slang. "Marijuana" is an anglicized, which means the conversion into an English form, term of the Spanish words "marihuana" or "marijguana," which identify the cannabis plant. The English knew this plant as "hemp." According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the debate over the use of the drug in the US in the 1930s attributed to "marijuana" being the “exotic alternative to the familiar words hemp and cannabis.”

Because of the controversy surrounding marijuana during that era, many other slang terms were birthed around the same time. American Speech included ‘weed’ in 1929’s “Among the New Words,” defined as a “marijuana cigarette.” Just a few years later, the Chicago Defender reported using the word "reefer." And we can all remember 1936’s Reefer Madness to illustrate that history.

In Google Books searches confined to 2013 publications, smoke marijuana pops up 69 times, smoke pot 94 times, and smoke weed 149 times.Why the recent weed dominance? It seems clear to me that it's a generational thing. In the 1990s, a new generation of users wanted to distance themselves from their parents' dope or pot (the latter dates from the 1930s and apparently originated in African-American slang). Weed was already in the lexicon, and provided a nice implicit variation on the hippie-ish grass.

So which term is the most popular nowadays? According to the Google chart displaying the frequency of various cannabis slang terms used in American publications in the past 50 years, "weed" is the only term to actually be increasing in recent use. (=Also interesting is how rapid the rise in popularity of "pot" and "marijuana" were in the 1960s. To back that claim, in a Google Books search on the year 2013, results used the term "smoke marijuana" 69 times, "smoke pot" 94 times, and "smoke weed" 149 times. Not to mention that Urban Dictionary has over 225 separate definitions for just "weed." Slate attributes the popularity of "weed’ over other slang terms to how casual the word is, since it has already has another meaning as well – those unwanted plants in your yard. Using "weed" is simple and easy compared to "cannabis" or "ganja." Also contributing is a generational evolution, “In the 1990s, a new generation of users wanted to distance themselves from their parents’ dope or pot.

To read more about the etymology of cannabis slang, here are the links to the original HighTimes and Slate articles.

And here is the link to Leafly's Glossary of Cannabis Terms.