The Origins of Your Favorite Weed Slang

Chronic / Hydro / Dro

All of these classic ’90s terms for weed come from hydroponic, synonymous with hydroponically grown weed. Hydroponically grown weed is cultivated without soil.

Though experts debate the merits of grow styles, the commonly perceived advantage of hydroponic weed is that the marijuana plant receives all the nutrients directly. This means that the plant will have higher yields and grow faster.

The origins of your favorite weed slang wouldn’t be complete without a reference to Snoop Dog. While Hydro and Dro are pretty clear derivatives of Hydroponic, Chronic has a more interesting history.

In 1991, Snoop Dogg went to a party where he heard talk of hydroponically grown weed. In an interview with Seth Rogan, Snoop explains that chronic is a mispronunciation of hydroponic.

“They don’t know the origins of how f****d up I was when I said it,” Snoop says. We wonder how many ounces of weed he had smoked to get to that point.

Of course, chronic spread like fire. It also helped that The Chronic, Dr. Dre’s first album from 1992, was a mega-hit, and featured Snoop.