Culture

The Origins of Your Favorite Weed Slang

Weed slang is as varied and diverse as the very plants they describe.

By
Burgess Powell

A Left-handed Cigarette

This old-timey term for a joint came out of the Harlem Renaissance. In the 1930s and ’40s, many adopted a slang known as jive talk, the lexicon of the Jazz Age. A left-handed cigarette exemplifies this sort of speech.

As most people would smoke with their right hand, a left-handed cigarette calls to mind the evil generally associated with the left side in Christianity. A left-handed cigarette would be something way worse than tobacco (or so they thought).

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Burgess Powell

Burgess Powell is a writer for High Times based in New York. She writes about marijuana news, culture, and health.

By
Burgess Powell

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