The legal cannabis market is expanding due to new medical discoveries and successful tax legislation. With that comes a wave of consumers who are either brand new to smoking or haven’t smoked for a very long time.
You may have heard phrases like, “Don’t bogart the joint!” or “Puff, puff, pass!” But do you know what they mean?
And how about all that smoke session lingo? How are you supposed to know what to do when someone tells you that you’re parked in the grass or that the bowl is cherried?
While the terminology may vary from location to location, there are some core principals behind every polite smoke session.
Read on to learn what you need to know to ensure you have the etiquette necessary to blaze with Snoop himself with ease, were that blessing ever to be bestowed on you.
First, Don’t Talk While it’s Your Rotation
When you are sitting in a smoker’s circle, you will most likely be passing around a joint or a blunt. If this is the case, that means that it will be constantly burning until the end of the smoke session.
Usually, rotations are about three or four people. That means that for about three-quarters of the smoke session, you won’t be in possession of the joint. During that time you can speak freely and emphatically.
But during the other quarter, you will be responsible for the amount of joint burned while you were holding it.
If you are smoking with someone and start talking with the joint in your hand, then they are watching smoke that could have been in their lungs be wasted.
Of course, trying not to talk is very difficult for some people and getting stoned doesn’t usually make it any better. But, try to be aware as much as possible.
If you are with a group of people and they think you are committing this particular infraction, they might say something to you like, “You’re parked in the grass.” to be polite.
Second, Two Hits Only
Two of the most famous smoker’s lingo phrases came from the principal of how often you should pass a joint in a rotation.
The first is, “Puff, puff, pass”. This is the basic rule for smoking with any group. When you are handed the joint, you are allowed to hit it twice before passing it to the next person.
Side note: When you pass, you should, “Pass the dutchie on the left-hand side.” While you may have thought that was just song lyrics, it’s actually used as a general rule in most smoking circles.
The second principle is, “Don’t bogart that joint!” Bogarting refers to taking more than your share of hits or keeping the joint to yourself for too long.
Even if it’s your weed that is being smoked, you should never take more than two hits at a time in a group of more than two people. It’s a courtesy and if you want people to smoke you out in the future, you should observe it.
If there are just two people smoking, then you may decide to just hit it as many times as you both want.
Most people don’t have the tolerance to go hit for hit on an entire joint with just one other person so there will be plenty to go around and it can be more relaxing to pass less often.
Third, Pay Attention to the Cherry
If you are smoking out of a bong or bowl with other people, then you have different concerns than when smoking a joint.
Once you have hit a bowl a couple times, you will start to notice a bright red glow at the center of the bowl. Many people refer to this as the cherry.
Ideally, when you hit a bowl, you wouldn’t want it to ever get cherried. The only time it is ever good is when you have a lot of people in your rotation that can take hits really quickly.
Once weed becomes cherried, it burns much more quickly and starts igniting everything around it. Most people in a smoking circle can’t move fast enough to make cherrying a bowl worth it.
If someone hands you a bowl that is cherried, you can try to tap it with the butt end of a lighter a couple times to stamp out some of the impact your hit will have on the rest of the bowl.
Forth, Corner the Bowl During the Smoke Session
You need to go into lighting a bowl with the mindset that you want to burn as little marijuana as possible. While some people are tempted to ‘torch’ a bowl and get a big hit, it’s generally very bad etiquette.
This is because there are trichomes that cover the very outside of the marijuana that is very psychoactive. When you torch the bowl, you are burning up that outer coating all at once and not leaving any for anyone else.
Instead, you should place the lighter as if you were going to light the side of the bowl and then just burn a small corner. This will maintain green in the bowl until the end so every hit has some good taste to it.
Last, Don’t Blow Into a Bong or Bubbler
This happens more often than most would think. Bongs and bubblers both have water in them and if you blow into it, the water will have to come out the holes in the opposite direction.
This would either be the carb (the small hole on the side of the bowl) or the bowl itself, which is even worse. Soaking a bowl or spreading bong water everywhere would be a bad way to spend your session.
For More Tips on Legal Ways to Get High
Now that you have learned the proper etiquette for a smoke session, you can feel comfortable with whoever asks you to light up.
If you are looking for more information on legal ways to get high, check out some more of our blog posts today.