Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Marijuana-related argot provides socially constructed ways of talking, thinking, expressing, communicating, and interacting among marijuana users and distributors. Such argot also provides the verbal threads by which the marijuana subculture integrates use practices among diverse individuals, groups, and regions. An ethnographic study of blunt and marijuana users in NYC identified 180 argot words that are commonly used to maintain the subculture secrecy. Such argot is an even more important means to convey the dynamic expressiveness involved in the consumption experience and as a comprehensive communication system among subculture participants. Argot terms are created and spread by subculture participants. Argot also delineates important distinctions within and helps organize how the marijuana subculture structures use practices, networks, and markets. Argot also maintains boundaries with other related drug subcultures. The resulting dynamic use of argot constitutes a relatively unique communication system that is largely hidden from the mainstream of American culture. Such argot also integrates the marijuana subculture and is widely understood and regularly used by most marijuana users and sellers in American society.