Slang for drugs and drug usage

Thanks for that, could be very useful. One problem I have is that local terminology is not always the typical terminology. For example, here we always refer to Meth as "P".

Just a meaningless aside, to do with 420 friendly, I believe in Pulp Fiction every clock ever seen in the movie is stopped on 4:20. Totally useles information, but there you go.

It also depends on your circle, too, and people do tend to make up their own terms. There are so many street names for the same drug it can be very confusing.

maestrowork said:

It also depends on your circle, too, and people do tend to make up their own terms. There are so many street names for the same drug it can be very confusing.

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It can also be quite regional. Not that I would know anything about it, of course.

been there, done that. I wouldn't use anything too wildly out there...no matter how deeply imbedded in the drug culture it is. Your readers might not be familiar with the terms. There are a handful of terms that are imbedded in everyday language...to go too far afield is just asking your reader to stop and say, "What?" You don't want that to happen.

Bowl - Sometimes used as a measurement, but mainly the receptacle of the pipe where marijuana is placed.

Cherry - When the bowl is still lit with embers and needs no use of a lighter while the cherry still lives.

Cornering - Lighting the edges of the bowl first to "conserve" the greens.

Dank - Highly potent or stinky marijuana.

Ganja - Weed.

Greens - The yet unlit part of marijuana (and thus superior as it is untouched).

Hit - A person's turn to smoke; the act of smoking.

Ice - Potent type of weed with a bluish tint.

Kill it - Basically means finishing the last hit of a bowl and therefore "killing" it.

Mondays - A person who gets Mondays gets first hit of the bowl (a more uncommon term, as far as I've seen).

Nug (or Nugget) - Large bud that indicates quality.

Skunk - Very strong type of weed.

Smoke up - Usually the act of smoking, or when someone treats another person by sharing their stash ( "Thanks for smoking me up, buddy.").

White Widow - Type of marijuana with THC crystals covering, giving it a white appearance.

A few English terms....

Hot Knives - heating up gear on knives over a stove plate, to inhale through a tube - for those hwo don't smoke tobacco

Camberwell Carrot - Big f***ing joint of particular construction

Blue Peter - 'And here's one I made earlier'

Doing Glasses. Using glasses that have been stored in a freezer, putting in a blowback ( exhalation), for someone else to breathe in - helpful for asthma sufferers

Wall Creeper. Weird one - repeatedly slide down a wall while exhaling, breath in as you stand, until you start to hyperventilate. Then someone gives you a blow back ( exhales the smoke into your mouth) you hold it in as long as you can and you exhale as you slide up the wall. After which you feel like you are floating up the wall and across the ceiling

Hot blowback - sharing smoke while snogging.

Dennis the Menace's - black ands red jacketed E's

weed/ green/ skunk - the green stuff you smoke

Dirt / Solid - the brown stuff you smoke

Pink champagne - speed and coke mix

E-slamming - emptying a cap of e into a tequila slammer and then doing it

Other terms for high - stoned, banged, melted, off me tits, cross eyed, monged

Getting married - not passing on the joint, having an unfair share

*cough* so they tell me *cough*

You learn something new every day.

I'm gonna e-slam some pink champagne while getting married this evening...

Ecstasy is the drug of choice in the novel I am writing. I am completely drug illiterate so I have been using the DEA's website for information. Interesting thread. What are the most common terms for ecstasy? If any of you know?

akiwiguy said:

Thanks for that, could be very useful. One problem I have is that local terminology is not always the typical terminology. For example, here we always refer to Meth as "P".

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I was thinking something similar: that because slang terms come and go, you could always think up your own slang terms (similar to what Joss Whedon did in Buffy dialogue).

"Man, I need some angelfood cake..."
"You eat anglefood cake??"
"No, jerk, angelfood cake is coke. Man, where have you been?"

Our little circle made up one of our own eons ago. A particular guy, kind of on fringes of group, used to roll these joints that I swear to god were about the diameter of a matchstick. His surname was Hope (I hope he doesn't frequent writers groups) and to this day there would be a small scattered circle of people who occasionally are heard to utter, "Jeeez man, what a friggin' Hopey!" It would just kill me to read a novel one day and see that.

Pantsonfire said:

Ecstasy is the drug of choice in the novel I am writing. I am completely drug illiterate so I have been using the DEA's website for information. Interesting thread. What are the most common terms for ecstasy? If any of you know?

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People usually say "X" or "E"; when you're using Ecstasy, you're "rolling". (Not "rolling on X" but just "rolling".)

I knew someone who said "rave medicine" but that was a while back when there was still a rave scene. SO OLD AM I!

There's a pretty good autobiography by a woman who was addicted to Ecstasy called Rolling Away: My Agony with Ecstasy. The author's name is Lynn Marie Smith.

Pantsonfire said:

Ecstasy is the drug of choice in the novel I am writing. I am completely drug illiterate so I have been using the DEA's website for information. Interesting thread. What are the most common terms for ecstasy? If any of you know?

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Well, you can't go wrong with "E" and "X"--other terms come and go, but those have legs. If you want to be really obscure, call it "Sasha" after Dr. Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin, the chemist who first confirmed its effects.

You ought to be careful about using government information about drugs if you want any sort of accuracy in your book. That's a little bit like going to the KKK to get information on black culture.

The US government frequently circulates or perpetuates deliberate lies and myths about drugs. Remember the one about the kid on LSD who burned his eyes out looking at the sun? (They've actually identified the guy who made that up "to alert kids to the dangers of drugs.") Or the one who put his hand in the fire on LSD because she thought it was a flower? Total BS. There is almost no evidence for "flashbacks", either.

There are a lot of unintentionally hilarious older books with LSD addicts (LSD is isn't only nonaddictive, it ceases to have any effect if you use it every day) or crazed marijuana smokers who act like they are on meth (when in fact they are more likely to sit on the couch and stare at their toes).

If you're going to write about X keep in mind that it doesn't really make people sex-crazed (it's called the Hug Drug, not the Big Bang), and it isn't addictive. It makes people intensely empathetic and open--which is why it has been used so successfully in psychotherapy--but a large percentage of men are unable to get erections, and although some people sue it as a sex-enhancer, most people find it more of a cuddly drug. And it isn't addictive--even the DEA doesn't try to claim that--so there aren't legions of desperate E-junkies out there selling their bodies and looking for their dealer.

An even-handed source of information is Erowid, a nonprofit group. Dance Safe is also a good source of realistic info on actual risks.

Good luck with that!

Heh, yep

An we tend to call weed - zol, dagga, majat (sp? that's really shitty cheap weed) and in my one book I mention zol fumes and no-one knew what I was talking about

And that Manson song where he mentions dagga? Eejit, it's not pronounced "dagger"

DWSTXS said:

You ought to be careful about using government information about drugs if you want any sort of accuracy in your book. That's a little bit like going to the KKK to get information on black culture.

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There is enormous mis-information, much of it "war against drugs" propoganda. By the way, I don't really have a pro/anti slant either way because, other than a smoke once in a blue moon at a get-together or whatever, I don't indulge at all these days. And I was rather glad to steer my daughter quite quickly through her brief fascination. I could really do a rave here, about the dangers of kids scorning sometimes ludicrous mis-information, and the benefits of providing information that allows informed choice, but I won't. I never, did I?

But a lot of the fictional depiction of drug-use seems to me to be sterotypical and derived from... yep, other fiction. Some not, and I mentioned on another thread a while back, the acid trip scene from Easy Rider to me is freakishly well done. There was definitely some first hand insight went into that.

I think, quite apart from terminology, anyone needs do some real study and observation to pull off drug scenes well. Every drug has its own kind of signature in terms of subtle (or not) behaviours etc. And some real gaffes can be committed with poor knowledge. I remember critiquing a work once that described something like someone flaking out from LSD use. What? If there's one thing you ain't going to do on acid, it's go to sleep.

Even though I've been around a lot of drug use, I'd still do a lot of careful research if my writing was straying into an area with which I was not really well acquainted. Some fictional accounts are plain ridiculous.

I agree about relying on government information. I think the best way to do research is by asking the "in crowd" to get all sides of the stories -- the partiers, the casual users, the hard users, the abusers, etc. There's a wealth of first-person accounts out there and I think those would be more useful than some government documents on any of these drugs. For example, I was doing some research on meth and it's so much more interesting reading through the first-person accounts: some really scary crap out there but at the same time, you get a fuller picture.

If you're going to write about X keep in mind that it doesn't really make people sex-crazed (it's called the Hug Drug, not the Big Bang), and it isn't addictive.

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As an ex addict I'm gonna have to disagree there. Yes you hug loads, but if you have a partner, well, yeah sex crazed gets in there too. It's more psychologically addictive than physically possibly ( because it feels so good you want to do more, and more and MORE!!!!) - but damn hard for me to kick all the same.

Don't do drugs kids, they're bad, m'kay?

There are so many terms and conditions while accepting anything from a way. Well a try is really important to do a success so it will be done by that.
thank you

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