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Tom Gelfars ETS 142

Semi-POT-ics

You may be a senile and decrepit 93-year-old man, or a God-fearing simpleton living on a barren cheese farm in Wisconsin, but odds are that you have heard of marijuana, the world’s most popular recreational drug. As is the case in many youth populations across the United States and the world, there is a certain portion of students in Hastings High School that enjoys consuming marijuana. These individuals help to constitute a subculture that has many customs and traditions, and which reveres one holy ritual – “getting high” – above all else. The behavior and vocabulary of your average pot-smoker may be confusing at first. But that’s why I’m here – to help you understand the complex semiotic, or sign-based, communication system that these stoners employ constantly in their quest to be “high”. First off, you may be daunted by the plethora of terms and nicknames for marijuana. Like any and all signifiers, the words used by local heads to denote marijuana are arbitrary and only superficially related to the psychoactive herb. However, many of the terms in the marijuana culture lexicon are words with preexisting meanings that can also be used to denote marijuana. known as metonymy. Each of these appropriated signifiers communicates a different sound-image that can then be associated with the drug. For example, “weed” is a popular metonymous signifier for marijuana, because of the plant’s propensity to grow rapidly, and possibly undesirably. Another metonym used to refer to marijuana is “dope”. Despite originally signifying opiates like heroin or morphine, “dope” has become associated with marijuana because of the plant’s narcotic-like effects and because of the broad-sweeping stigma against all illicit drugs, which tends to lump all substances together with no regards for nomenclature. Another common noun signifying marijuana, “dank”, arises out of a different semiotic concept, that of synecdoche. “Dank” was initially used as an adjective to describe the plant, and its potency. Meaning damp, moist, and cold in other contexts (i.e. basements, swamps), the word, in terms of marijuana, likely references the THC-bearing trichromes that coat the herb and which give it its distinctive sticky, almost moist texture. Eventually that one word – “dank” – came to refer to marijuana. This process is known as synecdoche, where one part of something is used to reference the whole. Another interesting, unusual term that is occasionally used to signify marijuana is “buddha”. How did

this is very complex as you can see

However, being that there is no official ruling body that dictates marijuana slang, one can ultimately refer to the substance however they want; this does in fact occur, as seen in the huge number of permutations of expressions referring to marijuana. So, while there is an established selection of terminology and colloquialisms that is commonly used and passed along by its users – a langue, in other words – the individual is free to mutate these terms to his liking, projecting the signifier as he so pleases, similar to the concept of parole. For example, from the commonplace slang term “doobie”, meaning a marijuana cigarette, one might come up with “dooberino”, embellishing the preexisting signifier and still denoting the very same subject.