See queries, which actually do share a single prompt:
I vape/smoke e-cigs, which are for liquid, and I remember a friend at an established vape-only store lamenting when management decided to start selling devices (Pax, I think) which can handle solid “material” as well, saying “well, know I work for a head shop.”
Now smoke/candy/beer stores are stocking all sorts of pipes and bongs, stuff which I remember as a kid being shocked seeing in the late 60’s only on St. Mark’s Place in Manhattan and other dens of iniquity.
I
There is the quaint convention, supported by some stores more than other, that they are for “herbs” only, or were labelled with a big sign in the store “for tobacco products only”; I particularly remember even a few years ago if you said you were interested in “that bong over there” staff would either not deal with you or ask you to leave.
But I just thought that about semantic nicety, standard usage since I don’t know when, and actual botany:
Is pot a weed?
Is pot an herb?
Now that I think of it, is “herb” a botanical term at all, or has roots (heh) in medicine and cooking only?
II
Do kids by and large still say “head shop” any more? The term/social need for such a business establishment–it used to even be a sign in above the more daring ones–seems to be gone now, for the above reasons.
A weed is a nuisance plant that springs up where you don’t want it and robs other plants that you are cultivating of nutrients. Marijuana can and is grown for production of hemp, so technically it isn’t a weed when it is grown for a specific use. If it’s being grown for human consumption it isn’t a weed either, although it may be an illegal activity in many instances. Medical marijuana is just that, a medicine.
From Wikipedia, “Cannabis is an annual, dioecious, flowering herb.” And a photo caption from the same article, “Cannabis growing as weeds at the foot of Dhaulagiri, Nepal.”
So, not to doubt the posters or (heaven forfend) Wiki, “herb” and “weed” are full paying terms of art in botanical classification–as well as other semantic situations ("…grown for specific use or not")?
And “weed” covers a pure noun classification, which, in a different sense of growth pattern, (confusingly) can govern “herb?”
yes, herb is a botanical classification. “weed” as has been said is a colloquial term meaning “plant growing where I don’t want it to.” it doesn’t even have to be a harmful plant; purslane is often treated as a weed because it gets into everything, yet it’s perfectly edible.
Now, I’m not being jerky here, but to reconcile what I’m sure are both knowledgable posts:
Upthread Si Amigo has:
Whose “technically” are we talking about?
(Leaving aside Si’s oh-yeah-but-ignore-that-definition when “specific use” excludes the specific use for human consumption, a not uncommon irrational sociolinguistic phenomenon).
A weed is a plant out of place. Grass can be a weed, and dandelions can be something other than weeds, if you’re gardening dandelions (for wine, salads, or the look of the things) and grass is invading your dandelion patch.
Well, they did in the 1990s, when I was in high school, and head shops sell glass out of which you can smoke tobacco should the mood strike. In fact, the head shops around here advertise hand-blown art glass, and nobody’s under any impression that the art is non-functional or purely decorative. But Missoula is a college town with aspirations of Seattle, so Mellow Mood (our premiere local head shop) would probably persist in its current form even with 100% legalization at the Federal level. It’s a Weed Lifestyle thing: Some smokers will always want the funky little stores aspect of their habit and a place to buy ancillary accessories, like posters and beads and, you know, art you can’t smoke weed out of.
Agreed - that’s one of the definitions - another one, probably less rigorous and more colloquial is a plant that’s untidy, sickly, spindly, sprawling or otherwise unpleasing in appearance i.e. "weedy’.
Re: “Weed” and “Herb”:
In my humble but of course correct opinion, ‘weed’ has at least two overlapping meanings: first, a plant you don’t want growing where you do want a crop; but second, a quick-growing plant (often annual or bi-annual) that tends to spring up in disturbed or bare soil (a vacant lot full of weeds doesn’t have anyone trying to grow a crop). I don’t think there’s a real problem with cannabis unintentionally growing in cultivated areas, so I wouldn’t call it a weed by definition one, but it is definitely an early-succession colonizer that meets the second definition of weed.
‘Herb’ again has two meanings: Biologically, it means a plant that doesn’t have a woody stem. Culinarily, it means a plant with leaves or flowers that are used, more or less undried, for their taste or smell. Cannabis is not woody, so clearly biologically an herb; whether it’s a culinary herb is maybe a matter of opinion myself I’d say no, since nobody really likes its taste or smell in and of itself.
That actually nails one source of confusion–the “yet.”
I would think that most people, like me before this thread, figure “herb” means edible.
ETA hijack: Plus I come across recipes–modern ones, not from previous centuries when it was more common–in which purslane figures. (Oh one must have purslane).
Never tried it or known anyone who has. So what’s it like? Huh, huh? First taste free?
I was just skimming a recent issue of New York Magazine and in their list of “Best of New York” they had a winner for best modern (?) head shop.
There’s a head shop in east Portland that is actually called “Head East”! Been around since 1972. Finally made it to the era of legal weed, but tons of competition.
On that last one - if I’m reading you correctly, I think that might not be universal. 'Round these parts, culinary ‘herb’ tends to mean leafy aromatic plant (which may be fresh or dried), as distinct from ‘spice’, which is dried or fresh whole, or dried powdered aromatic non-leafy parts of plants (seeds, bark, nuts, fruits, roots, etc)
And yet bay is an herb, but not edible (at least, not without more processing than it usually gets).
Purslane has a lot of flavor, though I’m not sure how I’d describe it, beyond saying that I like it. It’s not entirely unlike chickweed, though I doubt that helps.
Yeah, dried bay leaf can get stuck in the throat, even after long cooking. Fresh bay leaf is actually less flavorful/useful except in weird circumstances.
It’s quite robust, and doesn’t rquire much maintenance.