This Is One Of The Most Basic Questions In The Marijuana Culture

A very interesting thing happened to me today. I was minding my own business riding the city bus (my car is broke down) and I overheard some old ladies talking about medical marijuana. If I had to guess, the ladies were into their 70’s. I read that there are more and more senior citizens consuming medical marijuana everyday, but this was the first time that I saw it in real life. They were so open about it, talking about how none of ‘marijuana now days’ makes sense.

The older looking of the two sweet old ladies was talking about how much medical marijuana costs. You could tell 40+ years ago that she had some great times smoking marijuana in the late 1960’s, because she spoke of marijuana memories so fondly. She said back in her day, she would pay five bucks and get a ‘big old bag full!’ (exclamation added to mimic her enthusiasm). But nowadays, it costs 40 to 50 dollars for an ‘eighth’ and she doesn’t know what that means but it ‘sure doesn’t seem like much.’ That’s when I realized, there are still people out there that don’t know what an ‘eighth’ of marijuana is! I thought just you rookies had this kind of question, not senior citizens. Mind Blowing.

So as a public service announcement to any old ladies, young rookies, newbies, wannabies, or anyone else that has been sleeping under a rock and doesn’t know what an eighth of marijuana is, here is my breakdown. Everything in the marijuana sales industry is based off of the pound. If you are breaking it down by the kilo, you are dealing with the wrong people and the wrong caliber of marijuana! A pound consists of 16 ounces. An ounce is a little over 28 grams, but for rounding purposes, the industry standard is 28 grams per ounce. An ounce is broken up into 8 equal increments of 3.5 grams, hence the ‘eighth.’ Why it was divided into eighths, as opposed to sevenths, I have no idea. Back in the day it seems like everything was measured by the unofficial standard of a ‘lid’ and somewhere it evolved into the gram system.

To those out there that this information is new for, be advised, the ‘forty sack’ and an eighth are not necessarily the same thing. They can be, but not always. Most lowest level marijuana dealers, medical or recreational, mainly sell ‘dubs’ and eighths. A dub is 20 dollars worth of marijuana, and is different for every area. 20 bucks will get you over 2 grams in most parts of Oregon, but only gets you 1 gram in Las Vegas (if you’re lucky!) A forty sack will be two dubs put together, so you can see how it differs from an eighth, which is always 3.5 grams. If it’s not 3.5 grams, than you have been shorted, unless it’s over, at which point congratulations!

P.S. – I apologize to people that this seems such a simple concept and therefore doesn’t necessitate an explanation, but just think of the little old ladies out there. They need to learn somehow!