Why are there so many names for marijuana?

Though I have never smoked pot in my life (earnest truth), there are several reasons for the deluge of nomenclature for the drug of preference.

1. It's a linguistic way to get around the authorities. If you're in the market for weed and you are silly enough to be openly selling weed then you will be more likely to be caught for your legal transgressions. At some point, these linguistic derivatives were code names (unknown to the authorities as synonyms for pot).

But since the law enforcement tends to have its ears pinned to the proverbial ground, they shrewdly learn the jargon du jour and then a new name is given to the product to once again help the dealers to allude the law enforcement.

2. There is an entire culture revolving around drugs, drug use, etc... with niche cultures for each category class of drug.

3. I am a fanatic of literature and language. I rather like having a choice of hundreds of thousands of words rather then a bland option of one or two. Keeps life interesting (at least at a superficial level....)

Because coming up with funny names is good entertainment for stoners

a buddy of mine grew up in a mid size city about 2 hours fron Toronto, for some unfathomable reason (and i asked him) he and his buddies came up with a drug slang that revolved around tickets to events at carnegie hall, the referred to the product as carnegie, and the seating position/ticket price related to quantity, he continued to refer to pot as carnegie as long as i knew him

why they thought anyone listening in on their conversations wouldn't be suspicious that a some small city high school kids were talking about buying tickets to carnegie hall i'll neve understand, why not use a toronto venue, at the very least

Possibly for the same reason there are so many names for the genitalia.

well i think that people who come up with all the other words or names for it think they are cool cuz they come up with there own name n people just follow so they start callin it that i guess....

Lot of truth to that. Slang is ever-changing and if you inadvertantly use an older word that's no longer current, you're viewed as not being 'in', not with the program. It's not even an attempt at secrecy any more but, rather, being hip, knowing what the latest cool word for weed is.

true dat =]

4:20 is tea time in Amsterdam

schwagg.

And what the **** is this "reefer" the negros are smoking?

i believe those are blunts...

Dang if I know. A reefer is a refrigerated truck. Double bottom reefer is a tractor with two refrigerated trailers. Somehow, it just don't sound right.

Pretty unflappable for an Ali G guest.

Haha, true, true. That answer makes sense.

Hahahaha. Dlowan!

& djjd62... wow. Some people don't make sense. hah

So true! No one cares about secrecy anymore. They WANT people to know they are talking about weed.
So my entire high school walked around talking about (their choice of current way to call weed) "bud" 24/7, in front of teachers, students, everywhere, and everyone knew what they were talking about. They liked that people knew.

Hahahahah! Really?
They have a "tea time"? That's cute.

Just 3 days ago, at college, when a teacher asked the students what their favorite occasion was, (which most people answered with "Christmas" or "birthday")... one said 420. The class laughed, and the teacher turned a little red and said, "Well, I'm not going ask why. We're not supposed to talk about such topics here." ..Haha. So, obviously, these teenagers want the entire world to know that they're a fan of weed. & even the elderly understand their slang names for it.