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British Journal of Criminology Advance Access originally published online on June 10, 2005
British Journal of Criminology 2006 46(1):46-77; doi:10.1093/bjc/azi053
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The British Journal of Criminology 46:46-77 (2006)
© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD). All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Marijuana Argot As Subculture Threads

Social Constructions by Users in New York City

Bruce D. Johnson, Flutura Bardhi, Stephen J. Sifaneck and Eloise Dunlap*

* All authors are at National Development and Research Institutes, Inc.

Address for correspondence: Bruce D. Johnson, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Special Populations Research, National Development and Research Institutes, 71 West 23rd Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10010, USA; telephone: 212–845–4500; fax: 917–438–0894; email: johnsonb{at}ndri.org.

Marijuana-related argot provides socially constructed ways of talking, thinking, expressing, communicating and interacting among marijuana users and distributors. Such argot also provides the verbal threads by which the marijuana subculture integrates use practices among diverse individuals, groups and regions. An ethnographic study of blunt and marijuana users in New York City identified 180 argot words that are commonly used to maintain the subculture secrecy. Such argot constitutes the subculture threads connecting and linking diverse user groups, networks and markets. These words convey the dynamic expressiveness involved in shared consumption and as a comprehensive communication system among subculture participants. Argot terms are created and spread by subculture participants. Argot also delineates important distinctions within and helps organize how the marijuana subculture structures use practices, networks and markets. Argot maintains boundaries with other drug subcultures. The dynamic use of argot constitutes a communication system widely understood among marijuana subculture participants, yet is largely hidden from mainstream culture.


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