If there is only one thing that I take out into the world from that 17 week Oaksterdam Business of Cannabis class, it’s that I should wash my mouth out with soap next time I say “recreational-use” when referring to marijuana or cannabis. The correct term – the one that will help us all to end Federal Prohibition, is Adult-Use.

This was a paraphrased quote from Dale Sky Jones herself, chancellor of OU on the day of our zoom commencement, back in May of 2022. Her reasoning is purely Political, all about perceptions and with one goal in mind: Descheduling of Cannabis toward the end of Federal Prohibition. (ok so two goals: Descheduling and ending Prohibition.)

But as a career researcher, sometimes focused on advertising messages and brand perceptions, I can tell you that words and how we use them really do make a difference. When you call cannabis “recreational,” it implies that everyone using it non-medicinally is lying around in a hammock listening to Bob Marley, man. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

The Political thinking is that a proverbial soccer mom in Kansas, or say, Idaho or Nebraska, who is concerned about easy access of “recreational” cannabis because a dispensary opened nearby? She will vote “No” everytime, at least until her kids are old enough to make their own decisions. By labeling it for who it is in intended: Adults Only; you know, like porn, like alcohol, like voting, we’re protecting the young ones.

Adult Use Cannabis is 21 and over in Cali, unless you have a doctor’s recommendation, in which case you can be 18. So you know, let’s all talk like educated adults on the issue, it’ll do way more for us than the half-baked stoner phrases that make it into the mainstream; you know, like

“I smoke two joints and then I smoke two joints, and then I smoke two more.”

Sublime