Hopefully, when the words “how much weed is that???” 😲 come out of your mouth, it’s in the best possible way. Sometimes, though, it’s a legit question because a good amount of weed sizes and general weed weight lingo just feel like a random grab bag of the metric system, the U.S. customary system, and stuff people came up with when they were high (because they probably did). As always, though, you can count on Mama to help you make a little sense of this crazy world. 

P.S.: Ever since Mama sent you off to kindergarten, you were a visual learner. So Mama’s included some handy visual aids throughout this article that will help you imagine just how much flower we’re talking about.

Basic Weed Sizes 

From the dog days of dealers all the way to the bougie air conditioning (yes, when you’re from the jungle, AC is bougie) of dispensaries, you’re gonna see a lot of the same measurements floating around. These are a combo of metric and U.S. measurements, and conveniently enough, there’s no trickery here – the measurements in Weed World™️ are the same as in the real world. 

Here’s your basic primer, and Mama made you some flash cards just in case you need ‘em:

• A gram (g) is small – it’s one one-thousandth of a kilogram (a kilogram, by the way, is just over 2 pounds)
• An ounce (oz.) is exactly 28.3 grams, but you’ll often find that it’s an even 28g when it refers to cannabis. Usually, this is legally the biggest amount of weed you’re allowed to buy from a dispensary at once.  
• A half is, shockingly, half an ounce of weed. That comes out to 14 grams.
• Mama knows you’ll get this right on the test: a quarter is one-quarter of an ounce, or 7g. 
• So how many grams in an eighth? I knew you’d ask. An eighth is – wait for it – an eighth of an ounce. Which comes out to 3.5 grams.   
• A milligram (mg) is a teeny tiny droplet of a thing – it’s 1/1000th of a gram, a measurement that you’ll usually see in edibles, oils, and tinctures. 4,929 milligrams of water fit into a single teaspoon.

The Slang n’ Stuff

OK, get ready for Mama’s very own personal edition of Urban Dictionary, just for you. I mean, technically, stuff like “half” and “eighth” are slang. But you know weed makes you creative sometimes, and here’s where weed sizes and weights get, uh, really creative. It’s OK to ask your friends what TF they’re talking about here, cuz we’re not all lifelong High Times subscribers.   

• In some places, a can is slang for an eighth. Get used to these.
• Mama wasn’t joking – a cut is also an eighth. 
• A dime bag is a lil’ plastic baggie of weed that costs $10. It’s usually about a gram. Maybe it actually cost a dime back in 1932 or something, but inflation. In the midwest, you might hear it called a sawbuck.
• A dub or dub sack is a double (dub-le, get it?) dime bag, so $20 or 2 grams worth of weed. Also known as a tinnie or a 20 bag (you’ll never guess what a 40 bag is).
• An eify? Another word for an eighth.
• A G is just a gram of cannabis. Easy peasy.
• Half-O means half an ounce, but it’s also a good nickname for the shorties in the friend group.
• Some Brits call an eighth a Henry because they love funny words and blood sausage (big brain: it’s a reference to King Henry VIII and used to be a safe code word for weed). 
• In the ‘60s, a lid was a popular way to say an ounce. And that was before Mama’s time, don’t even with me right now.😡
• More rarely, you might hear quad, which is two eighths. 
• A QP is a quarter, or quarter pound. And now Mama has opened Postmates.
• Some people also call an eighth a slice. We’re finally done with these.
• What’s a zip of weed? Easy, it’s just an ounce. No one knows for sure, but people say that this is because an ounce of weed fits right into a Ziploc bag. I really hope you’re not going to dispensaries where they sell stuff in baggies, tho.
• A zone is an ounce. For some reason?

Lots of these apply more to buying weed on the streets, so you won’t hear them as often now that we’ve evolved into legal dispensaries, like you evolved from me. Still, it’s good to know your roots and also good to be cool at parties.

How Much Weed Is In…? 

Look, we live in a beautiful, shangri-la of ganja – Mama doesn’t want to “back in my day” you, but all I’m saying is, things are pretty good. That said, the variety that we have access to also makes for a whole lot of, well, variation. So while you can safely set a baseline of expectation for lots of common pre-packaged weed products, in terms of weight, just know that there are no hard and fast rules for exactly how many grams or milligrams of cannabis, THC, or CBD each type of product contains. But you can always see the precise amount on the package.

• On average, a pre-rolled joint has about 0.3 grams of weed. 
• A blunt, which is beefier, usually packs about 1 to 2 whole grams of cannabis. 
• Most commonly, you’ll find vape cartridges come in .5 gram/500mg or 1 gram/1,000mg sizes (just like Mama’s do), though .3 gram/300mg disposable carts are also popular. 
• Vapes are designed to dole out a specific dosage per hit, with a .5 gram cart offering a ballpark of about 150 puffs while a 1 g cart can get you up to 300 pulls.

Because edibles take the form of all kinds of foodstuffs and…drinkstuffs?…you’re gonna find a much wider range there. Some edibles contain as little as 0.5 milligrams of THC per serving, even though Medical News Today says that 2.5 to 5 mg is commonly considered the lowest effective dose. Typically, edibles feature about 5 to 15 milligrams of THC per serving, or around 20 mg for heavy hitters. Of course, the whole package might contain a lot more THC in total, but we’re talking about single servings. 

*Disclaimer: Please do not smoke a bowl of Fruity Pebbles or a Switch’s worth of weed, Mama taught you better than that. Have some YOLO SHOTZ instead, they’re good for you.