locos por el porro: tell your children

This week, the Argentinian Supreme Court voted to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use by adults in private. According to Cabinet Chief Aníbal Fernández, the move will allow the government to focus its anti-drug efforts on traffickers instead of users, and allow users "to be treated as addicts instead of criminals." (http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/10082)

Despite my D.A.R.E. and Cartoon All-Stars education, I´m not particularly concerned that this new law will effect a Reefer Madness wave of pot-induced incidents of manslaughter, suicide, and rape in Buenos Aires. Rather, I doubt it will have much of an effect on anyone who hasn´t already been fined or forced to complete some sort of anti-drug program because a police officer caught them with a joint (as for those who have, I imagine it might make them a little less paranoid while smoking up... or, maybe not).

Nonetheless, I thought this was a good occasion to compile and share some vocabulary related to this now-slightly-less-illegal pastime. I consulted some local "addicts" and came up with the following list:

porro, faso- pot/weed

una vela, un cohete (literally, "missile"), un canuto, un churro (after the oblong tubular shaped pastry by the same name), un porro, porrito ("little cute porro"), un faso, un fasito ("little cute faso"), un paraguayo/paragua (from paraguay, conotation of being not strong; not to be confused with "paraguas," meaning umbrella), un pinito (one that smells like a little cute pine tree)- a joint

estar loco/reloco ("crazy/very crazy"), estar de la cabeza, estar del tomate (roughly, "out-of-your-mind high"; literally, "of the tomato"), estar fumado ("smoked"), estar de la nuca (nuca is the part of your head that meets the top back of your neck, this term comes from the idea of being punched in this location and subsequently knocked out), estar del orto (orto is a euphemism for anus meaning sunset), me pegó ("it hit me")- to be high

una tuca- roach (end of the joint)
tuquera- roach clip
un finito- really skinny joint
un troncho- very thick joint

la punta- the dealer

las sedas- the rolling papers

picar- to separate pot with one´s fingers in preparation for making a joint (there is probably a term for this in English, but I´m no expert, and "to separate pot with one´s fingers in preparation for making a joint" yielded nothing on urban dictionary)

armar un porro, etc.- to roll a joint

una seca- a drag/hit/toke

bajon- munchies

Now that you know the imporant vocabulary, you´re ready for some sentences. Let´s try speaking like a porteño!

"¿Me das una seca?"- "Can I have a hit?"

"Uh, ¡como tira!"- "Oh my, how it pulls!"

"Como pega este fasito!"- "How it does make me high, this little cute joint!"

"Estoy con bajon/ Estoy de bajon/ Tengo bajon/ Vamos a bajonear algo/ Estoy bajoneando pizza."- "I am with munchies/ I am of munchies/ I have munchies/ Let´s go munchies(verb) something/ I have the munchies for pizza."



Take that, Canada.