It was such a minor detail, but it felt odd for all of us to pull out our own joints. It was 2020, a time when we wondered if the end of our species floated through the air.
My hiking group, the Pillars, was thrilled to gather on the bluff at Wilder Ranch, and once we were in the open air on the trail, the only things we could not share were food or a joint.
As we passed the Bic lighter clockwise in our circle for each of us to light our individual doobies, embarrassment passed over us, as if we were violating a kind of trust with each other. Passing the lighter was a mocking parody of what we really wanted: to pass the dutchie on the left-hand side. The ritual of puff, puff, pass to the left bonds us as much as getting high. We disagree about a lot, but we know where the joint goes.
Why two puffs? Why do we pass in one direction? I put those questions to three cannabis researchers who help explain the ritual.
Dr. Brian Kelly, professor of sociology at Indiana University, studies substance use and health. I told him that I couldn’t remember anyone teaching me puff, puff, pass, but the ritual is rigorous. How do people learn it?
Kelly described an “informal social learning process.” You watch the people around you, notice what they do and discover what happens when you do something else. A joint held too long attracts attention. Skipping someone is not cool. You may not remember learning the rule, but you will remember being reminded of it.
Don’t bogart that joint, my friend
Pass it over to me
Recorded by the Fraternity of Man and featured in the 1969 film Easy Rider, the lyric uses a slang term recalling how actor Humphrey Bogart held onto cigarettes while talking.
Passing joints to the left entered the pop spotlight in 1982 when British reggae group Musical Youth released “Pass the Dutchie,” which reached No. 1 in the UK and the top 10 in the U.S. With its refrain, “Pass the dutchie on the left-hand side,” the song is a family-friendly adaptation. Musical Youth reworked the Mighty Diamonds’ 1981 track “Pass the Kouchie,” replacing kouchie (a weed pipe) with dutchie (a cooking pot), because the band members were teenagers and the record label was nervous. The clockwise direction from Rastafarian culture stayed the same (cannabisetiquette.org/smoking-session/pass-to-the-left).
Dr. Kelly thinks “puff, puff, pass” was absorbed into popular culture with the famous Chris Tucker line in the 1995 movie Friday. The comedian yells to Ice Cube’s character, “Puff, puff, give!” Kelly said he thinks that, prior to recreational legalization, there was an element of bonding in collective risk-taking. I’ve heard old hippies comment that ganja was more fun when it was illegal. We’re certainly glad it’s legal now, but when you could get arrested, smoking weed was a revolutionary act.
Puff, Puff, Pass in the Media
Caleb Chen is a research associate with Cal Poly Humboldt’s Cannabis Studies Lab. Chen says, “The earliest written record I can find is a 1996 reference,” pointing to Vallejo rapper Young Lay’s “Puff Puff Pass.”
I asked Caleb what the advantage of two puffs might be. He says the Network of Applied Pharmacognosy has done research with a smoking machine, and two shorter puffs may produce cooler, less harsh smoke. Chen says, “If you were teaching someone who’s smoking for the first time, you would want to tell them, puff, puff, pass, as opposed to a big old drag.”
I asked Chen about passing to the left. He says his “best guess” is that it has reggae roots in the meaning of left versus right in Rastafarian culture. Chen says that Rastafarian cannabis culture was directly informed by indentured servants from India, where cannabis smokers traditionally pass cannabis to the right. Chen theorizes it’s possible that Rastafarians adopted the Indian practice and then put their twist on it. As opposed to passing to the right, for war, the Rastafarians may have passed to the left to promote peace.
Sharing Weed Gives Us a Lot
I spoke with Dr. Rob Chlala, assistant professor of urban sociology and policy at Cal State Long Beach. I asked why the smoking circle seems so important to us. Chlala sees it as an in-person ritual to connect, to share, to collectively support each other. “… if you bring a joint around, you find some way to connect as human beings.”
I experienced the professor’s connection idea. For years I have been furious with my MAGA neighbor across the street for flying his damn Trump flags, and I can only imagine what he thought of the Black Lives Matter sign in my front yard. I finally meet him. He whips out a joint, we start talking, and we both observe that Trump and Biden are 3,000 miles away, while he and I live 100 feet from each other. I cannot begin to understand how he could possibly vote the way he does, but sharing that joint took us from being enemies divided by asphalt and signs to being neighbors.
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