Talk:Pothead

Pothead = substance dependence??

I think this disambiguation needs some work. A "pothead" is not necessarily, as it states, a person "addicted" to cannabis, and I don't think that the redirect should go to "substance dependence". By the way I am not a pothead! ;-) Since there seems to be no article on actual potheads (aside from the other type of pothead that is an electrical terminal), perhaps this should redirect to somewhere a little more neutral?

Also I do think that "pothead" merits it's own article... Is anyone working on that?

MsBatfish (talk) 21:25, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

No pothead does not neccessarily mean dependence, the term generally refers to a person who is a habitual smoker. I am not sure it merits its own article though, although it could be a useful subsection in another article, such as Cannabis consumption.Meatsgains (talk) 21:29, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

Thanks Meatsgains. I agree. I just think I saw somewhere, on someone's user talk page I think it was, that someone said not to edit this page as they were planning an article, or something along those lines. I figured if that was the case that they might see this here and respond. I didn't want to step on anyone's toes. But perhaps I should change the redirect to "Cannabis Smoking" or "Cannabis Culture" instead of "Substance Dependence" for now? MsBatfish (talk) 09:43, 19 October 2011 (UTC)

Update: I changed the phrasing from "for a person addicted to Cannabis" to "for a person who regularly uses Cannabis" and changed the redirect to "Cannabis Smoking" for now. If someone can think of a more appropriate article please feel free to change it :-) I don't think "Substance Dependence" is the appropriate article, however; it is not neutral as it represents an opinion that all potheads are substance dependent, aka "drug addicts". In addiction, substance addiction is a much broader category than just people who smoke cannabis. MsBatfish (talk) 09:51, 19 October 2011 (UTC)

I agree with MsBatfish. Good editing. Mjpresson (talk) 15:08, 19 October 2011 (UTC)

Fair enough. For what it's worth, before I created the present article about the electrical device last week, this was a hard redirect to Substance Dependence (Although there appeared to be some prior shuffling of the redirect). I just pointed the disambig link to that most recent redirect target. Incidentally, regarding the neutrality question: Do cannabis users self-identify as "potheads" or is it only a derogatory term? --Theodore Kloba (talk) 17:14, 19 October 2011 (UTC)

I can only say that the term is disliked and discouraged in the legal Medical Cannabis community and it's preposterous to give the word its own article in the cannabis context. meh...movin along...Mjpresson (talk) 22:13, 19 October 2011 (UTC)

No one was holding you personally responsible Theodore Kloba :-) I think whether or not "pothead" is thought of as solely a derogatory term really depends on the context, the community and the region. Where I live in BC Canada, for example, I know many self-described "potheads" who have reclaimed the term and use it as a humorous badge of honor, (somewhat akin to black people using the word "nigger" or prostitutes using the word "hooker" - it really depends on the context the word is used in).

As for neutrality, what I meant was that I didn't find the re-direct to be neutral, since I felt that it implied that all people who use Cannabis are "addicted" and "substance dependent", which is a biased viewpoint. MsBatfish (talk) 09:37, 20 October 2011 (UTC)