If you’ve been paying attention to lifestyle media, you’ve probably run into the word canna-curious. It’s gotten so popular that Civilized, an online lifestyle magazine with an emphasis on cannabis culture, has named it their Word of 2018.
A play on the established term bi-curious, canna-curious is generally accepted to be a description of someone who is interested in trying cannabis either for the first time or for the first time in a long while. Of course, with the growing acceptance of cannabis use and the increasing number of people who live in jurisdictions that have legalized it, canna-curious describes a huge number of people.
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“Canna-curious is a word that truly captures the spirit of the year,” says Derek Riedle, Civilized’s publisher. “As legalization takes hold, the doors have opened up to a whole new tribe of people who are making their own decisions based on facts, not fiction. They’re smart, sophisticated and doing their research because they want to do it right. That kind of informed curiosity is what’s driving the market right now. Culture and conversations evolve rapidly, and the canna-curious are leading the pack.”
Riedle says that the canna-curious aren’t just an asset to the cannabis community because they are bringing new revenue to the industry but also because they are fueling positive change. “The great thing about curiosity is that it compels people to get informed,” he says. “The transition from canna-curious to canna-informed is the spark that’s igniting logical policy discussions that will result in even more markets opening up to cannabis in 2019.”
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And it’s not just Civilized trying to hype its brand by making up a word. A quick Google search returns tens of thousands of mentions of canna-curious, increasingly from legacy media, who appear to have started using the term after having read it in more alternative media. In fact, the earliest use of the word I could find occurred in a Leafly article by Anna Wilcox called Marijuana Advice for the Canna-Curious that was published on January 3, 2014. If Wilcox’ use is the first, that would make canna-curious almost exactly five years old.
And it’s not just limited to media. You can buy canna-curious T-shirts from a company named CasuallyBaked and there’s a company called the CannaCuriousClub that says it is “the home of posh pot” and will market cannabis specifically to discerning women. It is set to open for business this spring.
