A "lid" of marijuana is a one-ounce portion, according to the Urban Dictionary.

But why a "lid"?

How did "lid" get to be a unit of measure, and is it a measure of anything other than marijuana?

Thanks, Hugh Gilmore

It is also a standardized measure of a soldier's cranial capacity.

I'm not sure where the term lid came from, but I'm surprised to see that most info on the web indicates that a lid was an ounce. In the late sixties, on the west coast of Canada they were two different measurements. An ounce (OhZee) was 20 bucks and weighed 28 grams. A "lid" was was 15 bucks and weighed 20 grams. A that time, most of the pot was coming from Mexico and was in metric units. A kilo (key) could be broken down into 50 lids. Nice easy math. Most of our Mexican pot was coming up through the States and at some point (around 1970) we started getting it by the pound rather than by the kilo. I think the shipments were being converted by the American dealers because pounds and ounces were something that the average US/Canadian consumer could understand better. By about 1975 the "lid" was unknown and you just had ounces, halves (dime bags), and quarters (nickel bags). Of course, this is all just stuff that I heard, man.

Yeah, y'know -- I never thought a lid was an ounce, either. It was definitely smaller than an ounce. Can't really remember what a lid cost where I lived. I never bought the stuff, y'understand!
Isn't it called a lid because it's how much pot would fit in an average large mayonnaise jar lid?

Ok, I did a little google on this topic, and did not turn up very much. Disappointing to see that many dictionaries define a “lid” as an ounce of marijuana. I really don’t think that is true. The following are not very authoritative, but maybe there's a bud of truth in them:

From WikiAnswers --


And "Tiki Punch" from the Urban Dictionary offers the following -- The coffee can lid story seems to ring a bell with me . . . I know Ken hates it when we perpetuate ungrounded mythology from other websites here -- sorry Ken. I'll try to find some evidence to back up the coffee can theory.

At another site, someone writes that his(?) dad told him a lid was a sandwich bag with about 4 fingers of pot in it.

At another site, it is theorized that the reason lids existed was to avoid the jail sentence for possessing an ounce or more of marijuana. Possession of less than an ounce was only a misdemeanor and one was not likely to face serious consequences.

John [a.k.a. Trolley]], You’re certainly a good listener with great self-restraint. And your information looks good.

Shelley, The WikiAnswers looks pretty good if one takes 3/4 of an ounce to be ‘approximately’ an ounce – but, really, what’s a 1/4 ounce among friends! As far as the Urban Dictionary goes, I’d say that explanation appears to be bullshit ( see below):

CASSELL’S DICTIONARY OF SLANG by Jonathon Green

LID noun [1960s and still in use] (drugs): A quantity of marijuana, about 22g (3/4 OZ) or 40 cigarettes’ worth and often considered the equivalent of 1 oz (28g). [the quantity of the drug that fills the lid of a tin of Prince Albert, a popular brand of tobacco]

o.z. noun (also oh-zee, OZ) [1930s and still in use] (drugs): 1 oz (28g) of a drug. [1 oz; pronunciation of the abbreviation of Standard English ounce)

KEY noun (also KEE, KEYE, KI) [1960s and still in use]: A kilo of marijuana, hashish or any other drug [Standard English kilo-, a thousand]

CAN noun (drugs) [1950s and still in use]: Approximately 1 oz (28 g) of marijuana. [a (notational) can into which the drug is measured out]

MATCHBOX noun (also MATCH) [1940s and still in use] ([i]U.S. drugs): 1) $10 worth of marijuana, originally an actual matchbox full, by 1999s more like a thimble full. 2) Approximately a ½ oz (14 g) of marijuana.
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I was also surprised at how many dictionaries said that a LID is an ounce of marijuana (e.g. American Heritage Dictionary, Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Online, and even the OED). And there are early examples of that (see first 1968 and 1971 quotes below). But should they have been saying approximately an ounce? Well, at first I thought that the language descriptivists must be right – if enough people say something that’s wrong long enough, it becomes right. Or was it that maybe the stuffy guys working for these august dictionaries spent too much time in the stacks and never actually went out and bought some weed? But, I do trust the savvy Jonathon Green on this one, with his view being confirmed by the 1980 quote below which says that the meaning of LID depends on time and place.
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THE NEW PARTRIDGE DICTIONARY OF SLANG, for whom I have considerable general disdain, here seemed to demonstrate their skill at hedging their bets:

LID noun [U.S., 1966]: An approximate measure (variously twenty-two grams, or one or two ounces of loose, uncleaned marijuana [[Hm! What’s with the ‘uncleaned.’ First I’ve heard of that. So you buy a ‘lid’ and clean it yourself, or smoke it dirty!’]]. Derived from the lid of a tobacco tin, a convenient measure of sufficient marijuana to roll about 40 cigarettes. [[Hopefully, after cleansing]]
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The following quotes are from the Oxford English Dictionary, Historical Dictionary of American Slang, and The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English:


My name is Ken Greenwald and I approve / approve of this posting (all I know about the above subject matter is what I've read in the papers).
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Ken – January 29, 2009

The funny papers, you mean! Once again, Ken, your research is just, well, far out, man. With regard to your seeming unfamiliarity with the difference between a cleaned ounce and an uncleaned one, allow me to provide the following: (no, it has nothing to do with tref and kosher) ;^)
Ken, the cleaning process was an enjoyable, necessary ritual associated with smoking marijuana. It involved the following tools: a cafeteria tray (ideal) or record album cover (less ideal, but more aesthetically pleasing); a book of cigarette rolling papers, a matchbook or a student ID card; a film canister or other small container for the final, cleaned product.
Cleaning was necessary, because the dried stems and seeds produced headaches when smoked. More importantly, the seeds had a tendency to explode when heated up, sending sparks all over the place and igniting your best Indian print bedspread/wall-hanging.
I’d rather not get into the particulars of the process. Suffice it to say that, by applying the simple law of gravity, it effectively separated the wheat from the chaff. Also, like freshly grinding your own coffee beans, it was better to clean only the amount you expected to use at the moment.

Of course, I know this only by having, in the distant past, observed acquaintances perform this ritual (at parties into which I'd been smuggled after having been kidnapped) -- uh, perform this ritual upon a substance I never purchased, nor inhaled (although, according to our new President, that's sort of the point, isn't it?) except when the smoke got so thick that, well, I mean -- I couldn't just stop breathing, could I?

Are you sure you didn't already know this?