dro

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil. The word, attested in the early 1900s, joins Greek roots meaning “water labor”—which is apt, because hydroponics fertilizes plants with nutrients in water. The technique is especially effective for growing plants in rocky, arid regions. Or indoors away from prying eyes, if you’re interested in growing another kind of plant.

In the 1960s, marijuana cultivators applied innovations in hydroponics to grow cannabis. By the 1980s, growing weed via hydroponics was so common that the two became practically synonymous. Marijuana smokers began referring to hydroponic weed as hydro, for short.

The shortened slang was especially popular in hip-hop music in the 1990s. An early example comes from Bone Thugs-n-Harmony’s 1995 track “1st of tha Month,” which features the line: “Hittin’ that reefer hydro, you know the cut, so fuck them po-po.” Hydro became further clipped as dro, as heard in Nice & Smooth’s 1997 “Scared Money”: “Sippin on the Heine’, puffin’ on the ‘dro.”

Cannabis connoisseurs may distinguish between  dro and run-of-the-mill bud (regs or reggies. From hip-hop, dro quickly spread in the 2000s as shorthand for marijuana, regardless of whether it was grown hydroponically.

Dro, Weed, Trees, Dank, Green, Fire, Flight, Need I say more. There's countless names for weed that's acceptable. Who says cannibus unless you're a Budtender?

— #BlunTalk (LAL 34-8 LAC 30-13) (@Just1Zayne) December 16, 2017