Shwag, also known as
brown frown,
shit weed,
stress, or
cess in
cannabis culture, most often refers to low quality
cannabis. Shwag is of low quality because it is usually grown in mass quantities and without separating the males from the females. Without separating the sexes, marijuana will put forth seed and seeding reduces the THC content of the bud. Shwag's low quality also stems from its poor curing (usually rushed) and poor storage (vacuum packed in brick form). These factors combined result in an end product very different from high grade marijuana in that the individual buds are green-brown to brown, contain seeds, and are flattened and dry. Their trichome hairs and leaves are usually about the same color, brown. High grade marijuana usually consists of thick, seedless, sticky-moist, skunky-smelling buds with green leaves and orange, white, or red to purple trichome hairs.
Alternate spellings of shwag include
schwag,
shwagg, or
schwagg.
Based on the usage in cannabis culture, the term is now used in some contexts to describe things that are unpleasant, disliked, or subpar. In some social circles, usually of youth culture, shwag and dank have come to replace the more typical terms "bad" and "good,". The usage of the term is slowly spreading out of cannabis culture and into more mainstream conduits in a similar manner to the term "quitting
cold turkey" evolving out of a strictly
heroin oriented context and into a context of quitting anything. Additionally, shwag has become a prefix in youth slang, for example shwagtastic, shwagmopolitan, or shwag-gina. In London youth culture, the word 'swag' can mean something that is disliked or sub par.