Head shop

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A head shop is a retail outlet specializing in paraphernalia related to consumption of cannabis, other recreational drugs, and New Age herbs, as well as generally selling counterculture art, magazines, music, clothing, and home decor. Products typically include water pipes (colloquially called bongs), roach clips, glass pipes, rolling papers, rolling machines, scales or balances, whipped-cream chargers (which contain nitrous oxide), blacklight-responsive posters, incense, cigarette lighters, and products claimed to give false negative results for drugs on urinalysis tests.

1 History
2 Legality
3 Smart shops
4 References
5 External links
6 See also

[edit] History

Head shops originated in the 1960s in cities with a high concentration of college-age youth, often growing out of independently owned poster or candle stores. Sources cite the Psychedelic Shop on Haight Street in San Francisco, California, operated by U.S. Army veteran Ron Thelin and his younger brother Jay, as the first in the United States ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}--it opened on January 3, 1966. Head shops served as an important outlet for the underground comics of Robert Crumb and other counterculture cartoonists. The shops' popularity eventually waned with the aging of that era's baby boomer generation, and with the retail mainstream discovering and co-opting aspects of that market niche, such as alternative music and eco-friendly products.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Legality

In the United States of America head shops exist in a legal grey area because of the nature of the materials they sell, which can be used for both legal and illegal drugs. Signs stating that the products sold "are for tobacco use only" are commonly posted.

By the early 2000s, with the passage of local laws allowing for medicinal marijuana, head shops have reemerged regionally and on the Internet to service that health market.

[edit] Smart shops

Smart shops are shops, prominently found in the Netherlands, that sell psychoactive substances in addition to the drug paraphernalia found in head shops. Most smart shops sell psychedelic mushrooms.