A beginner's glossary of the cannabis products on our shelf

Walking up to a dispensary menu for the first time can feel like reading a different language. Flower, pre-rolls, eighths, carts, live rosin, 5mg gummies — it's a lot of vocabulary for what is, at bottom, a short list of product formats. This glossary lays out every category you'll see on the shelf at a licensed New York dispensary, in plain terms, so you can read a menu and ask for what you want without guessing.

A note on what this is and isn't: this is a guide to what each product is, not a guide to how anything will make you feel. Effects vary person to person, and the team behind the counter can describe formats and help you navigate the menu — but questions about your health belong with a doctor or pharmacist, not a retail counter.

What is cannabis flower?

Flower is the classic form: the dried, cured bud of the cannabis plant. It's what most people picture when they think of cannabis. You grind it, and it's smoked in a pipe, a bong, or rolled into a joint, or used in a dry-herb vaporizer. On a menu, flower is usually sold loose in jars or bags by weight.

Flower is often the starting point for newcomers because it's the most straightforward category — there's no oil, no battery, nothing to assemble. The trade-off is that you do the grinding and rolling yourself, which is exactly the gap that pre-rolls fill.

What's a pre-roll?

A pre-roll is cannabis flower that's already been ground and rolled into a joint for you — ready to use straight out of the package. It's the convenience version of flower: no grinder, no rolling papers, no technique required. Pre-rolls are usually sold individually or in multi-packs of smaller sizes.

You'll also run into a couple of pre-roll variations on the menu:

• Infused pre-rolls — a pre-roll with concentrate added to the flower, which makes them more potent than a plain pre-roll.
• Blunts — flower rolled in a tobacco-free wrap rather than a thin rolling paper, typically larger than a standard pre-roll.
• Multi-packs — several small pre-rolls (sometimes called "dogwalkers" or minis) in one package.

What is a vape, cart, or disposable?

A vape heats cannabis oil into an inhalable vapor instead of burning plant material. There's no flame and no ash. In a dispensary you'll mostly see vapes in two forms:

• Cartridges ("carts") — a small pre-filled tank of cannabis oil that screws onto a separate reusable battery. When the cart is empty, you replace just the cartridge and keep the battery.
• Disposables ("all-in-ones") — a self-contained pen with the oil and battery built in. You use it until it's done, then dispose of the whole unit. Nothing to assemble, nothing to recharge or screw together.

If a menu lists a vape without a battery and you don't already own one, ask — the cart and the battery are sometimes sold separately, and the team can point you to a compatible one.

What are edibles?

Edibles are food and drink infused with cannabis — gummies, chocolates, baked goods, mints, and beverages among them. Instead of inhaling anything, you eat or drink it. The defining feature of edibles, and the most important thing to read on the package, is that they're dosed in milligrams (mg) of THC.

That milligram number is how edibles are measured and compared. A package will tell you the THC per piece and the total per package — for example, a pack of ten gummies at 5mg each is 50mg total. New York caps adult-use edibles at a set amount of THC per piece and per package, and every legal edible is labeled with those numbers, so you always know exactly what a single piece contains.

What are concentrates?

Concentrates are products made by extracting the most potent parts of the cannabis plant into a thick, condensed form. Because so much is packed into a small amount, concentrates are considerably stronger than flower — which makes them popular with experienced shoppers and a category beginners usually grow into rather than start with.

They show up under a lot of different names that mostly describe texture and how they're made:

• Wax, badder/batter, budder — soft, opaque concentrates that vary from crumbly to creamy.
• Shatter — a hard, glass-like concentrate that snaps.
• Rosin — a concentrate pressed from flower or hash using heat and pressure, with no chemical solvents; live rosin is made from fresh-frozen plant material.
• Live resin — a solvent-extracted concentrate, also made from fresh-frozen cannabis, known for its aroma.
• Hash and kief — older, simpler concentrates made from the plant's resin glands (trichomes).

Most concentrates are either vaporized with specialized equipment (often called "dabbing") or added on top of flower. New York limits adults to up to 24 grams of concentrate at a time, separate from the flower limit.

What about tinctures and topicals?

Two more formats round out a typical menu:

• Tinctures — cannabis extract in a liquid, usually with a dropper, dosed in milligrams like edibles. They're a measured, smoke-free option.
• Topicals — cannabis-infused balms, lotions, and salves applied to the skin rather than consumed.

Both are dosed and labeled, and like everything else on a licensed shelf, they come through New York's regulated, lab-tested supply chain. If you don't see one on the menu, it simply isn't in stock that day — availability moves.

How is cannabis weighed and sold?

Flower (and some other products) is sold by weight, and the menu uses a mix of grams and old imperial fractions of an ounce. Here's the whole vocabulary in one place:

• Gram (1g) — the smallest common unit; a single pre-roll is often about a gram.
• Eighth (⅛ oz) — 3.5 grams. The most common flower purchase size.
• Quarter (¼ oz) — 7 grams, or two eighths.
• Half-ounce (½ oz) — 14 grams.
• Ounce (1 oz) — 28 grams.

For context on the limits: New York lets adults 21+ buy and possess up to three ounces of flower (about 85 grams) and up to 24 grams of concentrate at a time — comfortably more than a typical visit. So an "eighth" you hear someone ask for is just 3.5 grams of flower, nothing more mysterious than that.

What do the terms on the label mean?

A few more words you'll see printed on menus and packaging, defined simply:

• THC — the most talked-about cannabinoid in cannabis; on a label it's usually shown as a percentage (for flower) or in milligrams (for edibles and tinctures).
• CBD — another cannabinoid, listed alongside THC on many product labels.
• Cannabinoids — the broad family of compounds in cannabis that THC and CBD belong to.
• Terpenes — the aromatic compounds that give different cannabis its smell and flavor.
• Strain — a named variety of cannabis (the menu names you see); also called a cultivar.
• Budtender — the dispensary staff member who helps you navigate the menu.

Which format should a first-timer ask about?

There's no single right answer — it depends on whether you want to smoke, vape, or eat something, and how hands-on you want to be. But a few plain distinctions help:

• Want the simplest, most classic option? Flower or a pre-roll. A pre-roll needs no gear at all.
• Want no smoke and no flame? A vape (cart or disposable) or an edible.
• Want a measured, exact amount? Edibles and tinctures are dosed in milligrams, so you always know the number.
• Brand new to it all? It's worth telling the team that. They can walk you through categories and point you toward lower-strength options without any pressure.

The best move on a first visit is simply to say you're new. A good budtender will translate the menu for you, and there's no wrong question to ask.

Where to see these products in person

Cannabis Cowboy is a licensed adult-use dispensary on Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens (NY OCM-RETL-24-000068), serving Ozone Park, Jamaica, Woodhaven, Kew Gardens and South Richmond Hill. Everything described here comes through New York's regulated, lab-tested supply chain. You can browse the live menu to see each category with current stock, or just walk in and ask — bring a 21+ photo ID either way. New to the whole thing? Here's what to expect on a first visit.