What is "head shop"

emporium for stoner gear, by 1969 (noted in 1966 as the name of a specific shop in New York City selling psychedelic stuff), from head (n.) in the drug sense.

alt. A retail outlet specializing in sale of 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. n. A retail outlet specializing in sale of 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.

n. a shop specializing in articles of interest to drug users; "he bought some roach clips and hashish pipes at the head shop"

A head shop is a retail outlet specializing in paraphernalia used for consumption of cannabis and tobacco and items related to cannabis culture and related countercultures. Products may include magazines (e.g., about cannabis culture, cannabis cultivation, tattooing and music), clothing, and home décor (e.g., posters and wall hangings illustrating drug culture themes such as cannabis, jam bands like The Grateful Dead, psychedelic art, etc.) Some head shops also sell oddities, such as antique walking sticks and sex toys. Since the 1980s, some head shops have sold clothing related to the heavy metal or punk subculture, such as band T-shirts and cloth patches with band logos, studded wristbands, bullet belts and leather boots. Head shops emerged from the hippie counterculture in the late 1960s, and many of them had close ties to the anti-Vietnam War movement as well as groups in the marijuana legalization movement like LeMar, Amorphia, and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Products offered typically include hashish pipes, "one hitter" pipes; pipe screens; bongs (also referred to as water pipes); roach clips (used for smoking the end of a marijuana "joint"); vaporizers used for inhaling THC vapour from cannabis; rolling papers; rolling machines; small weighing scales; small ziplock baggies; cannabis grinders; blacklight-responsive posters and blacklights; incense; cigarette lighters; "stashes", which include a range of standard consumer products such as clocks, books, tins of cleaning powder and toilet brushes which have hidden compartments for cannabis and non-camouflaged "stash boxes" which are tins or wooden containers for storing marijuana; and legal highs such as whipped-cream chargers (which contain nitrous oxide) and Salvia divinorum (both of which are illegal in some countries and some US states for recreational purposes). Some head shops also sell items used for home cultivation of marijuana plants, such as hydroponic equipment and lights and guidebooks on cultivation. Since the 2000s, some head shops also sell e-cigarettes and the flavoured liquids used with these devices.