A Bird in the Hand is Worth Half of an Ounce

Is That A Metaphor Or Something?

My title is a stretch, for sure, but since I think it’s funny, I’m going to leave it. What does it mean, though? Well, I think I’m trying to suggest that a 1/2oz of weed is about the same size as a bird. What kind of bird, you ask? That kind of indirectly brings me to my point.

What common objects make for good visual reference points when trying to determine how much cannabis you’re looking at? The best example I’ve encountered is that if you have a 1/4oz of weed, laid out as flat as possible, then it should entirely cover a standard-sized business card. That’s a pretty good example, as it’s very easy to imagine the amount of weed that it would take to do that. Most people have experience with business cards, and most of those people have probably seen enough weed in one place to completely conceal one. Therefore, the 1/4oz = 1 business card makes for a solid visual reference point.

What about other quantities, though? If we can visualize a 1/4oz by thinking of a business card, how might we approximate the size of an ounce or a 1/2oz? Obviously a 1/2oz could just be two business cards, but I feel like we can get a little more creative.

Further Stretching the Analogy

Since we started this discussion with a business card, I feel like staying in the realm of cards and card stock might just be the way to go with this. They’re nice and flat, which makes it easy to imagine how much cannabis could fit on top of them. Above, I jokingly suggested that two business cards would make a solid estimation for a 1/2oz, but my own suggestions aren’t too far away from that. 

Size-wise, I think a perfect estimation tool for measuring an ounce would be a postcard. The flatness makes the visual aspect of spreading out the cannabis to cover it extremely easy to imagine, and I’m pretty sure a postcard is about the size of four business cards (give or take). Measuring a 1/2oz is a bit more difficult, because aside from bookmarks there just aren’t too many paper products I can think of in that size range. Bookmarks tend to be a little thin, though.

For a 1/2oz, I would recommend the paper estimation tool of choice might be a paint swatch. Any color will do. They’re typically 4”x 8”, compared to the 4”x 7” total area of the earlier ‘two business cards’ idea. That’s a little bigger, but it never hurts to toss an extra nug or two into the bag rather than end up short. Again, it isn’t perfect, but it makes for a good starting point.

2 ounces of cannabis would likely be a little short of covering an 8.5”x 11” sheet of paper, but it’s short enough that I don’t think it serves its purpose quite as well as the examples I provided earlier. If you’re buying two ounces or more at a time, though, you should probably be verifying that with a real set of scales. Smaller variances have a more pronounced effect in larger quantities.

If you can think of any other solid reference points for different quantities of weed, then let me know what you prefer to use! I’d love to hear what people think works best for this. Any pictures of cannabis poured out on postcards or paint swatches are also very much appreciated.