Mid
Slang for mid-grade cannabis — flower that's not garbage, not boutique, just average.
"Mid" is just slang for average weed — okay potency, okay smell, okay structure, nothing memorable. The word got weaponized by online stoner culture as a generic insult, so now people call anything they dislike "mid," including flower that's genuinely fine. There's no chemical definition, no THC threshold, no official tier. It's a vibes-based judgment, often more about hype and price than the actual cannabis in your jar.
Definition
Mid (noun or adjective) describes cannabis flower judged to be mediocre — better than schwag or brick weed, but well below boutique "top-shelf" or "exotic" product. It's a subjective market tier, not a measured grade. A bud gets called mid when it's underwhelming on some combination of smell, trichome coverage, structure, flavor, and effect. The term is also used as a general-purpose insult outside cannabis ("that movie was mid"), a usage that exploded on TikTok and Twitter in the early 2020s Anecdote [1].
Where the tier system comes from
The U.S. illicit market historically sorted flower into rough tiers: regs/schwag (brown, seedy, often pressed Mexican imports), mids (greener domestic outdoor or mediocre indoor), and kind/dank/loud (high-quality indoor) [2]. As legal markets matured, dispensaries kept the structure but rebranded it: value shelf, mid-shelf, top-shelf, and "exotic" or "connoisseur." "Mid" survived as slang because consumers still need a quick word for "this is fine, not special." There is no regulatory definition; one shop's mid-shelf is another shop's top-shelf.
What people usually mean by mid
In practice, flower gets called mid when it shows several of:
- THC in the rough 12–18% range (vs. 20%+ for what's marketed as top-shelf), though lab THC numbers are a poor guide to quality Strong evidence [3][4]
- Faded or grassy aroma rather than loud, distinct terpene profile
- Larfy, airy, or overly leafy buds; sloppy trim
- Dried out, over-cured, or harshly smoked
- Old stock — terpenes degrade meaningfully within months of packaging Strong evidence [5]
Notably, "indica vs. sativa" has nothing to do with whether something is mid. That folk taxonomy doesn't reliably predict effects or quality Strong evidence [6].
What mid is *not*
- Not a potency threshold. There's no THC percentage that makes flower mid or not-mid. Lab numbers are also inconsistent across testing facilities and frequently inflated Strong evidence [4].
- Not the same as low-quality. Mid is usually smokeable, gets you high, and is often the best value per dollar. "Schwag" or "reggie" is the older slang for genuinely bad weed.
- Not a chemical category. No specific cannabinoid or terpene profile defines it.
- Not always a fair judgment. A lot of "this is mid" calls online are about brand hype, packaging, or price expectations rather than the flower itself.
Usage
- "It's mid." (adjective)
- "He sold me mids." (noun, plural)
- "Mid-shelf" (dispensary tier between value and top-shelf)
The word carries dismissive tone. Calling a strain mid in a review is a soft pan. Calling a dispensary's whole menu mid is a hard one.
Used in articles about
Quality grading, Top-Shelf, Exotic, THC Percentage, Terpenes, and the Indica vs Sativa folk taxonomy.
Sources
- Reported Lorenz, Taylor. "How 'Mid' Became the Internet's Favorite Insult." The Washington Post, 2022.
- Reported Halperin, Alex. "The Vocabulary of Weed: A Glossary of Cannabis Slang." WeedWeek / The Guardian, 2018.
- Peer-reviewed Schwabe, A.L., et al. "Uncomfortably high: Testing reveals inflated THC potency on retail Cannabis labels." PLoS ONE, 2023.
- Peer-reviewed Jikomes, N., & Zoorob, M. "The Cannabinoid Content of Legal Cannabis in Washington State Varies Systematically Across Testing Facilities and Popular Consumer Products." Scientific Reports, 2018.
- Peer-reviewed Milay, L., et al. "Cannabis Inflorescence Long-Term Storage: Stability of Cannabinoids and Terpenes." Molecules, 2020.
- Peer-reviewed Smith, C.J., et al. "The Phytochemical Diversity of Commercial Cannabis in the United States." PLoS ONE, 2022.
How this page was made
Generation history
Drafting assistance and fact-check automation are used, with a human operator spot-checking on a weekly basis. See how articles are made.
Related
- Schwag — Slang for low-grade cannabis flower — brown, dry, seedy, and historically the bulk of the...