No, like really high. The other night at Jermaine Dupri's VMA party at Avalon Hollywood, we ran into Entertainment Weekly senior writer Shirley Halperin, whose new marijuana bible, Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life, has just been published by Abrams. Sure enough, she was packing weed (she's got a prescription), and when we told her we were having problems with our early-onset glaucoma, Halperin, Mother Teresa that she is, smoked us the fuck out. As in, holy crap, what kind of weed is that? OG Kush? Sour Diesel? Northern Lights #5? We smoked out of a one hitter that was disguised as a cigarette, and nobody was the wiser. There's something to be said for rolling with an expert.

Halperin's book, which she co-wrote with Steve Bloom, is a hilarious and instructive manual for both the longtime potheads and budding enthusiasts. It features tidbits such as “How To Make a Gravity Bong” (as described by Cisco Adler), “Rules of Dealer Etiquette” (smelling is okay, sampling is not; have your cash ready; offer to smoke out your hookup), and “The Art of Scoring” (by Matchbox 20's Rob Thomas), and offers loads of useful (and useless) information about sweet, sweet ganja. Fun fact: did you know that the word “ganja” is widely considered to be derived from the Hindi word, ganga? We just learned that in Pot Culture.

Halperin will be signing books at Book Soup tonight at 7 p.m.

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