Sometimes the juxtaposition of old and new can be utterly hilarious. Case in point? The recently popular Instagram account @elderlywhodab, which, at nearly 6,500 followers, is well on its way to becoming a cult favorite in the cannabis world.

Almost every day, it features user-submitted photographs and videos of the over-sixty set taking giant rips off of oil rigs, the bong-like contraptions used to vaporize the latest trend in the cannabis world: butane hash oil, or wax. In shot after shot, grandparents in leisure suits and grey-bearded old hippies suck down gulps of white smoke while taking “dabs,” which is what potheads call the little globs of wax that can keep you high for the better part of a day.

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Although most of @elderlywhodab's Instagram followers find the combination of advanced age and newfangled cannabis technology to be a source of humor, East L.A. resident and account creator Corin says he doesn’t mean to be mocking his subjects.

“It wasn’t for comedy at first,” he says. “I thought it was kind of important to show that it's not just us young people [who dab]. Older people adapt just as well as we do. They’re smoking what’s out there.”

He first came up with the idea after seeing several friends' parents start to switch from marijuana flowers to wax. Corin and his friends also like to go to dab bars, at dispensaries where stoners can go to smoke, vape and take hits of wax, and they had started seeing lots of curious baby boomers. One night, he had a particularly interesting encounter that confirmed his instinct that seeing older people take huge hits of high concentrated butane hash oil was somehow fascinating and worth sharing.

“There was an older lady that was wearing a sarong, old and hippie style,” he recalls. “She wandered over to us and said she’d seen people doing dabs before and was just curious.” After Corin and his friends explained to her how marijuana concentrates work, the woman decided to give it a try and take a small dab.

She loved it, and he was inspired. Soon after, he started the account, and began soliciting photos from friends and followers.

“It was just something kind of neat and different that wasn’t on Instagram,” he says. 

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