boom, n.² — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

boom n.²

[Afk. boom, a tree / boo n.⁴]

1. (drugs) marijuana.

1949		H.C. Bosman Cold Stone Jug (1981) II 27: The dagga habit was pretty strongly entrenched among the regular gaolbirds. They had all sorts of names for it, ‘boom’ being the most common.
1953		W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 89: ‘What about tea?’ ‘That’s different. Boom makes you gay. You take a couple of sticks and you’re way up there looking down.’.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 107: Pepe offered him a stick [...] ‘Where else do they pass the boom around for free?’.
1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 82: The dagga or ‘boom’ is sometimes bought at houses where liquor is sold.
1974		H. Levin Bandiet 119: ‘Boom’ is an Africaans term for ‘dagga’, the South African pot or marijuana .
1977		D. Muller Whitey 13: We smoked a whole arm of boom and drank-out a big can of vlam!
2002		Sean Paul ‘Gimmie the Light’ 🎵 We smoke a lot of boom.
2005		A. Lovejoy Acid Alex xiv: Rasta Paulus and every single other boom-roeker in the Bos.

2. heroin and/or the sensation thereof.

1961

H. Ellison ‘Gentleman Junkie’ in Gentleman Junkie 26: I got some extra Horse for you [...] I get out inna morning. I don’t need the extra boom.

boomy (adj.)

intoxicated by marijuana.

1964, 1983

informants in DSAE (1996).

boom-boy (n.)

(drugs) a marijuana smoker.

1974

Eng. Usage in Southern Afr. V:1 11: For the rokers — the boom-boys — hand rolling is essential unless the boom and snout are mixed in a pipe [DSAE].

boom-skuif (n.) [skuif n.]

1. (S.Afr./drugs) a marijuana cigarette.

1974		Eng. Usage in Southern Afr. V:1 11: The boom-skuif is held firmly between the fingers closer to the knuckle than normally and the smoke is then drawn in through cupped hands [DSAE].
1980		E. Patel ‘Sometimes / Now’ in They Came at Dawn 25: Sometimes / the butt end of the boomskuif / precipitously hangs onto / the edge of my lips.

2. marijuana.

1977

D. Muller Whitey 16: The magic of the jupe and the boomskuif was wearing thin.

boomstop (n.)

boom tea (n.)

tea made from an infusion of marijuana.

1971

Cape Times July 1 20: She and a boy friend went to a party [...] and drank ‘boom tea’ (tea made from dagga) [DSAE].

boomed up (adj.)

(drugs) intoxicated by marijuana.

1949		H.C. Bosman Cold Stone Jug (1981) II 30: ‘Blue’ was the most usual way of talking about being under the spell of dagga, but there were other expressions like [...] ‘boomed up’.
1949		H.C. Bosman Cold Stone Jug (1969) 47: ‘Blue’ was the most usual way of talking about one being under the spell of dagga, but there were other expressions, like [...] ‘boomed up’.
1983		informant in DSAE (1996).