define:stoner

- An attacker who pelts the victim with stones (especially with intent to kill)

- A stoner is slang for a typical subculture of those who habitually use marijuana. It refers to not only the drug use, but also the unique cultural characteristics of a subset of marijuana users, sometimes identified with hippie culture. Notable features include facial hair for men, long hair for both sexes (especially men), tie dye, hemp clothing, and a relaxed attitude.

- A stoner is slang for a member of the subculture of those who habitually use marijuana. They may or may not identify themselves with other drug related cultures and may even see use of other drugs, especially hard drugs, as dangerous or morally wrong. Many stoners may identify with the hippie culture but this is less common than Rastafarian identification.

It is important to understand the subtle changes in the public's image of the stoner that occured as a result of changing drug-use patterns in the United States. While most marijuana users are typically in high school, there is a growing proportion of college students who use the drug.

More noteably, as the population of marijuana users has increased over the past two decades, the stoner's image has become one of less oddity and more annoyance. This trend is an outgrowth of several changes in the patterns of marijuana use in the US. First, THC levels have increased markedly across North America, while access to the drug has also increased. The setting of the stoner has evolved with this, where once they were associated with isolated "hippie" culture (Woodstock, Grateful Dead etc), they are now increasingly regarded as deviant individuals from academia or spoilt surburbanites. It is this intersection between suburban life and drug culture which so defines the "updated" icon of the stoner.

Some towns, especially those with colleges, are plagued by the conflicts occuring from a larger population of marijuana-using college students with access to unprecedented quality of cannabis. Their appearance during odd hours at convenient stores and twenty-four hour establishments, often in the presence of other non-users who are occasionally keen enough to notice the stoner's bleary estrangement is an established cliche. It is this confrontation between sobriety and being stoned which defines the contemporary image of the stoner. Indeed, it is this explicit tension between the stoner and society which is the essence of the difference between marijuana users of today and yesterday.

The label of stoner may also be used as a slur against marijuana users. Such a usage describes a person who is constantly high throughout the day with the attributes of being unproductive and forgetful of important tasks. It should be noted that this description is not true of most marijuana users.

Stoner culture is built around the effects of marijuana usage and a self described stoner usually has a relaxed attitude. However, most stoners do not let their marijuana usage interfere with the rest of their lives and stoners are usually indistinguishable from non-users.

Other drugs sometimes associated with stoners are shrooms, nitrous oxide, and other soft drugs.

- Stoner Metal and Sludge Metal are often used interchangeably, but some fans make distinctions: Sludge metal has more similarities with grindcore and hardcore punk. There also are similarities to doom metal, but most aficionados consider the two genres distinct.

The moniker 'Stoner' is obviously derived from the notion that the artists and audience for this kind of music are stoners, users of cannabis.

Other terms, which also indicate slightly different, but frequently overlapping genres are 'stoner rock', 'desert rock' and the very abstract 'desert music', which usually has only very little 'metal' content as such.

Stoner metal bands play a mix of jam-heavy psychedelic rock laced with some doom metal like riffs and are generally more closely linked to the heavy psychedelic bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Monster Magnet and Kyuss were among the most popular practitioners.