Bong in the context of "Bowl (smoking)"

Smoking is a human behavior which involves the combustion of a substance, usually plant material, and the inhalation of resulting fumes. Today smoking is mostly practiced by rolling the dried leaves of the tobacco plant into a cigarette. Other forms of tobacco smoking include the use of a smoking tobacco with a pipe or cigar, or using a bong. Cigarette smokers almost always inhale the smoke; most pipe and cigar smokers do not inhale.

Smoking is primarily practiced as a route of administration for psychoactive chemicals because the active substances within the burnt, dried plant leaves (or other chemical) can vaporize into a gaseous state and be delivered into the respiratory tract, where they are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream through the lungs and can reach the central nervous system. In the case of tobacco smoking, these active substances are a mixture of aerosol particles that include the pharmacologically active alkaloid nicotine, which stimulates the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain, and other non-psychoactive chemicals that result from combustion. Other notable drugs inhaled via smoking include tetrahydrocannabinol (from cannabis), morphine (from opium) cocaine (from crack), and methamphetamine. Designer drugs, or "research chemicals", can also be smoked.

A head shop is a store that sells drug-related paraphernalia. They emerged from the hippie counterculture in the late 1960s, and at that time, many of them had close ties to the anti-Vietnam War movement as well as groups in the marijuana legalization movement like LeMar, Amorphia, and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Products sold may include magazines (e.g., about cannabis culture, cannabis cultivation, tattooing, and music), clothing, and home décor (e.g., posters and wall hangings illustrating drug culture themes such as cannabis, jam bands like The Grateful Dead, Phish, psychedelic art, etc.). Some head shops also sell oddities, such as antique walking sticks and sex toys. Since the 1980s, some head shops have sold clothing related to the heavy metal or punk subculture, such as band T-shirts and cloth patches with band logos, studded wristbands, bullet belts, and leather boots. Other items offered typically include hashish pipes, "one hitter" pipes; pipe screens; bongs (also referred to as water pipes); roach clips (used for smoking the end of a marijuana "joint"); vaporizers used for inhaling THC vapor from cannabis; rolling papers; rolling machines; small weighing scales; small ziplock baggies; cannabis grinders (i.e. herb grinders); blacklight-responsive posters and blacklights; incense; cigarette lighters; "stashes", which include a range of standard consumer products such as clocks, books, tins of cleaning powder, and toilet brushes which have hidden compartments for cannabis and non-camouflaged "stash boxes" which are tins or wooden containers for storing marijuana; and legal highs such as whipped-cream chargers (which contain nitrous oxide) and Salvia divinorum (both of which are illegal in some countries and some US states for recreational purposes). Some head shops also sell items used for home cultivation of marijuana plants, such as hydroponic equipment and lights and guidebooks on cultivation. Since the 2000s, some head shops also sell e-cigarettes and the flavoured liquids used with these devices.