This photographer picked up 1,000 weed baggies in New York and documented them

One morning in 2019, photographer Vincent ​“Steetadelic” Pflieger was walking to his studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, when shiny reflection on the floor caught his eye. Leaning over to get a closer look at it, he quickly realised that it was – a small plastic zip-loc baggie, which had been used to carry cannabis, and he slid it into his pocket.

“It was like a year-and-a-half before weed was legal in New York,” Streetadelic recalls. ​“So I started to collect them – it was a mix of underground packages from local drug dealers, and some already well-marketed Californian packages.”

After that, Streetadelic would consistently keep an eye out to the ground, picking up baggies as from the street, near trash bins and around parks. Over the past six years or so, the photographer has amassed thousands of the small plastic packets, while documenting them to create a huge archive of the weed bags of Brooklyn. Now, over 1,000 of them are presented in his new photobook 0.125OZ (produced by Studio 3.5Grams), its name referring to ​‘an eighth’ of an ounce – a typical quantity to buy.

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In doing so, Streetadelic inadvertently captured a moment in New York City, and a shift from underground, illicit circulation of cannabis to fully legalised commercial circulation. That change was reflected in the design of the bags that he found, which almost overnight changed from being lo-fi and subtle to glaring and garish.

Looking through his work, there are common threads in their design – neon colours are common, as are cartoon graphics. Fronting the baggies are plenty of references to memories that many people would associate with their youth, from Dragon Ball Z to ​‘TREES R US’, to even a depiction of Barack Obama photoshopped with a spliff in his mouth. ​“It’s like being marketed towards children, because weed is a kind of candy for people,” Pflieger says. ​“And it’s fun – marijuana has always had this kind of psychedelic marketing and it’s always been associated with cartoons, like The Simpsons or Rick and Morty.”

That eye-catching boldness also serves a functional purpose for weed companies – like any successful product, marketing matters. ​“Branding is important, and it has to stick in the mind,” he continues. ​“It was the same in Paris for hash in the ​’90s and early ​’00s – bars were stamped so people could recognise them, like a Mercedes logo or Playboy bunny stamp. Now it’s very sophisticated – sometimes they give toys [with the weed] or put it in a box shaped like a Game Boy.”

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To go alongside Streetadelic’s archive of baggies, he has also published a magazine, 3.5G (an eighth in metric measurements) which takes the focus away from solely weed’s packaging and instead towards wider NYC weed culture. Inside its pages are people skinning up joints with the aid of $5 bills, printed alongside advertisements for delivery services and people lighting up on the streets. 

“The magazine was more to describe what happened around the project,” he explains. ​“Picking up the baggies was one side of the project, but there are also the characters – those who smoke and the smoke shops. So it puts the baggies into their natural habitat.”

With its focus on product packaging and its changes, his project ultimately captures a new era of cannabis smoking in the city. With legalisation and commercialisation, its days of being considered a naughty vice – or even an act of subversion against mainstream society – are waning. ​“The pipes have opened to everything – there’s no limit,” Streetadelic says. ​“It’s not even weed anymore and [those selling it] are big brands now. So, it’s not underground anymore, it’s not hidden anymore, and everyone smokes everywhere. It’s accepted in everyday life.”

0.125OZ by Streetadelic is produced by Studio 3.5Grams. Visit its official website for more information and to purchase a copy.

Isaac Muk is Huck’s digital editor. Follow him on Bluesky.

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