Marijuana.

Pasto and mota are basically synonyms in Puerto Rico. They are used interchangeably or together as a pair—pasto y mota—to refer to weed.

“Marihuana, pasto, perico, fentanilo, capea lo tuyo hoy.”

— Alexandra Lúgaro

Pasto literally means grass. Mota (or the diminutive motita) is direct slang for marijuana.

Closest English equivalents

  • “Grass,” “weed,” or “pot.”
  • Pasto y mota literally pairs two words for weed, like saying “weed and grass.”

Usage

  • Vamos a fumar pasto. — Let’s smoke weed.
  • ¿Dónde consigo mota? — Where can I get weed?
  • Ese tipo siempre está en pasto y mota. — That guy is always into weed.
  • Huele a pasto aquí, cabrón. — It smells like weed in here, dude.

Variants

  • Pasto — grass; weed.
  • Mota — weed.
  • Pasto y mota — the pair, often said together.
  • Hierba / yerba — another common synonym.
  • Tronco — the joint or blunt itself.
  • Fumeta — someone who smokes regularly; a pothead.
  • Fumeteo — the activity of smoking.
  • Ganja — cannabis; a more widely recognized term.