The HBO TV series "Weeds" had several episodes where non-medicinal herbs were dispensed through a deli/sub shop. This is from 2005 or 2006 and I was under the impression (perhaps wrongly) that this colloquialism came from that or was already imbedded into the subculture surrounding this cottage industry.

Many trip reports have great stories about tours, pub crawls, beach strolls, romantic moments all of which I immensely enjoy; the subplots of these stories are also quite intriguing.

This is clearly a hot topic looking at the hits on this thread.