I am going out on a limb in answering this but here goes people smoke the buds because that is where the highest concerntraion of thc(the stuff in the plant that gets you stoned) is, although you can get a little bit high smoking leaf, smoking the bud gets you probably 15 to 20 times more stoned than leaf. The leaf is just mainly used as a synbol of pot, but in reality it shoud be a bud you see on t-shirts and posters etc see what im saying, the leaf is a symbol that even laymen can understand someone who knows nothing about pot knows what a marijuana leaf looks like. so look noob when you grow some or buy some you want bud, sticky, smelly chunky buds, if people try to sell you leaf tell them to get the fuck out of here and come back with some chronic(filthy shit). I'm just trying to break it down simple for the noob no hating needed.
