The author just disqualified himself from discussing the topic. I live in one of the marijuana meccas of the U.S and while I haven't bought a bag of weed a long long time I haven't heard anyone use the term skunk for a decade beyond the it's use as a descriptor for smell. I hear skunk used fairly often when describing certain green bottle beers.
Not being able to legally smoke marijuana till your 18 seems fairly reasonable otherwise.