Are you buying the strain you think you’re buying? Odds are, the answer is probably not.
The world of legal weed has opened so much opportunity for capitalistic gain, but the problem is that a lot of our most popular strains are suffering because of it. The fact of the matter is that you may not actually be smoking what you think you’re smoking. We recently spoke with some of our good friends over at the Trichome Institute and 420 Science to get some questions answered about this strain conundrum. Here’s what we found out:
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The Most Counterfeit Strain in Colorado
Per Max Montrose from the Trichome Institute, Blue Dream is the headlining example of the strain name dilemma, a term describing the current phenomenon of most strain names being inaccurate or simply unhelpful. He’s quoted for the following statements:
“This industry is full of counterfeit genetics. Pre-house bill for cannabis regulation here in Colorado, I was purchasing pounds of ganja from any dude who rolled into the dispensary with a backpack with some weed in it. And sometimes, I would buy a pound of weed to retail as medicine to my patients, and I’d say “Oh hey, wait, before you leave; What’s this stuff called?” And the dude’s like “I don’t know man, just call it what you want. Call it Blue Dream.” You can’t sell weed without a name! So, when you buy shitty genetics from craigslist, and you grow Juicy Fruit, and it sucks, how are you going to push it? Call it something people are familiar with. AK-47, Blue Dream. . . They have no way of associating, because it’s green, it has red hairs, and it smells like weed.”
The Evidence?
We ran an experiment where we went to six different dispensaries and purchased Blue Dream from each store. After closely viewing, smelling, and even tasting some of these buds, we found that two out of the six were good to smoke and close enough to the actual tried and true Blue Dream strain. The rest were not fit to smoke. Some of the buds were dried and so old that the potency was completely gone. One version was moldy. Some were harvested too early, and some just plain didn’t look or smell like Blue Dream should look and smell.
Why is This a Problem?
Blue Dream, as well as other wildly popular strains like Girl Scout Cookies, AK-47, and Sour Diesel, are counterfeit strains. Letting these strains become counterfeit is helping lazy growers and people that have no business growing your medicine turn a profit while still producing genetically inferior products.
This, in turn, can water down the strain’s lineage, and in 5 years, these strains may be totally different, but still go by the same name. You as an educated buyer and cannabis enthusiast should care very little about what a strain is called.
The Biggest Takeaways:
What is the answer to the strain name dilemma? The obvious answer is to care a lot less about the name of the strain.
On this subject, Max said “Out of anything that matters in your shopping experience, the label on the jar is the least important factor. The most important factor is the quality of the flower inside the jar. Is it safe to consume? Are you going to get the experience you’re looking for out of it?”
If you take the time to look at the flower you’re about to purchase in the terms of cola structures and terpene structures, as well as understand the potency and the type of high you’re about to receive, does the name of the strain even matter? Think about it.
