The contents of one’s weed box (in my case, a glassware container with a rubber lid) occupy a strange social place in life somewhere between the bottles in one’s liquor case and and those in the bathroom medicine cabinet. Writing and posting about one’s taste in liquor seems like a totally acceptable thing to do, whereas those who talk to much about their medications are rightfully regarded with a bit of a wary eye. It’s with trepidation, therefore, that I throw open the rubbermaid lid of my weed box and give you a view of what I’m currently smoking (or consuming).
My first reaction when I look at that altogether is … holy crap! That’s a lot of cannabis — probably more than I could smoke or consume in many months. I smoke once or twice a week depending on how I’m feeling and what’s going on in my life. Each time that I do consume, it’s definitely a fraction of a gram of flower or a single tablet. It’s also true that I like sampling different strains, and have accumulated quite a variety of pot in recent months for that reason alone. I’ll do my best to break down what you’re looking at here, and explain how and why I have all of this stuff.
1) CBD capsules from The CPC, Seattle. These are small, exquisitely made capsules containing oil infused with 6.25mg of THC, but 12mg of CBD (at least according to the label, there’s no state-mandated testing of medicals yet.) I use CBD oil to relieve nerve and muscle pain in my neck and body, which is the reason I am a licensed medical marijuana patient in the first place. CBD-infused oil produces long-sustained body relief, and is itself not psychoactive. Because of the presence of the THC here, however, there’s definitely some head effect, and like all ingested THC, it can kick in at odd moments many hours after popping one of these capsules. (This particular cap once surprised me with a rather major and sudden head-high in the middle of the grocery store.)
2) 2.5 grams of Solstice Sour Tsunami #3. Sour Tsunami is the rather famous CBD-rich strain that is very popular with medical patients for its completely non-psychoactive character. I use it for pain relief. Although the weed I have has not been sample-tested, Solstice’s website reports 12.5% CBD and under .1% THC, which is actually lower than most industrial hemp. Though I do smoke this for relaxation and pain relief, I really don’t know why I have quite so much of this stuff. I think it may have been on sale at the dispensary.
3) just under a gram of Cactus, from bluenose gardens, Seattle. This is the first of several grams of what I like to call sleepyweed, or the kind of marijuana that makes you tired and mellow. I bought this due to a budtender’s recommendation, and the fact that it smells incredible — almost sticky sweet, and not particularly earthy or stinky like some weed. The high it produces is really fantastic, but I also like it because it’s a local product and a strain you can (apparently) only get here in Seattle. I can’t imagine that will be true for very long.
4) five coco tabs from Mt. Si Medicals. These are “harletabs” made with a strain called Harlequin, another strain that is CBD dominant, but nowhere near as pure-CBD as Sour Tsunami. There is growing evidence that some of the medical benefits from using cannabis could be due to the so-called entourage effect resulting from consuming several of the cannabinoids at the same time. That’s why strains like Harlequin are useful — they provide a balanced mixture of THC (~4mg in one tab) and CBD (around 7.5 per tab.) To be clear, I have no idea if this is important or what it really does — since there hasn’t been enough research into any of this, no one else does either. But it’s another way I like to experience the pain relieving properties of cannabis.
5) The next four strains I pretty much solely use recreationally … they’re all pretty similar, night-time sorts of smokes. This one’s called cotton candy (or sometimes cotton candy kush.) It’s a pretty strong sedative sort of weed. It’s about 16% THC. (Oddly, I acquired this as a result of asking for something “not too strong” from the budtender. For me, this is strong!)
6) Blueberry Grape Ape. Yes. That’s what it’s called. (who makes up these names anyway?) It’s also a strong indica sort of bud. It put me to sleep quite rapidly the one time I tried it. 16.5% THC.
7) This is a little over a gram of a strain known as God’s Gift. I’m not 100% sure if you can see from the photo exactly how dense this weed is. It’s almost like a piece of coral, or some kind of prehistoric fungus. It’s also extremely strong — stronger than either of the previous two buds. My particular supply was not tested for strength, but the strain is know to produce THC potencies of up to 25%. This feels too strong to me, so as a result I’ve rarely smoked any of this particular strain — I think this bud is probably over 2 months old now.
8) A smidgen of a strain called Sweet Tooth. I’ve also heard it called BC Sweet Tooth. It’s strong, but not too strong, and is (as it’s name would suggest) possessed of a pretty delicious taste. I have no idea how much THC it contains … definitely enough. The high I experienced the one time I smoked this was both pleasant and rather lengthy.
9) Sativa Valley CBD tincture. Tinctures are a great way to ingest cannabis without smoking, Placing a few drops under the tongue results in immediate absorption into the bloodstream in almost the same way you’d experience by smoking. You can also add tinctures to drinks or teas etc … but this seems a less-good way to use them since the active parts of the tincture are simply processed by the liver and it’s just as if you’d consumed some sort of very-weak edible. This tincture isn’t the most powerful pain relief ever, but it’s enough to take the edge off the kind of nerve pain I get in my neck.
10) Happy Hashers Hard tincture. THC-based tincture — mint flavor. I use this very rarely since I usually smoke for recreational purposes rather than using tincture. The directions on the bottle call for one full dropper, but I find that level of dosing to be completely excessive.
CannaNorm 