Browsing: Culture

The strain name game is a fun, complicated mess of cannabis genetics, nomenclature and overzealous salespeople. You can find strains named after celebrities, candy, presidents, mountain ranges and everything in between.

Since they’re dealing with a psychoactive substance, it’s not surprising that strain breeders and pot dealers have named a few strains after other drugs that give off similar effects — luckily for tokers, not that similar. From Acid to Opium, here are eight strains named after drugs of much more serious consequence.

I can’t be the only person who instantly thinks of Family Matters the minute Purple Urkle makes an appearance on a dispensary shelf. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’m in the majority.

The history behind the fruity, tranquilizing indica’s name is cloudy. The prevailing theory is that Purple Urkle was named for the strain’s potent high, which often leads to bumping into walls, irritating behavior and falling and not being able to get up — all hallmarks of everyone’s favorite nerdy annoyance in the ’90s, Steve Urkel.

If we got a dollar for every time we’ve been asked a sane question about cannabis, we’d be one broke outfit. But crazy and interesting tend to go together, as is the case for most of our Ask a Stoner readers, who never fail to bring up queries that stray into interesting issues, such as whether you can use a dishwasher to clean a bong, if you should call off work on 4/20, or whether there is any truth to conspiracy theories about CBD oil and dick cancer.

Here are ten of our weirdest questions from 2018 (click on the link to read our answer). May next year’s crop be even weirder.

Tasked with the assignment of reviewing one strain per week, it’s hard to pick just ten favorites from 2018. The ever-expanding web of cannabis genetics provides buds that smell and taste like everything from cornbread to papayas and nearly everything in between. Those variances extend to effects on the mind and body, too, with some strains glueing us to the couch and others making the heart race.

In a grueling effort, we picked ten of our cannabis reviewer’s favorite strains of 2018. This skunky mix of indicas, sativas and hybrids look, taste and feel like every color of the rainbow — and make you feel just as magical.

Don’t start talking cereal with a stoner unless you want to go down an annoying rabbit hole as you discuss the differences between Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Golden Grahams. We may seem laid-back, but when it comes to cereal, we have opinions — and nothing tops the Cap’n.

You know something’s great when you disregard the pain it brings, and I’ll take the razor-like cuts on the roof of my mouth every morning if it means I also get a bowl of Cap’n Crunch — any kind. I’ve even had Cap’n Crunch beers, thanks to Black Bottle Brewery’s Cerealiously line of stouts, as well as a Cap’n Crunchberries Slurpee at 7-Eleven. Both were delicious, and, yes, I was fried when I tried them. So when I saw a jar of frosty buds labeled “Crunch Berry” during a recent pot-shop visit, my mouth started salivating like Homer Simpson’s at the sight of doughnuts.

I like to think I’m a pretty hip guy. My beard’s trimmed, I get most of the shit on Saturday Night Live. My memes are fresh. And when something starts attracting adulation, I want to find out why. So after visiting the third dispensary in a row with a jar of Mandarin Cookies, I decided to stick my hand inside and smell the commotion. Spoiler alert: It’s worth the hype.

Cannabis affects everyone differently, and we’re still trying to figure out what scientific and psychological factors play the biggest roles in each of our “highs.” Some research even shows evidence that one’s sex may play a role in how he or she reacts to cannabis, with male and female bodies carrying different hormones and possibly different endocannabinoid systems.

To learn more about the plant’s impact on women and how they can use it to further their own well-being, we talked to Ashley Kingsley, co-founder of women’s cannabis group Ellementa.

Does anyone else regret meeting their heroes? I ran into Chauncey Billups at an NBA event in Las Vegas when I was twelve, right after he won the 2004 NBA Finals. Total dick. No autograph, no hello — he just stood in front of a lobby TV, alone, ignoring the sniveling kid in a Melo jersey asking for his autograph. Michael Jordan stiffed kids, too. If you ask some of my golf-caddying friends, they’ll tell you that John Elway’s a shitty tipper. My point: Sometimes it’s best to only interact with your favorite superstars through a screen.

I’ve experienced similar disappointment with notorious cannabis strains. A trip through Europe promised my first experiences with African, Jamaican and Thai landraces — all of which looked, smelled and smoked like brick weed once I tried them. Purple Thai, either a mix of Oaxacan Gold and Chocolate Thai or a landrace, depending on the source, was even more disappointing; seeing it listed on a Denver dispensary menu brought flashbacks of brown, seedy nugs in a dim Amsterdam coffee shop. But modern American takes on such classics as Colombian Gold and Durban Poison made me optimistic enough to give Purple Thai another shot.

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