Dear Stoner: Are growers using pee to fertilize marijuana? I heard some do that, and I’d like to avoid any shops that do.
Grossed
Browsing: Growing
We all have our own reasons for loving cannabis, and one of my biggest is the way it enhances nostalgia. Cartoons, music and food from my childhood all have a little extra meaning after I smoke pot — and let’s face it: No one my age has any other reason to watch Good Burger. My love for Halloween has undoubtedly returned to peak levels thanks to the plant, leading me to geek out on slasher films, popcorn balls and pumpkin carving during and after each smoke sesh this past month.
The headline of a post published in this space last year posed the question, “Is Pueblo the Drug Bust Capital of Colorado?” And in recent months, law enforcement in the community has answered this question with a resounding “Yes,” particularly when it comes to marijuana crimes with an international flavor. In a series of raids over the past four months, the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office, working in conjunction with other agencies, has seized more than 8,000 cannabis plants at allegedly illegal grows associated with foreign nationals. Among those arrested as part of the operations were eight men from Mexico and four from Cuba.
I get a little spooked whenever I see a strain named after another drug. Ecstasy OG and Herijuana make me feel like I’m about to smoke something other than cannabis, and it’s never good to have a grimy state of mind when lighting up. LSD, however, conjures a different vision: The expanding psychedelic effects of the drug never really scared me, so maybe that’s why the strain named after it seemed more approachable than Herijuana. (If it was called “Acid,” that might be different story.)
There’s a reason most cannabis cultivations in Colorado are in warehouses: People are scared. Afraid of the elements, pests and the unknowns of farming under the sun, most growers prefer to stay inside, taking control of their environments and nurturing their delicate crops with extreme care. Even if growers wanted to venture outdoors, many local governments in densely populated areas, like the City of Denver’s, ban outdoor operations. Travel up to the mountains, however, and you’ll find a tougher breed of both plant and grower.
The cannabis industry’s thirst for energy has been well documented, with a majority of commercial cultivations burning electricity indoors because of local laws banning outdoor grows…and also because it’s easier to control growing environments indoors. With over 591 active cultivation licenses operating out of 295 locations in Denver, the city is a fitting host for the hundred-plus cannabis growers, energy consultants and waste experts attending the Cannabis Sustainability Symposium, a two-day conference geared towards increasing efficiency and sustainability in commercial pot.
My librarian mother taught me never to judge a book by its cover, but anything I put into my body is a different story. It took years for me to get over pea soup’s pukey-green color, and I nearly got cold feet with magic mushrooms after finding out they weren’t just grown in shit, but also still had some shit left on them. While I let those same instincts keep me away from Cat Piss and Chocolope strains for too long, I didn’t make the same mistake with Booger.
A lot of hybrids, especially the earlier ones, were bred to build upon a parent strain’s good qualities while minimizing its undesirable traits. I remember how exciting it was to see “Jamaican Sativa” or “Purple Thai” on coffeeshop menus in Amsterdam, and how disappointing it was to find that these old-timers hadn’t evolved like the potent strains they’ve birthed. San Fernando Valley OG isn’t as old or crusty as Jamaican and Thai landraces, but it’s produced its fair share of wunderkinds while getting unfairly pushed back in the shadows.
No longer bound by selfies and vacation photos, Instagram has evolved into a vast network of information for anyone interested in just about anything. Health-food recipes, political rants, sports highlights and world news can all be found on the social-media app, and now that more states have legalized medical and retail cannabis, there’s also weed – and lots of it.
You can find anything from weed and wax porn to growing tips on Instagram, and it’s a helluva lot more fun to look at than 140 characters (soon to be 280, but that’s still boring) on Twitter or your cousin’s daily updates about her baby on Facebook. Here are ten Instagram accounts any pothead will love, including nug porn, concentrate close-ups, growing tips and much more.
My memory was an unstoppable force before I started smoking cannabis. Sports statistics, promises from my parents, painful childhood memories — nothing escaped me. And while all of those recollections from my past remain, retaining random facts and events from the recent past is no longer my strong suit.
Barely hanging on to my short-term memory, I practically ran for the hills when a budtender suggested Amnesia Haze. The most popular form of the headstrong sativa has a combination of purer genetics than most hybrids, but it’s still a hot mess, counting Haze, Jamaican, Afghani, Hawaiian and Laos strains as its parents.