Who doesn’t like the word “juicy”? Besides being the name of one of Biggie’s most recognizable songs, almost everything sounds better when described as “juicy.” Fruits, steaks, derrieres, bits of information — they’re all more desirable when juicy. Just hearing the word makes me imagine something ripe and refreshing. Something like Strawberry Banana — the cannabis strain, not the smoothie.

Although not yet as popular as Tangie or Strawberry Cough, Strawberry Banana is one of the juiciest strains I’ve ever come across. It quickly fills a room with a blend of terpenes that smell like a cross between a box of Fruit Loops and a bag of chopped strawberries and bananas that you left in the sun too long. Trying it for the first time is a real eye-opener, but the high will close those eyes soon enough.

Dear Stoner: I’ve noticed that the grogginess/hangover/comedown/whatever isn’t always the same. Does it change depending on what kind of weed you smoke?
Doug

Dear Doug: Effects vary from strain to strain, and those variations don’t end after the peak of your high. Various cocktails of cannabinoids and terpenes offer a wide range of characteristics and potencies, and everyone’s brain reacts differently. Certain indicas will leave you much sleepier than others during the comedown; the same goes for sativas. A budtender recently told me that Durban Poison, a pure sativa, makes him tired and grouchy after he smokes it — despite an energetic high for the first few hours. It makes sense when you think about other substances: Some people are fine after a night of whiskey but get splitting headaches after drinking wine.

The lion may be king of the jungle, but the tiger is king of flavor. I’d reminisce about saving my allowance for tiger’s blood snow cones (watermelon, strawberry and a hint of coconut) more often if it weren’t for Charlie Sheen’s implosion. We all know Frosted Flakes are more than good, and Tiger’s Milk was the only edible power bar until the health-food explosion. Face it, Hobbes was right: Tigers are the best. And there’s one more trophy to add to the list: Tiger’s Milk, the cannabis strain.

I only came across Tiger’s Milk within the past year, but we’ve been on a fast track of burning love ever since. This strain has qualities that are rare in the weed world, giving off smells closer to a vanilla milkshake than citrus or pine trees. Bred with Appalachia and Bubba Kush genetics, Tiger’s Milk comes from the mysteriously hidden strain breeder Bodhi Seeds and was eloquently described as “nursing from the smoky tit of a giant psychedelic tiger” by the people at SeedFinder. It’s hard for me to disagree: This milky strain lullabies me to sleep like a wet nurse.

Dear Stoner: My very Christian, conservative, Texan in-laws wince when I even say “marijuana,” and any discussion of its benefits or the industry sends them into a tizzy. How do I convert them?
A Faithful Prophet

Dear Faithful: My go-to campaign has always been CBD benefits. Epileptic children can suffer dozens of seizures while on prescription medicine, but hundreds of videos and articles online show how CBD can reduce those seizures to fewer than one per day. And that’s only CBD’s benefits for epilepsy cases. Retired athletes, senior citizens and patients suffering from various chronic conditions have all documented how CBD helps treat their inflammation and pain better than prescribed narcotics and painkillers. A combination of talking up CBD benefits and warning of the life-threatening dangers of opiate addiction has been my winning formula for quite some time now, and I’ve made a lot of conversions.

Bradley Nowell’s stoner scripture, “I smoke two joints in the morning,” sounds too extreme for most — but plenty of functioning, successful people prefer a hit or two of cannabis in the morning to a cup of joe. Durban Poison, Lemon Skunk, Sour Diesel and other sativas can definitely perk you up for the day, but nothing beats orange juice in the morning…or in this case, Tangie.

Tangie is a sativa-dominant hybrid of California Orange and an unknown Skunk strain that smells like a dank bag of clementines. The freshly squeezed stank and energetic high make the strain stand out in an already powerful line of tangerine-flavored strains like Tangerine Haze and Tangerine Dream. It’d be hard to differentiate between members of the group blindfolded, but Tangie separates itself from the pack with an impressive THC potency, winning awards at multiple cannabis competitions for its cured flower and concentrates. Although Tangie’s Skunk heritage is clouded, Denver’s most popular variety, found at the Clinic, is derived from Candy Jack, a hybrid of Jack Herer and Skunk #1.

Bradley Nowell’s stoner scripture, “I smoke two joints in the morning,” sounds too extreme for most — but plenty of functioning, successful people prefer a hit or two of cannabis in the morning to a cup of joe. Durban Poison, Lemon Skunk, Sour Diesel and other sativas can definitely perk you up for the day, but nothing beats orange juice in the morning…or in this case, Tangie.

Tangie is a sativa-dominant hybrid of California Orange and an unknown Skunk strain that smells like a dank bag of clementines. The freshly squeezed stank and energetic high make the strain stand out in an already powerful line of tangerine-flavored strains like Tangerine Haze and Tangerine Dream. It’d be hard to differentiate between members of the group blindfolded, but Tangie separates itself from the pack with an impressive THC potency, winning awards at multiple cannabis competitions for its cured flower and concentrates. Although Tangie’s Skunk heritage is clouded, Denver’s most popular variety, found at the Clinic, is derived from Candy Jack, a hybrid of Jack Herer and Skunk #1.

Dear Stoner: I think pot will help my grandfather’s arthritis. Is there a kind of pot product — flower, edible, whatever — you’d recommend?
Scott

Dear Scott: According to science, you’re probably right. A study by the University of Oxford showed that cannabis-based medicine administered orally helped reduce rheumatoid arthritis pain and disease activity for the large majority of those studied. Big surprise, right? But researchers from the National Academy of Sciences took it a step further and studied the effects of CBD (cannabidiol, the non-psychoactive part of cannabis) on cows and mice with arthritis, concluding that “the treatment effectively blocked progression of arthritis” in both animals, protecting the joints against further damage. So get your grandpa some CBD products.

Dear Stoner: I recently went all in on dabs and now love shatter, butter, rosin, resin, etc. After dabbing, if I take a hit of even the dankest flower, it tastes like sh*t — like burned hair mixed with dry hay. I mention this to fellow dabbers and almost always get a quizzical look. Is this just me?
Job

Dear Job: If you have a dirty bong, then it’s not just you. Any flower will taste like ass out of dirty glass. But if your piece is clean, then, yes, it is you. Live resin and extremely well-purged concentrates can taste just as good or even better than flower itself — but unless you’re dabbing the best of the best, you’re probably not hitting anything that tastes better than cured flower out of clean glass. Even if you were, the taste difference isn’t drastic enough to be as bad as you describe. Maybe it’s just the butane you like?

After a heavy week of sleep and sadness thanks to indica-leaning joints of Death Star and the ending of the new Star Wars movie, I decided to blast off with a much more uplifting variety. Space Queen, a fruity hybrid of Cinderella 99 and Romulan, always takes me on a giggle-ridden journey to the moon — without the crushing fall back to Earth.

Space Queen has many enjoyable traits, but my favorite is easily the smell. Even people who don’t like the usual stank of cannabis tend to appreciate a whiff of the warm combination of apples, berries, sandalwood, cheese or butterscotch, depending on the cut — but you’ll find fruity notes in all of them. The strain’s terpene profile is dominated by caryophyllene and humulene — also found in cinnamon, cloves, coriander, ginger and hops — which makes for calming aromatic effects, despite Space Queen’s being a sativa.