You send us your questions, and every week our resident stoner answers them. He’s told you everything from how to pass a drug test to where you can stash pot at concerts. We’ve rounded up the ten most popular Ask a Stoner questions of 2016 (most of them from this year, but a few greatest hits), with links to the original columns and summaries. Keep those questions coming in the new year to [email protected].

As our resident Stoner, Herbert Fuego reviews a different strain every week, taking you on a journey through past and present smoking experiences and documenting what you can expect when you try some of the best strains out there. Here’s a list of favorites — not Fuego’s (although the descriptions are his), but yours: These are the most popular strain profiles published in 2016. You’re sure to see some old friends on this list, and it might inspire you to make some new ones.

Not all stoners are Star Wars fans, but I’d bet a lot of the midnight movie-goers at Rogue One: A Star Wars Story last week were smoking themselves into a galaxy far, far away before walking into theaters. Cheering on Leia, Luke and the boys as they fight the Evil Empire is a pastime for many potheads, but not all. Some of us just want to get blunted and listen to the voice of James Earl Jones voice rule with an iron fist as he Force-chokes peons to oblivion. For that, I give you Death Star.

Dear Stoner: What are some good recipes for Christmas edibles?
Too many people to count

Dear Everyone: It’s that toasty time of year again, when dozens of friends, relatives and strangers hit me up for holiday-themed pot recipes for their snowy nights and ugly-sweater parties. You can always search the westword.com archives for pot-infused classics like eggnog, hot chocolate and puppy chow, but here’s a new treat to spread the joy and glazed eyes: Mexican wedding cakes with a peppermint twist.

Remember the stoner kid in Dazed and Confused who swears that George Washington’s old lady, Martha, lit up a fat bowl for Georgie at the end of the day? Probably bullshit, but whatever: Washington definitely grew hemp before it was banned more than a century later. He had a lot of stress with that whole revolution thing, and it’s fun to imagine Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and other banknote heads passing around a joint while talking about their brave new world. Although colonial dirt weed certainly wasn’t as potent as the modern Presidential Kush, I can’t help but feel a little more stately when I get an eighth of this sticky hybrid and blaze one for the nation.

For many, cooking with cannabis can be daunting. But Emma Levy is making it easier to create edibles.

After working at Chicago’s famous La Fournette Bakery and Cafe creating croissants and wedding cakes, she’s moved to Colorado and is now incorporating cannabis in her cooking. While she develops a new line of marijuana-infused products for Blue Kudu, she was willing to share one of her recipes with us.

This Tart Cherry Dark Chocolate Granola Bar not only looks good enough to eat, it looks good enough for holiday-gift giving. And since the recipe calls for already infused chocolate, you won’t make a mess trying to cook up cannabis oil on the stove.

What will President-elect Donald Trump’s administration do about marijuana? In a recent interview, Erik Altieri, executive director of NORML — the Washington, D.C.-based National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws — sees reason for optimism following votes in favor of recreational and medical marijuana in numerous states across the country during last month’s election. And he thinks additional progress can be made even with Trump in the White House and pot-hating Jeff Sessions serving as attorney general, the nation’s top law-enforcement official. But some readers are still concerned. Says Terri:

Some of my introductions to strains have been more memorable than others, but no other strain has had an impact on my life quite like Purple Trainwreck. It was 2008, and I was just starting to experiment with cannabis in high school — so of course I was hanging out with some dirtbags, and this kid named Harvey suddenly came across five pounds of some really stinky purple stuff, Purple Trainwreck. I had so many questions: Where’d he get it? Why was it so wet? Why did it smell so sweet? But after he gave me a quarter-ounce for $10, I just happily nodded and asked none of them.

Turns out it was wet because Harvey had stolen the flower right after harvest from his mom’s boyfriend, who was growing it for the Hells Angels. Harvey and his mom disappeared shortly after that, and the few of us who knew about that at school were too spooked to even talk about Harvey. I was so paranoid about my uncured contraband that I didn’t tell a soul I had it — but that didn’t stop me from smoking it. A week in a Mason jar turned the wet buds into dense, sugar-coated pebbles, all of which had fierce streaks of purple and gave off a wonderful smell of pine and grapes. My parents must’ve noticed the stench — or the stoned glaze on my face for the following week — because shortly after that, they surprised me with an intervention about the dangers of weed and what it could do to my unpromising high-school basketball career.

Dear Stoner: I hear there are certain strains that help with arousal. Is that true?
Ricky Rick

Dear Rick: Hey, if you think there’s a certain strain that helps you keep it up or keep it going, then buy up as much as you can. It’s probably the placebo effect, but whatever works.… Unfortunately, there’s no study linking marijuana consumption with increased blood flow to your johnson or boosts in sexual hormones like estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. In fact, anecdotal evidence on marijuana arousal is about 50/50, with some people reporting an increased sex drive and others saying just the opposite. For many users, it depends on the strain and their personal reaction to it.

Bananas are the Jan Brady (or Meg Griffin, for you millennials) of fruit. Most of us couldn’t even spell the word if it weren’t for that annoying Gwen Stefani song. Possessors of easily my least favorite fruit flavor, bananas are only edible in cake form because of the accompanying cream-cheese frosting and are largely eaten because we’re too lazy to wash an apple or cut a kiwi. Banana-flavored Runts? I send ’em back. Banana Laffy Taffy? Go fuck yourself. But if you have Banana Kush, pull up a chair. Let’s talk.