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.
It’s been a long road for Initiative 300. Last summer, some people doubted that Denver’s social-use provision would pass — and the vote tally wasn’t official until a week after the November 8 election. But now, under the city’s schedule, businesses will have to wait until this summer before they can submit applications for permits. On January 18, Denver’s social-use advisory committee will hold its first meeting, and begin crafting other rules for implementation. To help you catch up, here are links to some of our stories on the action thus far:
Last week we shared our favorite Instagram photos from dispensaries around town. But we know that the best bud comes from a good, healthy grow, so this week we’ve collected our favorite photos from growers around Colorado and across the country. The top ten:
Cannabis leaders and community members gathered this week to discuss details for the rollout of the voter-approved Initiative 300, which allows qualifying businesses to apply for cannabis consumption permits in Denver.
The campaign behind I-300 organized the public forum at the Denver law office of Vicente Sederberg on January 11. A panel of experts discussed implementation of the measure, responsible cannabis consumption, staff training and mitigation, then took questions.
Laura Harris directed the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division when all the state knew was the medical market. Now she’s joining the Colorado Cannabis Chamber of Commerce (C4) to help businesses work with legislators and understand the laws put in place.
C4 is a nonprofit chamber of cannabis businesses that focuses on policies at the state and local levels of government. It works with companies to help understand cannabis policies and compliance, and provides a forum where industry leaders can meet and be exposed to the goods and services that others in the field are providing.
The two founders of one of the most highly regarded concentrate labs in the state have gone their separate ways. A fan favorite, 710 Labs won the High Times People’s Choice for Best Hash in 2014; it became known for its golden-tinged, crystal-clear products that include wax, sugar wax, ice wax, live resin, shatter and more varieties. Now the creators of this wax company have split up, and in Colorado, co-founder Wade Sanders has created a new company: Olio. 710 Labs still exists, run by co-founder Brad Melshenker, but is currently not operating in Colorado.
Until recently, the company had produced medical concentrates — but last month Olio began selling its product recreationally, with the same high-quality standards. A pioneer in the field of concentrates, Olio continues to play with innovation. It’s now creating two new types of wax — Sauce and Distillate— with the aim of perfecting terpene flavor and achieving high THC percentages. Sauce, which has a texture similar to sugar wax with a liquid film on top, hit shelves just last year and is currently for sale both recreationally and medically. Distillate is still in its final stages before sales begin.
For the first time, hemp paper is being produced in Colorado from seed to sheet. Loveland’s Tree Free Hemp has been producing hemp paper since 2013, but until this year, it’s been getting the fiber from other countries. Now the entire process is local.
“It’s grown in Colorado, it’s processed in Colorado, it’s manufactured in Colorado, it’s printed in Colorado. It’s truly homegrown,” says Morris Beegle, a former concert promoter now focused on promoting hemp through the Colorado Hemp Company, which he founded in 2012, and the NoCo Hemp Expo.
While both the United States and Mexico continue to suffer in their own ways from the War on Drugs — one from skyrocketing overdose rates and the other from ruthless, omnipresent cartels — the neighbors are now linked by the unlikely exporting of cannabis-related products from Southern California to Latin America.
HempMeds, a subsidiary of Medical Marijuana Inc., has formed the first cannabis-based export partnership to Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile with its export of Real Scientific Hemp Oil and its THC-free counterpart, Real Scientific Hemp Oil-X. The plants for these treatments are grown in northern European microclimates and claim to be free of pesticides and herbicides.
And so it begins. Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, Trump’s nominee for the country’s next attorney general, took center stage on January 10 at his confirmation hearing. Marijuana supporters had been quick to voice their concern over Sessions’s nomination because of his stance on marijuana, as well as his positions on other social issues.
Sessions’s most recent statements on marijuana were made during a Senate hearing last April, when he said that “good people don’t smoke marijuana,” that “we need grownups in Washington to say marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized” and that “it is in fact a very real danger.”