What a Marijuana Judge Looks For When Reviewing A Strain

by Matt Mernagh – Monday, July 11 2011

On Tuesday, July 12 I will reach a marijuana review milestone. Having pen & published 150 marijuana reviews. That includes marijuana photo galleries too. The last two reviews published, Cindy Bubbles and DJ Short’s Blueberry were donation from cannabis growers I know. From their personal head stash. Review 150 is another personal grower donation. Their samples were awesome. l am developing an excellent nug network of people who want to show off their efforts. Always looking for more. You can send your product to be reviewed to 1161 St. Clair Ave West, Toronto, ON, M6E 1B2.
I always write my reviews under the influence of the marijuana being reviewed. Usually rocking out on Blip to get the beat of my words down. If I had it together I would return to my original career as a music critic and do cannabis and album reviews. Rock out to a album to be reviewed while vaporizing marijuana also being reviewed. My influence is to take a music critic approach to my weed reviews. With a bit of food critic thrown in. Note, the music critic is sent everything. Developing a pallet takes time. Publicists pester professional critics (not food ones), offer dinners, passes and the like to curry favor. If weed arrived around here at the pace music, movies and other culture sent to alt-weeklies like NOW I’d have to hire a staff.
It’s more difficult to be critical with weed because it’s generally all very, very, good. The people handing me buds are proud of their homegrown grass. They want to show someone who will appreciate it by photographing and blogging their senses. In other words I’m getting cream.
Rarely am I afforded an opportunity to review the same strain twice. I’ve had a few strains several times now. Especially my favorite Jean Guy. I can even identify her.
Then exactly what are we judging? The grower, the genetics or the bud. Or combination of all three. I believe all of the above. Some weed is well grown, but doesn’t do diddly for my health condition or have a solid marijuana high. Then there’s weed that works for me and isn’t well grown. Flush your plants! Breeders do produce strains that do just suck Cartman’s balls.
Marijuana grown by two different people will produce different results. Based on skill level, nutrients and soil. Presuming both received equal genetics. One growers seed maybe fresh and vibrant while another receives old tired beans.
A goal we have is to hold a grower competition involving the same strain. Everyone picks up their clone on the same day and returns 90 later with finished result. With the clone producer not allowed to compete as they grew the mother plant.

Top 5 Reasons Your Budtender Hates You

Let’s face it, being the person who sits behind a counter weighing out ganja all day long might not seem like hardest job in the world, and there are plenty of people who would take that gig just for the leftover shake at the end of the day. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t work. I spoke with a few budtenders around town and merged their responses into this list:

 

​1. You reach into every jar with your grubby little hands.

See those big metal tongs on the counter? Use them. Nobody wants to smoke whatever nastiness may be on your hands, nor do they want the crystals that should be on their herb stuck to your fingers.

 

​2. You are a know-it-all.

Budtenders like seeing different kinds of herb, and if you’ve got something worthwhile, then by all means bust it out. But condescending, my-pot-is-better-than-yours attitudes get old quick. If your friend has better chronic, go get it from him instead of bad-mouthing our product. Our Diesel isn’t as good as your caregiver’s? Go get a bag from him. You’ve seen better hash at another shop? Great, go buy it there. Odds are it isn’t, and that’s why you are in the shop. Also, budtenders say they’re noticing patients complaining about herb not being dense enough. Too bad if you don’t know what a good, stringy sativa looks like — but rest assured that a gram of plant matter is a gram of plant matter, regardless of the density.

 

​3. The line behind you isn’t getting any shorter.

Budtenders are all about helping you with your wellness needs, and have no problem taking an hour to do so even if there are patients behind you. And yeah, a lot of the time they’re sitting around with nothing else to do but listen to you. But when there’s a line, how about hurrying things up? They don’t need to hear about your shitty job, your weekend plans, or your cat’s birthday party.

 

​*Sidenote: one of the female budtenders I spoke with said her major pet peeve is being hit on. Guys, even though it’s called a “bar,” it really isn’t one. Leave your pick-up lines at home.

 

​4. You only come in for the freebies/You ask for the “hook-up.”

For a budtender, there’s nothing worse than barely getting through an introduction when a patient starts asking about what freebies the dispensary is offering. If you are a first-time patient, you’ll likely get a little bonus in your bag — but let them at least get through the spiel of what they have to offer. A dispensary has set prices and weights for a reason: This is an actual business with an actual business plan, not some dude selling pot out of his basement.

 

​5. You hang around the shop.

Budtenders realize that they’ve created a cool spot and they know how easy it is to get sucked into the glossy pictures of High Times on the waiting-room table — but go home. They put in the leather couches so that people waiting in line would have a comfortable spot to chill, not so you’d have a place to nap for a few hours in the middle of the day. To quote Seinfeld, “I already have enough friends.”

 

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2010/08/top_5_reasons_why_your_budtend.php

NYPD Only Arrests Minorities For Marijuana, Here’s How They Do It:

by Scott Morgan

Since 1977, it’s been technically legal in the State of New York to carry around a concealed bag of marijuana weighing less than 7/8 of an ounce. But you could be forgiven for not knowing this, since getting popped for petty pot possession is easier in New York City than anywhere else on the planet.

It’s a monumental injustice that owes its costly continuation to one simple tactic: tricking people into committing the crime of displaying their marijuana in plain sight:

What’s happening is that disproportionate numbers of black and brown young men, ages 16 to 29, are being duped into publicly revealing their allowable marijuana and then being arrested, thereby gaining a criminal record, advocates say. Police officers will say, “Empty your pockets!” turning a routine stop into an arrest and a police record.

“In 2010 in New York State, there were 54,000 marijuana arrests … 50,000 of them came from New York City, and — surprise, surprise — from neighborhoods that primarily are black, Latino and low income,” says Kyung Ji Kate Rhee, executive director of the IJJRA. “It’s not like these individuals had a felony charge and marijuana happened to be an additional charge … You’re telling me that 50,000 had marijuana in plain view? Does that sound right to you? After that initial point of police contact, they trick you into turning out your pockets.”

The NYPD did not respond to requests for comment. (The Root)

 

Now this is where I get confused, because if arresting young black and Latino men for tiny little bags of marijuana were as important to me as it is to the New York Police Dept., I would be extremely pleased with these results and eager to take credit for them. It makes little sense to provide your officers with special training in how to make trivial arrests for petty crimes under legally-dubious circumstances if you aren’t going to be proud of the outcome.

Why not instead spend the $75 million that all of this costs on something that you’re at least willing to admit you’ve been doing? Surely they can think of something to do with those resources that will make sense to the public, something — anything! — other than a massive, utterly pointless exercise in transparent racism that plainly violates the spirit of the laws of the State of New York.

Please click here to send a message to Mayor Bloomberg that New York City’s senseless war on marijuana must be ended once and for all.

Artilcle From StoptheDrugWar.org – Creative Commons Licensing

Tourist Fined $2,000 For 3 Grams Of Marijuana In Bermuda

Photo: Cruise Law News

Don’t carry your weed to Bermuda.

An American tourist who said she smoked marijuana for medical reasons was fined $2,000 on Thursday in Bermuda.

Teresa Sheridan, 53, or Oregon, pleaded guilty in Magistrates’ Court to one count of importing cannabis, reports Mikaela Ian Pearman of the Bermuda Sun.

Sheridan arrived on a flight from New York to Bermuda on May 23 at 2:10 p.m. She was selected for a search by Customs officers because a drug-detecting dog had alerted to her seat on the plane.

In the ensuing search, a Customs dog alerted on Sheridan’s groin area. When asked if she had any drugs, she said, “Yes, in between my legs.”

Officers searched her luggage and discovered a black container, a clear herb grinder with traces of plant material, rolling papers and a ceramic pipe made to look like a cigarette.

In a private search room, Sheridan removed a white sock from her groin area. The sock contained two plastic bags, one with coffee grounds and another with three grams of cannabis.

She was arrested on the spot for importing drugs into Bermuda.

Counsel Marc Daniels told the court that Sheridan used cannabis as a treatment for depression. “She uses weed to calm her nerves and should be dealt with by way of a fine,” Daniels said.

“The fact that she had it hidden between her legs would indicate she knew it was contraband,” remarked Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner. “She knew it was illegal.”

Warner fined Sheridan $2,000, to be paid immediately.

Just one day before, Edith Lord Wolffe, a tourist from California, was given 30 days in jail and a $3,000 fine for importing 35 grams of cannabis. The court heard that Wolffe’s physician had recommended cannabis for her chronic illness, Ménière’s disease.

Wolffe’s lawyer, Mark Pettingill, has launched an appeal and a bail application.

Bermuda is notoriously unfriendly to marijuana and tourists who possess it, although politicians there last year called for a debate on decriminalization.

Booze Vs. Weed: Pick Your Poison

When I was younger I assumed that drunks and stoners must inherently hate each other, at least philosophically. Really my silliest assumption was that anyone only did one or the other. Every stoner I know loves beer, and every drunk I know gets excited when someone busts out a joint. Only jerkoffs are purist. Nonetheless, booze and weed are different beasts and there are strengths and weakness to each.

Endurance: Being drunk all day can be awesome, but it’s a plan rife with potential disaster that can lead to puking and gross errors in judgment. Whereas any wake’n'bake fan will tell you, all it takes to be stoned from sunup to sundown is the desire to do so and an appropriate supply.

win: weed

Party: When I was in Amsterdam the thing that struck me most about the “coffee shops” wasn’t that I could legally buy weed (I live in California after all), but how quiet the places were. People chat softly or just sit in a daze. You can’t really have a “crazy” stoner party. There are no weed keggers. Get a room of people stoned and you’ll probably all end up playing video games or watching a (bad) movie.

win: booze

Sports: A bit of alcohol dulls your inhibitions, which can actually improve your reaction timing. Of course that all goes out the window once you get shitfaced. But everything from softball to bowling is more fun with beer. Weed doesn’t make you worse at sports so much as it makes you not want to do them; touch football out, Madden on the PS3 in.

win: booze

Conversation: Drunks speak a language only other drunks can understand, and stoners tend to prattle meanderingly like nursing home inhabitants. Talking to either while you’re sober is awful.

win: neither 

Chores: Painting or building IKEA crap seems like a great time to throw back some booze. Yes, it’ll make the process more fun, but your work will likely turn out embarrassing once you sober up. Getting high can greatly improve boring tasks like laundry and vacuuming, with little-to-no effect on your skill level. Though you are prone to dumbass gaffes like leaving your clothes in the drier all day.

win: weed 

Sex: Sex is great both drunk and high. Drunk sex is wild; involving positions you’re not sure how you knew and on top of things that aren’t your bed. Stoned sex is hippie sex; slow and full of childlike wonderment. “Wow, this is great!” I’ve actually said out loud before during stoned sex.

win: both

A tie! More research is necessary. Who has some kush? I’ll bring the Scotch.

Drinking Wine & Smoking Weed Promotes Brain Health!

“Good weed, white wine, I come alive in the night time.”

This isn’t an article about mixing the effects of drinking wine and smoking weed. Which can be an experience anywhere between nausea and euphoria, but that really is a discussion for another time. Doctors are announcing with some restraint that moderate use of marijuana and red wine combined fight Alzheimer’s Disease and promote brain health.

Cannabis has recently garnered a lot of attention from scientists because of the recognition of endocannabinoids. This new neuro-transmitter affects our brain in a unique way that seems built perfectly for us.

Endocannabinoids regulate and lower wear and tear in our cognitive system. The results are showing us that the reduction in short term memory is actually due to a reduction in sometimes harmful inflammation in the brain.

Polyphenol antioxidants, a chemical substance naturally found in red wine, prohibits toxic plaque build up in the brain that destroys cells. These substances, also called tannins in red wine, are good for the reduction of cognitive deterioration.

In other words wine also acts to lower the wear and tear in our brains. It’s antioxidants allow for increased flow of toxins out of the brain.

Working together these effects actually give our brain an overall boost. Just like reading this article. And again we’re not advocating use of both simultaneously. This information does however point to the benefits of using both moderately.

http://www.bakedlife.com/

Marijuana Allergies May Be More Common Than Thought

Marijuana hypersensitivity might be more common than previously thought, according to the results of a case series.

Though there are only a few case reports in the literature, “Marijuana allergy, I think, is fairly common,” said lead investigator Dr. Gordon Sussman, acting division director of clinical allergy and immunology at the University of Toronto. Even so, “It’s something physicians don’t really generally ask about. People should consider it in the diagnosis of rhinitis [and other allergic symptoms], and even in people that have asthma and anaphylaxis.”

The 17 patients who were included in the series reported that marijuana gave them runny noses or other problems; all ended up having positive marijuana skin prick test results, he reported. One patient in the series had an anaphylactic reaction after drinking marijuana tea.

That was the first patient in whom Dr. Sussman diagnosed a marijuana allergy. “I asked him in a detailed history what it could have been, and he actually had drunk marijuana tea. We knew at that point he had an IgE-mediated reaction to marijuana,” he said.

Curiosity piqued, and Dr. Sussman began asking allergy patients about marijuana use and reactions. A significant percentage reported symptoms from both contact and inhalation.

To confirm the diagnosis, he and his colleagues did skin-prick tests on the 17 patients between 21 and 58 years old, mostly men. They extracted buds or flowers in 5 mL of water for 15 minutes and pricked beneath drops placed on patients’ skin.

After 15 minutes, the 17 patients had wheals of 4-19 mm and surrounding flares. Fifteen presented with inhalation symptoms, including rhinitis and conjunctivitis, periorbital angioedema, wheezing, sinusitis, and throat swelling. Thirteen also reported hives from contact.

The anaphylaxis patient presented with anxiety, chest tightness, wheezing, GI cramping, and vomiting after drinking the tea.

“I don’t think it’s a contaminant; I’m pretty sure it’s an allergen in the marijuana they are reacting to,” Dr. Sussman said, adding that such reactions shouldn’t be a surprise because “marijuana is a weed, and weeds are generally known to be allergenic.”

Asking about marijuana use and past reactions should be a routine part of allergy work-ups, especially with expanding medical marijuana use. “People could actually be sensitized to marijuana and have a serious reaction. It’s important for people to recognize this,” Dr. Sussman said.

The researchers’ next step is to identify the actual allergens responsible for the reactions using a marijuana extract from a U.S. federal laboratory, serum from positive patients, and Western blot assays.

There was no outside funding for the study. Dr. Sussman said he had no disclosures.

http://medicalmarijuana411.com/mmj411_v3/?p=8594

Using Marijuana for Pain With No Possible High: Study

A new U.S. study has paved the way for cannabis that relieves pain but doesn’t get you high.

“The psychoactive effects of marijuana is the major issue that limits, across the country, the use of medical marijuana in the treatment of different diseases,” said Li Zhang, who headed up the research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Bethesda, Maryland.

The study, published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, claims to debunk the long-held belief that the therapeutic and psychoactive effects of pot are mutually exclusive.

Tetrahydrocannabinol (TCH) is the key ingredient in marijuana that makes people high, said Zhang. It works by binding to molecular anchors on cells called cannaboid type-1 receptors.

It was thought that this process also relieved pain, but Zhang says marijuana has over 400 chemical compounds that provide therapeutic relief for a number of disorders, such as chronic pain, seizures, depression and muscle spasms from multiple sclerosis.

These compounds, he says, could target different receptors in the brain. Figuring out what compounds target which receptors is the key to crafting cannabis-based medicine for different disorders, but without the usual side-effects associated with recreational pot smoking.

The study found the glycine receptor might be the primary target for pot’s painkilling effects. When Zhang’s team blocked glycine receptors on mice dosed with cannabis, the animals still felt pain.

The next step is to test his theories on different animals using different strains of marijuana. The goal is to find the strain that has the strongest pain-relieving component.

“That may support my prediction that different strains of marijuana, some might be more potent in reducing pain but less so in causing psychoactive effects,” Zhang said.

Zhang said if other research teams pick up where he left off, they could narrow down the targets for marijuana’s other therapeutic effects, leading to the creation of all sorts of cannabis-based therapeutic medicine.

“The effects of medical marijuana can be separated if the target can be located,” he said. “Find the target, and based on the target, you can develop new medicines.”

Vale Tudo says: Well there goes all of the fun in smoking weed Please don’t be true!

What the Hell is Up With This Marijuana Leaf, Anyway?

http://www.howtogrowbud.com/2011/02/what-the-hell-is-up-with-this-marijuana-leaf-anyway/#axzz1IaKiv3Fk

By: Steve Elliott

Ever since I started writing about marijuana, every time I look for related images online I keep running across a pot leaf photo that just doesn’t make sense.

Unfortunately, it seems to be one of the most popular “marijuana” photos on the web, and, in fact, is the top result for a Google image search on the term “marijuana.” Annoyingly, it’s also the top image result for “marijuana leaf.”

But there’s something just wrong looking about that leaf, and it doesn’t take long to figure out why.

This photo — which Discovery Health says it sourced from Marijuana.com — seems to show what looks like a female cannabis flower coming out the base of a marijuana leaf, where the leaf blades meet the leaf stem.

Now, I know Marijuana.com isn’t known as the best place for accurate weed info. In fact, it’s covered with those maddening “fake marijuana” ads for “legal buds.” But are they really the source of this photo? I’ve not been able to find it on the site.

I’m not saying the photo is absolutely impossible, but I believe it’s just inaccurate — at least, I’ve never seen that happen. Have you? If so, do you have a photo?

Cannabis flowers, as all know, occur either at the very tips of stems, or right against the main stalk of the plant. This is true for both males and females. And while leaves often grow out of buds, buds don’t grow out of leaves — buds grow only out of stalks or stems.

This photo is all the more irritating because of its ubiquity. Seemingly no matter where one looks on the web, there it is, again and again, displaying its botanical unlikelihood as a supposedly representative picture of marijuana in article after article.

It seems to be a real favorite whenever a “mainstream” site is doing a “marijuana article” and looking for a royalty-free photo.

If the bud were down at the base of the leaf stem, rather than at the base of the leaf blades where they meet the stem, I would be more inclined to accept it as genuine. But since I’ve never seen a bud grow at this particular spot on a leaf, I’m skeptical.

There’s only the one photo, seemingly everywhere, showing this phenomenon. I’ve never been able to uncover another one like it.

Who took — or faked — this photo? Why does it depict a bud growing out the base of the topside of a leaf? And why is this inaccurate photo — or, at least, very atypical photo — the most popular marijuana photo on the Web?

Photo: Retro Tee Shirts

An actual marijuana leaf doesn’t have flowers at the base of the leaf blades, where they meet the stem.

Photo: Weed Farmer

Cannabis flowers typically grow out of stalks and stems, not out of leaves.