Light Buzz Year

from Inlander 03/23/2023

Gem, Jewelry & Mineral Show

Slightly stoned in the age of super strong strains

BY WILL MAUPIN

Cannabis potency is on the rise, with some strains of retail flower now reaching THC content upwards of 35 percent. That’s all well and good if you’re looking to get blasted out of your mind, but what if you just want a calm, relaxing buzz?

For someone with a low tolerance like me, the excessively potent products on the market today make for an unenjoyable experience. The only options I have with them are to smoke a minuscule amount — no lounging on the patio to enjoy a full joint — or end up uncomfortably high.

To counter that, I’ve learned to value products that aren’t the most popular. They’re the ones you aren’t likely to be shown if you ask a budtender for something “good” or “dank.” They’re the ones often viewed as lackluster or behind the times, but sometimes they’re the right ones for you.

From personal experience, it can take multiple levels of questioning from a budtender to find these products. You might have to confirm, over and over, that you are looking for a low-THC strain — not a strain that won’t get you high, but a strain that won’t get you too high

Budtenders are there to help you, but sometimes you need to make sure they know how to help you.

On a recent trip to a South Hill dispensary I had to do just that. I asked for a low-THC hybrid, and I was initially shown a collection of strains that landed somewhere between 20 and 24 percent THC. If you’re someone who smoked in the 1960s, or the ’80s, or even the 2000s, just before legalization, 20 percent would be really strong. It’s weak-ish now, but you can go even lower. So, I asked for exactly that: Do you have anything even less strong?

That’s when I was shown products with THC concentrations maxing out in the low teens.

This is still strong stuff by historic standards. A 2018 study from the Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association found that in the 1990s, the average THC concentration of recreational cannabis was around 4 percent THC. By today’s standards, though, something clocking in around 11 percent is low-grade.

To me, though, it’s not low-grade. It’s any-day-of-the-week weed. Strains like OG Kush, Sour Tsunami and Sour Diesel are good places to start.

There is still room for consumers who want to enjoy cannabis as something akin to a glass of wine or two with dinner. Something you’ll feel, but won’t overwhelm. You just need to know what to look for and how to ask for it. n

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