Acapulco Gold

Acapulco Gold is the traditional name of a legendary, potent strain of Cannabis sativa originating in Acapulco, Mexico. Like the mythical Panama Red and Thai Stick, Acapulco Gold became popular in the hippy underground during the 1960s and 1970s. Although it is increasingly rare, Acapulco Gold is still grown in more remote areas of its native range but in recent times indoor hydroponic strains have filled the demand and the much more lucrative cocaine smuggling took control of the trafficking routes from Mexico into the U.S. Making the great strain all the more elusive and obsolete.

I was just a teenager when Acapulco Gold first made it's way into my hands in Canada and I can testify that it was a big deal, figuratively and literally. Most weed back in the '70's came from Mexico and back when I bought my first pound it cost $200, really brown looking, filled with seeds and compressed to the size of a small city phone book. It had a jagged edge on one side where it had been cut and ripped from a large kilo brick. It still amazes me today that 16 ounces came from that sad looking lump of ditch weed. The price of the fabulous gold pot was at least four times more but nobody cared.

It wasn't too long after my first ditch weed score that I first got my hands on Acapulco Gold, it was something totally different, came in a plastic baggie and was loose, fresh, yellowish-gold, buds. The smell and the feel were something that from the first time you experienced, you never forgot. A popular demonstration of freshness at the time, was to take a small bud and press it in the palm of your hand then turn your hand upside down, to prove the fresh stickiness. Once anybody tried Acapulco Gold there was no going back to ditch weed. Now I dream of going in search of the original strain, like a car collector hunting out an old Corvette or Mustang. I plan to seek out Acapulco Gold and think that I'll know when I find her, as she was my first true cannabis love.