Recently in Pot Category

Marijuana as medicine is nothing new, despite the current groundswell of laws making pot legal for medical uses. Here's a quick fact file on cannabis and its medical history, makeup, and legality.

[Read Medical Claims for Marijuana--Just Blowing Smoke?]

1. "Marijuana" is a Mexican term that originally was applied to low-quality tobacco.

2. The plant was cultivated in China for therapy (and recreation) over 4,700 years ago.

3. More than 20 prescription medicines containing marijuana were sold in U.S. pharmacies at the turn of the 20th century. Pot-based medications were commonly available until 1942, when cannabis was stricken from the U.S. Pharmacopeia, the official compendium of drugs considered effective. From 1937 to 1942 the federal government collected a tax of $1 per ounce for such drugs.

4. More than 20,000 studies on marijuana and its components have been published, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, an advocacy group. Of these, around 100 have looked into therapeutic value on human subjects.

5. The federal government is in the pot-growing business. Under a federal contract, the University of Mississippi in Oxford cultivates marijuana for use by researchers, who have to be cleared by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

6. The plant has nearly 500 chemical compounds, more than 60 of which are called cannabinoids.

7. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. But patients in these states face federal prosecution for using it--or for growing or possessing pot for medical purposes.

8. Federal law prohibits physicians from prescribing or otherwise actively supplying patients with the drug. But in 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court backed an appellate court ruling that physicians who discuss it with patients, or provide oral or written recommendations, are protected.

Corrected on 07/01/10: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the number of studies on marijuana and its components and those involving human subjects. The number of cannabinoids has also been clarified.

A truly classic strain of industrial strength cannabis. If I were a medical doctor, and I'm not (disclaimer) I would keep doses of this baby on hand for severe cases of trauma or even to address certain types of distress disorders, or in some cases as a means of putting someone to sleep. If you have a low tolerance for smoking ganja then be warned, this may not be such a good medication to ingest. Symptoms may include euphoria, hysteria, paranoia, imbecilic behavior, introverted mood swings or increased sexual appetite, so watch-out this powerful, predominantly sativa strain marijuana usually lives up to the name: "Train Wreck".

I know of a legendary grower from Eastern Canada who has been breeding this variety of Cannabis for many years, and to great effect. He sells his Arcada cut clones across Canada and has shipped his buds to Amsterdam, on several occasions he's left the bud-tenders and pro smokers totally speechless (literally).

The arcada cut of train wreck gets it name because it was grown, for the first time, on a hillside, that just so happened to have a train wreck happen in the same area that summer, so the guys pulled it early, at around 50-55 days, because they didn't want the grow to be found by the crews doing clean up on the wreck. But what they found out was that the shit was finished, which really shock these guys since it was supposed to be a sat Dom plant. This is the story that I have been told more then once from some very close people to me, that have lived in the Arcada, California area since the 1960's.

Trainwreck

A brain thumping, Sativa, soaring high. Comes on strong as a freight train, finishes in the typical ultra-heady Sativa manner. Very medicinal. People become hooked on it like a hard drug. Old school California taste. Dense rock hard nuggets. Next to no leaf, light green with small calyxes and thin stem with small buds. Legend has it it was started in the early 80's by a couple of brothers in San Diego by crossing Mexican X Colombian with a hint of Afghani. After 10 or 12 years, somehow a clone was let out, and the madness started. It has thrived and been mastered in Humboldt County for 12-14 years and also very common on the menu in the better Cannabis Coffeeshops of Amsterdam.

This is unbelievable pot. (90% Sativa / 10% Indica) As per texas Kid icmag forum

If you asked me, which of the exotic cannabis strains that I haven't smoked, would I most like to sample, I'd have to put Durban Poison on my short list and if it were accompanied by a visit to Durban, South Africa, then it would be my number one pick. Ever since I was a teenager my Australian friends in Canada, who had travelled all over the world, planted the seed (so to speak) about the wonders and excitement of South Africa and in particular the city and beaches of Durban.

Although I'd seen Durban Poison for sale in the cafés of Amsterdam and noticed that the seeds are available from many leading seed banks, I'd still never gotten my hands on this famous sativa strain. The thing about scoring "DP" as they call it, or weed in general known as Dagga (pronounced "dugger" with the "gg" pronounced gutturally as in the Scottish loch) while in Durban is that it's most likely to have been grown outdoor. Durban Poison, they say, originates from the Rift Valley region of East Africa but that doesn't tell us much since the Great Rift Valley is over 6,000 miles long, stretching from Lebanon to Mozambique.

Durban Poison is an exclusively inbred South African sativa crossed with a F1 cross. Considered 100% sativa. Typically an outdoor plant due to its ability to grow quite tall with large leaves, Durban Poison can essentially flourish in both inside and out since it does so well under artificial light as well as harsh summer weather conditions.

Durban Poison usually flowers typically after about eight or nine weeks. The buds are long, fat and tight with plenty of resin. These solid nugs are resilient and strong against molds and other diseases, making Durban Poison a strain that can be grown even in non-harvesting seasons and earning a reputation of being an easy strain to grow.

The DP plant produces a Thai-like aniseed smell similar to licorice. A husky, earthy taste pleasant to the smoker. Durban Poison is well known for it's powerful effect which produces an energetic, trippy high.

In the defense of pot, there has never been a more sound reason, for decriminalization of weed, than the justification defined in this excellent article by David Sirota from Salon. This is the best, short and sweet, summation of an indefensible denial argument.
Title: Making the case for marijuana

This article is such an important point of view, one that I share wholeheartedly ~ Our laws related to marijuana are doing more harm than good. David Sirota adds this poignant point to drive home the message:

Last week, students at 80 colleges asked their schools to reduce penalties for marijuana possession so that they are no greater than penalties for alcohol possession. It's a request with safety in mind: According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol use by college kids contributes to roughly 1,700 deaths, 600,000 injuries and 97,000 sexual assaults every year. By contrast, "The use of marijuana itself has not been found to contribute to any deaths, there has never been a single fatal marijuana overdose in history (and) all objective research on marijuana has also concluded that it does not contribute to injuries, assaults, sexual abuse, or violent or aggressive behavior," as the group Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation notes.
"It's time we stop driving students to drink and let them make the rational, safer choice to use marijuana," said one student.

"Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country."
-Thomas Jefferson

In today's world there's less and less excuse for ignorance, due to the proliferation of information, ease of access to research and the amount of specific data freely available. So how could any elected official defend prohibiting a plant which can't be stopped, doesn't cause harm to anyone and does not create any adverse affect on society? How could anyone allow law enforcement to continue causing harm to innocent people and create an enormous burden on our society? Consider all the criminals being created by enforcement of laws that can't be upheld? The key word in this travesty is "en-force-ment" and it's the same word that makes the very idea fascist because you can't force people to stop enjoying a natural herb that causes no harm to anyone.

Perhaps one of the more important aspects to the marijuana debate is the topic of Hemp. In some ways it's unfortunate that this plant species is incriminated in the same prohibition as cannabis but possibly the fear is that farmers allowed to grow one could easily grow the other and say that they weren't aware that the seeds were mixed. Or maybe it's a conspiracy like so many people suspect. Whatever the case, it's high time to liberate marijuana and to help us do that let's put Hemp on the stand to tell her side of the story. Following is a compilation of data provided by Pat McGrowen of Kentucky, from the TPM Cafe Blog in which he published an excellent paper titled:

The Recreational and Industrial Benefits of Cannabis

With the initiative on the ballot in California regarding the legalization of marijuana. I hope that it would also include the legalization of hemp as well. There are many beneficial aspects to legalizing marijuana such as decrease in crime, increase in tax revenue, and reduction in state spending and a huge boom to tourism just to name a few. There are also enormous benefits to hemp.

Now here's a weed if there ever was one that surpasses it's mystique and lives up to it's legend. What I love most about this cannabis strain is that it's more often than not grown outdoor because of it's reputation as a hearty breed, fond of the long California summers. In more recent times, with the world gone mad for whole foods and paranoid of chemicals, rightfully so, this durable strain is often grown organically. When primo Afghani Bullrider buds find there way to your grinder be grateful and give thanks to the Cannabis Gods, for you have in your hands one of the most exotic weed strains on earth.

The Bullrider Legend: In the same issue of High Times Magazine as Toker Poker there was a story called "The Bull Rider's Journey" in which the author Jef Tek tells the myth of an African-American dude who was a professional Bull Rider that was passionate about growing weed. As the story goes, this Bullrider traveled allot and knew at least one serious grower from overseas who bestowed the seeds upon him, after which he arrived in California and grew the plant to full-strength and cured it, then the bull-rider and some friends smoked some of the bud, after which one of the friends remarked that he felt like he'd just been riding a bull - bam!

The Afghani Bullrider name stuck and ever since the late '80's the strain found it's way all over California in clone form. At one point someone even created Hats and T-shirts to commemorate the great strain. Growers as far away as Oregon and Vancouver managed to get their hands on either the seeds or the clones as the Afghani Bullrider strain made it's way far and wide. However, it's Southern California where the climate provides an endless budding season, all you need to do is place a clone outside and it will begin to produce buds. As with most indica-dominant strains the Afghani Bullrider will reach maturity within 8 weeks or less and deliver an impressive harvest.

The UN estimates that up to 190 million people use cannabis, representing 4% of the global adult population, compared with 1% of the population, which uses all other illegal drugs together.  Thus cannabis is by far the most used controlled drug in the world, making it the mainstay of the War on Drugs. In the United States alone there were an estimated 829,625 arrests for cannabis violations in 2006.  Despite these figures, cannabis continues to be largely ignored in international drug policy debates.  Here is a list of 10 other interesting facts about marijuana.

1. According to one national survey on drug use, each day approximately 6,000 Americans try marijuana for the first time.
2. Worldwide, it is estimated that about 162 million adults use marijuana at least once per year, and 22.5 million use the drug daily.
3. Marijuana usage is a ritual part of many religious traditions throughout the world. In Islamic nations, it is accepted alongside coffee and tobacco while alcohol is strictly prohibited.
4. According to one report, it would take 800 joints to kill a person "but the cause of death would be carbon monoxide poisoning.
5. There are over 200 slang terms for marijuana in the popular vernacular.
6. The name marijuana comes from a Mexican slang term for cannabis and is believed to have derived from the Spanish pronunciation of the names Mary and Jane. (The two names were also common Mexican military slang for a prostitute or brothel.) Marijuana came into popularity as a name for cannabis in the U.S. during the late 1800s.
7. The cannabis plant can grow in nearly any environment and averages one to two inches of growth per day and up to 18 feet total in ideal conditions.
8. The primary active ingredient in marijuana is THC (delta 9 tetrhydrocannabinol). It is this chemical that produces marijuana's mind-altering effects.
9. Depending upon the weather conditions, soil type, and time of harvest for a cannabis plant, as well as the specific mixture of dried leaves and flowers in the marijuana product, a sample of marijuana can contain anywhere from 3% to 20% THC.
10. Cannabis seeds were used as a food source in China as early as 6000 B.C.

OG Kush is a super-potent variety of medical-grade, Indica dominant Cannabis with very distinct lemony citrus, pine-sol aroma. The look of OG Kush is remarkable, it's lime green and covered in white trichomes but the main reason it's so popular in medical marijuana dispensaries is the long-lasting, heavy-hitting sativa buzz effect which is both a soaring cerebral high and physically stimulating.

Whenever I think of OG Kush I think of Los Angeles, since that's where I first tasted this legendary cannabis strain and the only place I've ever seen this great bud. Amongst the details that make this strain so interesting is that OG Kush is mostly a Cannabis Sativa hybrid, so really doesn't even deserve having Kush in it's name, although it's probably bred into it's genetic heritage. Added to that, OG Kush is a 1st generation offspring of a self-pollinated hermaphrodite and is only privately available in clone form and not in seed.

OG Kush clone-only cultivar is rumored to have been grown from a cutting of 91 Chemdog, which means that unless you live in Southern California it may be very difficult to get your hands on this strain. However, if you are lucky enough to locate some clones for your grow-op these plants are reputed to yield a great crop and for medical marijuana patients living in the greater Los Angeles area, they can score this wonderful medicine for an average of $75 USD for an 1/8 of an ounce.

Good honey oil or hash oil, which is a misnomer because all oil derives from cannabis not hash, is like smoking pure THC when it's produced correctly but remember there are many varieties and several ways to produce oil from marijuana. Naturally, like almost anything in this world, the better the ingredients the better the finished product. Some connoisseurs even suggest that pure Indica strain buds is the only way to produce the best oil but I've smoked weed oil from primo sativa buds and that was stellar, just that the color and consistency wasn't as golden as true honey oil.

Honey oil is considerably more potent than cannabis itself, due to its extreme purity and lack of other plant matter. The THC content of honey oil is variable based on the particular strain of cannabis from which it was derived, and is similar to that of hashish. The name honey refers to the color and consistency of the oil; there is no honey. One or two hits of good oil and you're as blazed as if you'd smoked an entire joint. Actually that's one of the reasons some people prefer honey oil over bud, as it lasts a long time and provides a strong buzz from a single toke.

One popular method for making honey oil is known as "Budder Hash" or commonly known as BHO (pictured) which stands for Butane Hash Oil but that doesn't sound so tasty because of the word 'butane' but if you've ever smoked this gear you'll know that the flavor is fabulous and the buzz totally rocks!

According to the definition in the encyclopedia of plant genetic resources, a landrace is an early, cultivated form of a crop species, evolved from a wild population, and generally composed of a heterogeneous mixture of genotypes. Therefore a cannabis landrace is a marijuana plant species that has been geographically isolated from the possibility of cross-breeding with any other strain of a similar plant species. If we were discussing vegetables or another type of plant we'd be using the term "heirloom".

For many years some of the leading Cannabis Seed Company owners have taken a keen interest in preserving the great original marijuana strains of the world and several even work together, creating Seed Banks. There are some important reasons that landrace cannabis has become popular, first because they're the best strains for cross-breeding to make new marijuana strains or brands, maybe the only true way to make a new strain and secondly the plants themselves are fabulous to smoke in their natural form and have recently become very popular amongst both recreational smokers and medical marijuana patients. This dispels a myth that THC content has increased in modern strains of marijuana, as any cannabis landrace will get you very high.

Some of the more famous landrace cannabis strains are from Afghanistan, Africa, Brazil, India, Mexico and Thailand but that's generalizing because according to botany a plant growing from the same strain of seed, such as Jamaica Lambs Bread, for a long enough period of time, without being crossed with another strain, can be known as a landrace. Some of the other best known strain brands are Hindu Kush (pictured), Malawi Gold, or Acapulco Gold, which I recently heard was re-produced by a Dutch grower and brought back to the Coffeeshops in Amsterdam and has become very popular.

I wanted to take this opportunity, five days from Christmas to wish everyone a very Merry Holiday Season and a safe Happy New Year. The growth of Reefer Smoke this past year has far surpassed my wildest expectations and the cool people I've met as a result of publishing this blog made every minute of the effort well worth while. I've learned allot about the Cannabis Culture around the world from joining related groups, following Stoners on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Myspace and by tracking all things 420 related via Google Alerts. This has been a tremendous intellectual journey for me and I have you, the reader, for encouraging me to continue this pursuit.

From the beginning I promised to keep the content light and relaxed, not too serious on the cannabis activism side, avoid news about people getting busted and go easy on the medical marijuana information, although those topics make up the bulk of the daily news in the niche of "marijuana or cannabis" keyword related content on the web, I am first and foremost a recreational reefer smoker and although not currently growing a crop, I'm very passionate about marijuana cultivation, love inspecting live grow-operations around the world and enjoy perving on nug porn. You can expect more of the same from Reefer Smoke in 2010.

Just in the last month Reefer Smoke has hosted 6,505 visitors from 96 countries. We thank you all for dropping by and wish you and yours a very happy and buzzed holiday and the stickiest, dankest buds, in the new year.

The 22nd Cannabis Cup concluded last week in Amsterdam and the winners were announced on the website Cannabis Cup Winners and it comes as no surprise that Greenhouse Seeds of Holland take first prize for the second year running for the Super Lemon Haze, which is the first strain to repeat since Greenhouse did it with Super Silver Haze in 1999. Barney's was runner-up with their popular Vanilla Kush and Green Place placed third with their strain Head Bang.

It was good to see that BC Bud Depot place third in the Sativa Category, since Barney's took home allot of honors but Green House Seeds either won or placed a strain in every category except the Indica category, where top honors went to another two time consecutive first place winner of the Cannabis Cup: Starbud (pictured) from Hortilab Seed Company.

To read about all this years strains visit High Times Cannabis Cup Winners.

So much has been said and written about the Pros and Cons of Medical Marijuana by people from all walks of life and strata of society, it just doesn't seem to matter, we're going to suffer the consequence of the reefer madness brain-washing for years to come. However, on the scientific side of the argument "should marijuana be legal for medical use" tomorrow a 56 year old stockbroker from Florida, named Irvin Rosenfeld (see: No Dope: Ft. Lauderdale Man to Smoke 115,000th Joint) will add his record to the case studies by being the first person on record to have smoked 115,000 reefers while in a Federal Drug Administration's Investigational New Drug Program. Not only are there no signs of negative health issues or work performance in the case of Rosenfeld but he provides yet another powerful testimonial of the benefits derived from this plant.

The medical marijuana that Rosenfeld is supplied by Uncle Sam comes from the University of Mississippi Weed Farm, the only federally approved farm in the United States. Mahmoud A. ElSohly, PhD, whom we once wrote about in this blog, is a Research Professor at the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Mississippi, stated the following in a Dec. 19, 2005 interview with the Journal of the International Hemp Association:

"Cannabis as a smoked product, in my judgment, would not be a useful product simply because of the lack of standardization, the fact that it's a smoked material: you can't determine the dose, people smoke in different ways, plus the interaction of the many different components and degradation products, and the tars associated with smoked materials. So smoking is not a good delivery system.

However, cannabis as a plant that is rich in chemical components, would have potential for producing useful drugs, for example THC. Now THC in the oral preparation, it doesn't seem to be doing the good job it should or was expected to. My personal view on the reason for this is the 'first-pass effect.' The material taken orally goes through the liver and is converted to the 11-hydroxy metabolite, which is 4-5 times more potent in terms of psychoactivity, before getting into the bloodstream, and the profile of these two drugs is quite different."

Not sure if I completely agree with the good Doctor since some people may have placebo effects from smoking their medicine but this brings up a good argument for just legalizing marijuana because obviously no-one has, can, or will, be hurt from smoking weed, so let's get cracking on the research. Also, let's separate the medical marijuana debate from recreational ganja and begin two distinctly different dialogs. Legalize both!

Note: Click to enlarge

Named for the glimmer of the trichomes and crystals covering the buds, to conjure up images of the Aurora Borealis (northern lights). Many of the top Canadian seed companies sell Northern Lights (strain) cannabis seeds and since it's one of the most commonly crossed strains of hybrid cannabis there's legions of stable strains born of these genetics. This magnificent plant has probably won or placed in the High Times Cannabis Cup more times than any other single strain.

Legend has it that the strain was created in Washington State but some say that she may have been amongst the earliest sativa strains crossed with Indica in Humboldt California way back in the mid 1970's. However, Northern Lights strain has been preserved much as it originally was through inbreeding without any marked improvements other than hybridization.

Effect: One hit wonder
Stature: Very short and squat
Phenotype: Mixed, primarily Indica
Indoor: 55 to 60 days: Mid/late September
Smell: A Sweet Classic Skunky odor Yield: 2/3 ounces per plant

Every day more scientific evidence surfaces about the medical benefits found in cannabis. Personally I always thought of Hash Brownies, which I thoroughly enjoy, as more of a recreational marijuana thing or a Cannabis dispensary novelty item but I've come to understand that some of the properties of the cannabis plant, especially the pure Hemp oil and Hemp butter are not just effective treatments for some types of cancer and other serious ailments but also very good for you. The day may come when Doctors recommend that we eat THC with every meal in which case homemade Bubble Bag Hash (as shown in the photo) may become a staple.

The good folks from WeedMaps.com have really outdone themselves this time, they've taken cannabis photography to an entirely new level. Never before has the term "sick" been so meaningful to describe something wonderful, especially if you're stuck looking at these photos and your own stash is empty and you live somewhere that you can't just whip out your iPhone and feed-in your co-ordinates to locate the nearest dispensary, so you can re-load your stash.

Here's the description from the NugPorn.com website:

NugPorn.com provides high quality, professionally shot medical cannabis photos & strain reviews. As a sister site of WeedMaps.com, we get access to the most exotic and beautiful marijuana strain pictures ever assembled on one site. We search medical marijuana dispensaries far and wide to find the most amazing weed porn for our visitors. Leave a comment if you dig 'em!

As I've admitted in another article on this blog (see: Cannabis Pornography), I'm a huge fan of weed photography and can admit it may have been one of the factors that prompted me to start Reefer Smoke. Every day I look at pictures and videos of plants and buds, or as often as I can I love to inspect real plants but I can honestly say that I've never seen marijuana photography like that on NugPorn.com. I chose "Purple Dragon" cannabis strain for this recommendation because I was amazed by the colors in the photo but truthfully, there's not a bad image on the entire site and the sheer number of exquisite cannabis strains alone should earn the site a 5 star commendation.

I give NugPorn.com 2 enthusiastic bongs-up and encourage you to check it out immediately at NugPorn.com

The evolution of cannabis is a fascinating thing and all the more-so because of the cool names that have emerged from the minds of brilliant growers, who had a couple of months to think-up groovy monikers that would do justice to the creations they bred. Have a listen to a great song by "Goose" that raps about the strains we love to love.

Continue reading to see a huge list of: Cannabis Strains of the World