Gallery of medical marijuana

Next week, CNBC will air a special TV program called Marijuana Inc.: Inside America's Pot Industry. To hype the show, CNBC.com invited High Times magazine's "cultivation editor" "Danny Danko" to put together a slideshow of high-grade medical marijuana strains and their prices. True pot porn. Seen above, Super Silver Haze, which apparently 'is renowned for stimulating properties and is sometimes referred to as 'ampheta-weed.'" A Gallery of Medical Marijuana (via Dose Nation)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

dfletcher

Mmmmm delicious tasty treats! I’ve seen bags that claimed to be those flavors, train wreck, sensi star, etc… but those never looked this good! I need to go get a medical card :)
failix

@Sworn:

“-it causes psychological AND physical addiction”

THC doesn’t cause physical addiction.

@Elfspice:

Anyway, as far as addiction goes everyone has their own measure of what it is but one that everyone can agree on is that the sufferer is willing to break laws to acquire the object of their addiction.

The sufferer has to be physically addicted to a certain degree. A nicotine junkie will not steal just to buy cigarettes when he’s broke…at least we can agree it’s very rare?
sworm

@26: You’re right about the idiot, and I bow to your knowledge @22.

Sources… For example:

An mp3 of a lecture, Institute of Psychiatry, Kingscollege London:

http://www.iop.kcl.ac.uk/podcast/rss/Thomas_James_Okey_Lectures/Institute_of_Psychiatry-Cannabis_use_and_cannabis_use_disorders.mp3

(Note however that psychologists often overlook/underestimate the fact that those with mental health problems have a higher chance of self-medicating – Ie: Psychologists:I use weed -> depression. Reality: I have a depression, let’s use some weed.)

Every drug has it’s drawbacks. Be an informed user.`

@27: possesion is decriminalized, distribution via coffeshops is decriminilized, production isn’t. Which is a bit stupid of course.
noen

That’s not medical marijuana, that’s the whole damn hospital.
jdixon

Follow these up with a heavy dose of the Hi-Finator, (following post) and you’re there!
azanon

Great shots, so alive. It almost makes me sad that weed has to be killed and dried for us to enjoy it. If only there were a way to enjoy it at the peak of freshness, like lettuce.
Gaudeamus

Oh Arkizzle you’re so lucky and I envy you. My guy didn’t come through. I’m on my way over.
Justin France

Nom nom nom.

And yeah – alcohol causes alot more harm to users and the community. But that debate is… well if you don’t get it, you just don’t.

In many peoples minds the letter of the law just can’t be derailed by common sense and general observation. Although most people who know illicit drug users often don’t realise. 1) The stigma is too great and users risk alienating friends family or being judged and 2) they don’t neccessarily fuck one’s shit up, so to speak. It’s much harder having a conversation with my folks if i’m blind drunk than if i’m stoned.

Different for many, and I’m sure some of these strains might make it nigh on impossible to do anything but watch cartoons and eat bowls of cereal.

Did I say nom nom nom already?
robulus

Don’t be sad, Azanon. The weed wants to be enjoyed. It calls us, it does.
Enochrewt

#14: That is expensive (I don’t think anyone answered you, but I didn’t read ALL of the “Soft Drug/Hard Drug” bickering). For instance, an ounce of quality here goes for about $320. The area I’m in might be one of the cheaper places in the USA that isn’t world famous for it’s weed.
wolfiesma

I think its too pretty to smoke. My instinct is to roll around naked on a bed of it. :)
arkizzle

Gaudeamus,

Thanks for the thoughts.. just back from the mission.

Phew!

Blaze!
fenderbasher

From Elfspice @ 33:
“Anyway, as far as addiction goes everyone has their own measure of what it is but one that everyone can agree on is that the sufferer is willing to break laws to acquire the object of their addiction.”

But if you cannot get it any other way than by breaking the law, does this still qualify as an addictive symptom?

@ 22 Mintphresh: It was explained to me that you can only achieve at most 100% saturation in the bloodstream; after that you’re just wasting it.

Prices in Oregon (Portland Metro) run around $360/oz, but there’s a good chance for a price break around the ounce level. Of course, I think it’s off-season right now so prices might be dear. Quality is definitely there; a small pinch is more than enough. I’m considering trying my hand at growing this summer, with a greenspace in the backyard of ultra-black mulched soil deposited by centuries of seasonal creek flooding. I just have to figure how to keep the critters away.
Antinous / Moderator

Compose yourselves, please.
minTphresh

last time i was in l.a. (05). i had something called ” silverleaf” it looked a lil like this and was mmmm, mmmm, good! reccomend!
sworm

It’s to pretty to smoke…. what about eating it slowly. Or bathing it in some vodka.

Also: those prices are silly.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Community Manager

Hard drug. It’s two words. This has been a message from your friendly local former copy editor.

Next: the word “addiction” is getting tossed around way too loosely in this conversation. You have to distinguish between addiction, habituation, and dependence. Sworn, there is no such thing as “psychological addiction.” Dependence, maybe; but addiction is defined by a tendency to build physical tolerance, and leave physical withdrawal symptoms in its wake. And by the way, “hard drug” is a law enforcement term, not a technical pharmacological classification.

Elfspice:

Anyway, as far as addiction goes everyone has their own measure of what it is –

Physical tolerance, physical withdrawal.

but one that everyone can agree on is that the sufferer is willing to break laws to acquire the object of their addiction.

Everyone doesn’t agree on that definition, since the substances it describes include food, money, and aphrodisiacs.

The other thing is that addiction disrupts a person’s ability to participate properly in the economic business of making a living.

Taking a lot of LSD will do that, and it’s definitely not an addictive drug. And back before morphine was made illegal, there were people who were unquestionably addicted to it, yet had no trouble living an orderly, respectable life, and making a living.

===

There’s a lot of difference in drug reactions from one person to another. We’re just starting to understand this. It’s pure coincidence that so many of the neurochemical mechanisms being studied involve dopamine.
toolbag

No Colas? In the late 80′s in Jamaica there was a strain going around that smelled like Coca-Cola. Absolutely delicious aroma and beautiful to look at. I don’t remember it being particularly strong though. I recall walking back to my hotel in Negril (where you get hassled by dealers/pimps/prostitutes/hustlers every 20 steps) and this guy asked me if I wanted to buy a spliff of “cola”. I told him no and he didn’t persist, which was really unusual for the area. As I started to walk away he asked me I’d like see “something wonderful mon’”. I thought that it was either going to be really cool or I was going to get robbed. But I was young and kinda’ stupid so I followed him. He took me into a house right off the main drag and into the attic. He had about 50 lbs of 15″ buds all tied with cotton string hanging from the rafters. The whole house smelled like you were wading knee deep in fresh coke. It was amazing. No sales pressure either, he just actually was proud of his crop and wanted to show me.
sworm

If we were all high now we would all be composed.

If we were all drunk there’s a possibility somebody would have shot his pc or a president.

@33: I once had auditory hallucinations with stronger weed: it sounded like a childrens’ choir singing in my left ear. Very Devil’s Advocate. I also had time-distortion. Time literaly seemed to slow down. It was like I was watching the world at 1 frame a second. Spooky.
mdh

Taking a lot of LSD will do that, and it’s definitely not an addictive drug.

Just as an aside, do you mean that as a long term effect, or in terms of ‘in between trips’?
Antinous / Moderator

Generic Vicodin – 10Â¢
Ketel One martini to wash it down with – $2
Legalized alcohol and amenable physician – priceless
Anonymous

I want this weed. Send me a sample.
Takuan

one seed. Everyone plant one seed. That’s over 6,000,000,000 sprouts. This plant is not to be owned and sold, it grew free and still does. Those prices are a perfect reflection of what people should strive not to be.

Don’t wait for Obama. He’s nothing to do with this.
Pugzz

Oh that looks like some pretty amazing bud! Makes me want to go to California! Never see that stuff here in Bean Town.
Gaudeamus

This has risen to the top as my favorite Boing Boing post ever for the tender loving comments alone. That is some delectable imagery there. Hopefully I’ll hear from my guy tonight. I feel your pain, Arkizzle!

Where I live, an ounce will get you a ticket -maybe- if you’re driving with it not-in-your-trunk, acting stupid, manage to get yourself pulled over, and then act like a dick. Even if the cops somehow end up at your house and see a baggie and a bowl they’re likely to ignore it as they have more pressing matters to attend to. I was at someone’s house when that happened: they were investigating something else in the neighborhood, knocked on the door, and basically chuckled it off. They didn’t take it or anything. It REEKED too and was smoky in there!

I’d sure like the war on drugs to end. The money saved could be used to help prop up our flagging economy, and education could turn toward being responsible and informed instead of outright lies and hysteria.

“If you smoke a joint, you’ll think you can fly and jump out of a window!” (Actual scenario from a film they showed us in school)
Jeff

TNH said, ‘Sworn, there is no such thing as “psychological addiction.” ‘ There might be (maybe) since there is a mind-body conncection. Withdrawl can be experienced as anxiety or depression. That might not be the DTs, but it’s still an emotional state that is experienced because brain chemistry has changed, which is physical. I think people become addicted to porn and blogs and TV and games and…
arkizzle

Gaud,
See you in 10, I’ll have one waiting in the ashtray for ya..
Takuan

oh gawds! Time to stop yawping about it and just friggin legalize! We all know it is coming, get on with it! People with seeds should freely distribute them as quickly and widely as possible. Plant it everywhere with no intent beyond making it common as crab grass.
minTphresh

sworm, cool that. it’s good to have a civil conversation , and as you sound like you have some knowledge on the subject, maybe we can keep it going. i’ve seen the transcript for the lecture you sighted, that talk made headlines as people thought what he was saying(or the newspeeps tried to make it sound as though what he was saying) is that MJ CAUSES greater incidences of depression and schizophrenia. what he was actually saying is that it accelerates those mental disorders. this is a very real possibility, however, statistically, the incidences of those disorders were less than .25% of the control group. i have also experienced time distortion on MJ, but most intently while on MDMA. when it felt like time was just a curtain to be parted and looked past into a different period. that was well worth the 25 bucks!
dragonfrog

That can’t seriously be what weed costs in the States, can it? That’s like 2/3 the price of fricking gold.
minTphresh

sorry, i meant the VARIENCE of the differences was about .25%. basically, statistically equal.
FoetusNail

Whatever happened to the four finger ounce of red for twenty?
sworm

@14: sad isn’t it. On the bright side, they smoke less weed in the US thanks to the war on drugs…. *cough*

Also, judging from all the comments here…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j55mozVwDM
illflux

I hate you all. I’m apparently the only person here without a connection. What the fuck, man?!
illflux

…and yeah, what’s criminal about this is these obscene prices created by the “War on Drugs.” Insanity.

All because Hearst wanted to suppress hemp paper…
Drew from Zhrodague

I wonder if there’s any brands of weed that are genetically spliced together, rather than through selective breeding. I would think there are a few groups doing this, but where are they, and where can I get this in volume — legally?
Jeff

Very pretty bud. It seems the brain already has a receptor for THC, so it looks like God intended us to use the plant. Here in Michigan we have just voted to make medical cannabis legal. Although that seems to mean almost nothing, since you can’t buy it. The problem with pot is that it’s not controlled or taxed. I think Cory does not like cannabis, but I don’t know why. Maybe it’s all drugs or substances that can make a person less productive. And seeing that he writes books for Y.A.s, I don’t suggest any public support of the “Devil’s Weed”. I know that when I was in Amsterdam a few months back I loved being able to go to a coffee shop and have a nice cup of espresso and a few hits from some premium bud. And I seem okay. You gotta know your limits.
sworm

@17: Holland. Which explains which why some varieties of indoor weed have 15 times the THC. That’s no longer a softdrug.
querent

@23

YOU have to pay 5k. Bay Area, that shit is unheard of.

@8

There IS a way to enjoy it at peak of freshness. Grow! :) When the glandular trichromes (the mushroom tipped “crystals”) start to turn amber, that means the THC is just beginning to degrade to CBD. The harvest moon is upon you.
querent

That “@23″ comment read a little harsher than I intended. I’m officially nerfing it.

\nerfed
Anonymous

I recently befriended a grower in my home state. This gentleman has been growing for decades and truly has a green thumb. He has introduced me to some of these strains along with others I had only heard of. He suffers from arthritis in addition to being a recovering alcoholic and with healthcare costs potentially on the rise here he is counting his blessings by the ounce.
arkizzle

It’s still illegal in Holland, but decriminalised.

And those strains of skunk are certainly funky. Nothing like bush weed found naturally.
ChunkyMonkeyBrain

@# 18
“Which explains which why some varieties of indoor weed have 15 times the THC. That’s no longer a softdrug.”

I’m sorry Sworm, but you’re wrong. Marijuana IS a soft drug, because of one factor:
There is no fatal dose.
I don’t care how potent it’s bred to be, no one DIES of overdose. Ever.

But thank you for participating in the collective hysteria.
Justin France

Sworm, Mintphresh: It’s seems pretty well established that smoking pot can exacerbate or speed along certain mental illness.

It’s also becoming pretty clear that marijuana use can also help ease certain mental illnesses – including ones it can accelerate in vulnerable individuals. It’s a total mixed bag, and like any and all drugs the user has to know when to stop and when to never resume.

And those prices are criminal… $160USD is an extreme price to pay for an oz from my neck of the woods. $125 – $140 is the price range i’m willing to entertain – and that’s for mongrel strains, “pure breeds”, indoor, outdoor… just depends on who you know.
Anonymous

I…I…I think I love you.
redpiller

The prices may be high for those on the coasts/big cities, but in the midwest, in the boondocks, 400 a zipper is the going rate for all of the high quality strains like train wreck. The price on the elbow may be high, hell if I know. You get too much static messing with that much weight in the smaller cities. But for the smaller quantities it’s pretty much par for the course in the cities I used to live in.

Ya’ll should be seriously pleased your prices are so low in the bigger cities.
minTphresh

sworm:”Which explains which why some varieties of indoor weed have 15 times the THC. That’s no longer a softdrug.” NOT TRUE. there were varities grown in the mid ’70′s that were every bit as potent as today’s. maybe 10-15x the potency of mexican shitweed of yester and to-day. it is just that more potent weed is more widely available to the average consumer. thc is like vitamin-c in that your body will only take in so much( we have evolved with a ‘cannabinoid system’designed to ingest cannabinoids such as THC located near the pineal gland) and discard the rest. no matter haw much you smoke ( or however u choose to ingest), your body will only process so much of the active ingredient.
sworm

@21: Y’r n dt. Here’s why:

1)The generally accepted definition of harddrug(that you may discover in a ‘dictionary’ or a ‘wikipedia’:
-it causes psychological AND physical addiction
-it causes health problems and poses other risks

A ridiculously high THC count in (geneticly) modified dutch super weed species causes addiction and increases the danger of previously undiagnosed (or less extensive) mental conditions such as schizophrenia becoming an issue and that is a problem.

So much so that dutch legislators are investigating if stonger weeds should be redefined as harddrugs.

2)I live in Holland. I like to smoke. I’m afraid I don’t see how having a nuanced opinion(some weed isn’t healthy) constitutes mass hysteria in a country where everyone long ago agreed that weed is better than alcohol. (and it is, even the stronger stuff)

And finally…

3)You have to pay 5000$ for a pound of good weed.
robulus

@Arkizzle
AFAIK in Holland it is legal to buy and consume cannabis at licensed coffee shops. It is not legal to grow or import it, making the laws somewhat confusing. But who cares? Lets head to Dampkring for some hash and a good Dutch beer. Ahhh, Amsterdam.
sonipitts

@SWORM

The generally accepted definition of harddrug(that you may discover in a ‘dictionary’ or a ‘wikipedia’:
-it causes psychological AND physical addiction
-it causes health problems and poses other risks

So, alcohol is a harddrug? I did not know that.
minTphresh

sworm, ya know, most of the dutch that i have met have a lot more manners than u seem to exhibit. also, where are the citations to back up your claims?
arkizzle

I just auto-desiccated, through salivation.
arkizzle

Sworkm, THC does not cause a physical addiction. No way, no how.

Robulus. Nope, I lived there, it’s illegal but decriminalised.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_the_Netherlands#Non-enforcement
robulus

Sweet, sweeeeeet medicine. Mmmmmmm, medicated.
TheMostHorrible

Uh…I forgot what I was going to comment.
sworm

@25: I consider alcohol a harddrug. The only reason it’s legal is because of tradition. Consider:

-Less car crashes(because of the limited time of the high)
-Less overdoses
-Less unwanted pregnancies
-Less fights and crime

-JImi Hendrix, Jeff Buckley,Errol Flynn, Billie Holiday… to name but a few would all have lived longer without alcohol.

Seriously, if opium or cocaine was legal and alcohol wasn’t it would still be a safer and less dangerous world.

Then again, I’d get laid less. So, eh.
arkizzle

Jesus Skunky Christ, it’s beautiful.. and I’m running low, can’t see my guy ’til tomorrow..

Why David, whyyy!?!
Banksynergy

WOO TRAINWRECK! NORCAL REPRESENT!

/goon off

Really nice pictures. Agree the prices seem jacked, though, at least compared to the bay area prices for Medical MJ.
Takuan

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2009/01/cocaine-plane-trail-open-challenge-obama-administration
robulus

@Arkizzle

Then I’ll defer to your experience good sir. Still, the way it’s policed you would hardly notice. I distinctly remember turning around, hash pipe in one hand, lighter in the other, and accidently blowing smoke in the face of a pretty police officer in the middle of the street. She just smiled and walked on.

Contrast and compare with Adelaide, South Australia, where it is also decriminalised. Was sharing a quiet one with friends behind a pub, when a police car screetches around the corner, the cops jump out and… issue one of us with an on the spot fine. And confiscate the stash, of course.
arkizzle

Sworm

No but really, virtues of alcohol aside, its just silly to call it a hard drug. I’m far more attracted to weed than booze, and in truth could stand swapping the legality of them for societies sake.

But I won’t call alcohol a hard drug.
arkizzle

Rob,

Hah! Been there myself (both situations) :)
elfspice

I’m all for being realistic about the risks associated with drug use but it’s absolute sensationalist nonsense to say that weed does any more than many of the other stressors that can manifest psychiatric conditions. The problem is basically that cannabis is a psychedelic – that is to say, it inhibits inhibitory systems in the brain that would normally allow a person to brush something off simply by ignoring it. This leads to an intensification of the level of emotional reaction to things. Stress, which is a constellation of chemical changes in the body, is the main factor that leads to breakdowns and the way people break down is different, most people get depressed, but some people go bipolar, some go schizophrenic, some get obsessive.

Having smoked isomerised oil in the past before, I can attest to the psychedelic nature of THC, I was hearing voices. I wasn’t believing them, they were just babbling on with some nonsense or other I wasn’t really paying attention. THC in low CBD cannabis is not a hell of a lot different in a qualitative sense to LSD or psilocybin, in that similar experiences occur. I

Anyway, as far as addiction goes everyone has their own measure of what it is but one that everyone can agree on is that the sufferer is willing to break laws to acquire the object of their addiction. The other thing is that addiction disrupts a person’s ability to participate properly in the economic business of making a living. Every other factor attributed to addiction such as personality changes, social withdrawal, intensified eccentricity, changes in religious beliefs and practises, etc, these are arbitrary cultural factors and should not be considered as valid signs of addiction, as they occur without the influence of drugs of any kind.

Those prices for that weed are ridiculous. On the other hand, people who know how to grow weed properly are pretty rare. But then again, the prices on many pharmaceutical medications are pretty ridiculous, wellbutrin for example… or modafinil. In this situation scarcity produced by the legal status even when it is somewhat protected from prosecution is still at play.

Prohibition didn’t work with alcohol, and ultimately will not be considered a successful experiment with even so-called ‘hard’ drugs, in fact prohibition conveniently creates a massive black market where money can be made by unscrupulous persons in order to fund illegal activities, and these persons may or may not be part of our governments or have influence within such areas.

My personal experience is that the business of moderating the influence of drug use should be done by professional medical practitioners such as psychiatrists and neurologists, and should NOT absolutely positively be let to the control of politicians or bureaucrats or statisticians. I have a medical condition which requires certain kinds of medication for which the prohibitionists have deemed only two drugs be available for this purpose and gives no last line options. Thus I have had a condition which has gone without treatment for a very very long time and has basically made a situation where I am unable to participate properly in society because of decisions about medicine being made by non-doctors, and worst, that the doctors have no leeway within the limitations to offer me an option which actually works without causing a net harm to me. I am fortunate to have found some things which help but the most powerful tools are in a legal grey area and there is probably a whole rainbow of useful variants on the prescribed legal options that just aren’t available due to their resemblance to popular banned chemicals.

So yeah I have a bee in my bonnet about the subject of drug control. It should be between me and my doctor, society only has a right to impinge on that when it leads me to committing genuine crimes against society. Otherwise, it should stay the hell out of my relationship with my body, chemical, sexual, dress, music, these are culture and legislation about them is intrinsically discriminatory.