Shut Up Fuck You

I think what makes MORE weed highly potent these days is simply the fact that growers now know how to grow and manicure weed to maximize it's potency.

Once upon a time (1960s-1970s) they just cut the damn plant down (in Mexico), pressed it with stems, leaves & seeds and sold it like that. It was never trimmed and cured properly and never handled gently, so overall the THC % WAS lower.

Yes that was usually LOW quality and the first shit you smoked back then.

However, at the SAME TIME, some of the BEST hashish in the world was starting to flow into the USA (it had been available in Europe & elsewhere for ages). So we had things like Black Afghani, Nepalese Temple Balls, and excellent Moroccan and some decent Lebanese. ALL of these were far more potent than any pot at the time.

Then came other strains like Acapulco Gold, Colombian, Oxoacan, Michoaucan which all were grown with a bit more attention, a little better trimmed (some of it), and of course it became very popular and was considered a higher grade than commercial Mexican.

Then there was Thai Stick, followed by the Hawaiian and California strains. What all of these had in common is that they were sensemilla. No seeds. Preventing the females from going to seed insured a higher potency. That yielded the greatest increase in potency the market ever saw.

Now if you ever got to smoke some Maui Wowee or Puna Butter back in the 70s, YOU KNOW there is nothing better out there, even today! Sweet, pungent, strong and even hallucinogenic. Thai was mind blowing too. Then the Cali strains came, outdoors mostly at first, which were Thai/Afghani crosses (if memory serves me right). These were very potent, sweet & tasty. They could get you just as high as most anything else. It is the superior genetics on these that makes them as good today as they were in the 70s.

Then came indoor growing. And everyone jumped on that, thinking they could control the growing process and have better yields, faster turn around, higher profits (main concern). These indoor grows are NEVER as sweet, NEVER more potent than the best outdoor, but they are usually the most carefully trimmed, so there is less leaf, hence a higher THC content for what you actually get.

I have smoked probably hundreds of varieties of weed in my day, and some ARE more potent than others due to genetics and careful trimming. But they don't always taste the best. Those strains that were bred for potency often lack other good qualities.

But in NO CASE is there a HUGE difference in the potency between the new strains and the old ones, mostly they're just more carefully tended and manicured. If they had done that back in the days of Colombian and sold you Colombian sensemilla, I'm sure it would compete very well with today's top strains.

Yes, the testing of pot in the old days is NOT like the testing they do today. Much of what they tested had leaves and wasn't even sensemilla.

 

I would say there are strains as potent, but as every strain has different proportions of the various THC molecules and different terpenoids, they're gonna taste different and have different effects. As to how good they are, personal preference does figure into it.

So my judgement on those Hawaiian strains is subjective, but given my experience if I'd found anything superior (in flavor or effect) or stronger, I'd have sure as hell known about it! Esp. since I live in Amsterdam for 10 years trying out the best they had there.

I find the indoor shit usually inferior in flavor, and containing far more adulterants like fungicides and pesticides and chemical fertilizer residues. Of course all that is a result of poor growing techinques. Of course some ppl do grow organically indoors but it's still not "natural" and never as sweet as the same thing outdoors in the sun...

One thing I must say with the Hawaiian strains is the more you smoke the higher you get with not much of a ceiling unless you smoke it all the time.

So you can smoke joint after joint & just keep getting higher till you pass out (this happens eventually).

 

Well unless you're livin' in Amsterdam you don't get to choose (much). Whatever is available is what's happening. Growers are the ones who choose what to grow for whatever reasons. Sometimes they don't even tell you what it is or give it some generic or made up name.

Some growers also breed and so their strains are likely to be unique and not like anyone else's.

Best thing: always smell it, eye it and taste it. If you like it fine. If not don't buy it (if you haven't already).

Actually your question is why so many ppl grow their own anymore. Then you know what you're getting, you're responsible for growing it right, and you get to keep it or share it, and it saves tons of money over the long run. You just gotta get your hands on some good seeds or clones.

I remember the time I could just walk into a grow shop in Amsterdam look over the various clones they had growing and take a shopping bag full of clones back home on the metro and trams. That was cool. They were only like 5 guilders a piece then - about $2 or $3 for a foot tall clone.