When I started smoking cannabis in high school, you either bought “mids” or “dro.” Mids were your average Mexican brick weed that were full of stems and seeds and were compacted before being shipped across country borders.
Dro was short for hydro, or hydroponically grown cannabis that was mostly cultivated indoors.
Usually dro was of sensimilla variety, or unpollinated females that didn’t produce seeds and were thus inherently more potent in THC content. Regardless, I didn’t know about specific strains of hydro-quality weed back then and it wasn’t until I got to college that I was able to try varieties like Sour Diesel and White Widow. I quickly learned that there is a huge world of different cannabis strains out there, many of which I didn’t even see in person until many many years later. Recently I got to try a strain that was named after Jimi Hendrix. The strain, Purple Haze, is a cross between two sativa strains—Purple Thai and Haze. It’s a rare strain that I’m happy to have had the chance to try just once, and now it seems like I might never see it again. The effects are surprisingly balanced for a sativa-leaning hybrid strain. I love landrace cannabis strains and hybrids that are derived from them. Dutch Hawaiian is a great sativa-leaning hybrid derived from Hawaiian landrace and Dutch Treat. Hopefully I’ll see a strain like Purple Haze again, but I’m thankful I had a chance to try it in the first place. There is a seemingly endless variety of cannabis strains out there, but sometimes I wish I could have consistency instead of constant variation.