Cannabis Culture

Has a THC Problem

If you have been smoking weed for a decade, you remember when there was no potency testing on the ziplock bag of the goods you picked up from your friend, the weed guy.  

As a cultivator for over 17 years, I remember the satisfaction of cracking open my mason jar of head stash at a party or friendly gathering and watching all the heads turn as the smell of sweet cheeba filled their nostrils. The looks of what the F*&^% is that was on their faces. I would smile, roll one up, and enjoy watching the smiles form on their happy faces as they exhaled.  

I did not know what terpenes were when I started growing weed. I just knew I loved strains that tasted as good as they smelled. Through lots of trial and error, I realized that magic would happen if I nurtured the plant the right way and meticulously handed trimmed every nugget—pure blissful, lung-expanding, trichome-covered, funky, skunky magic. I fell in love with cannabis because it was like nothing I had ever experienced. I loved cultivating it because every strain was unique and had different needs. Unlocking their potential was like solving a puzzle. I knew I had "unlocked" a specific cultivar by getting that "smell through the bag" odor and "taste it on the tip of your tongue" flavor long after you exhale.

Strain selection helped too.  

Those were simpler times. You could still find cannabis genetics crossed with original landraces, and the genetic diversity in cannabis was rich. There were actual sativas and indicas. Not the everything is a hybrid situation that we have today in the THC arms race taking place in the regulated recreational markets across the country.

With regulation came mandatory testing, a needed mandate to make sure that quality, pesticide-free cannabis was being produced for the market, and tamper-evened seal requirements for all cannabis products. The latter made it much harder to see and smell cannabis flowers on the shelves at dispensaries. The unfortunate side effect for the consumer is a disconnection from the product and reliance on the information on the test results. We have bombarded people with too much data. Data that without proper education has moved them away from making choices from an instinctive personal connection with the plant to the pervasive question asked at dispensaries too many times a day to count "What has the highest THC?"

Before the passing of Prop 64 at dispensaries like Barbary Coast in San Francisco, the weed was kept in huge jars behind the counter, and as a customer, you could have multiple jars pulled down and opened up so you could see and smell the nuggets inside. You had the opportunity to say, "This is the one!" and have your bag weighed out right in front of you while you helped the budtender select the perfect cannabis flowers.

Standardized Testing in the California Cannabis Market,

a Blessing, and a Curse.

At Legion of Bloom, we welcomed testing standards for the California Cannabis Market. But because of our decades of experience as cannabis cultivators, we also put a lot of value on other constituents of the cannabis plant besides THC. We have been testing for and putting the top ten terpenes and top six cannabinoids on our products for over five years. We have spent countless hours starting in 2016 educating our retail partner's customer consultants, i.e., budtenders, on the importance of terpenes and how they are the powerhouse for taste, flavor, and the specific experience one feels with a particular strain. We produced content for our website, Talking Terpenes with the LEGION, introducing the 10 top terpenes found in cannabis. We have understood that the value of the cannabis experience goes far beyond the percentage of tetrahydrocannabinol. This education process has been an uphill battle as brand after brand joins the THC arms race. Then the race to the bottom with their price ensues, and eventually, they fizzle out when someone else comes along with a lower price and a higher THC. This hype-based loss leader mentality creates short-term gains while reinforcing to the customer that MGs of THC per $1 spent is the only metric to consider when making a purchase. That is like only having one color in your pallet to paint with; there will not be any depth to the art that you create.

The education piece is so important to empower cannabis enthusiasts that their experience with the plant is far more than an individual constituent. It will take collaboration with all the stakeholders in the industry. Breeders, cultivators, brands, distributors, testing agencies, and retailers will need to come together to do the hard work of elevating the education of the plant to the individual at the register making the purchasing decision.

REMEMBER, CANNABIS IS SO MUCH MORE THAN THC!

If not, the industry is moving toward a mundane existence where the hindsight of short-term thinking dilutes our culture, and at the end of the day, everyone suffers.

We do not have all the answers, but we know we have a problem.  

What do you look for when selecting cannabis products?

Do you have a preferred terpene or terpene combination?

What do you think the industry should be doing as a whole to combat this issue?

What organizations are doing good work to help raise the education tide so that all ships can rise together?

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About the author:

Troy Meadows is a Co-Founder and the Legion of Bloom's Chief Marketing Officer.

Before founding LEGION with four of his close friends in 2015, he cultivated under prop 215 in California's medical days for notable dispensaries, including Harborside, Berkley Patients Group, and Patients Care Collective. He has over 17 years of cannabis cultivation experience. He has a passion for sustainability, which he has used to help guide LEGION on the path to being a more sustainable company.