A probably pretty odd question about drugs.

OK this is gonna seem a bit weird. Basically when I turned 13 I started smoking "puff" (pronounced puff as in Puff The Magic Dragon, not 'poof'"). Any way, I used to smoke red seal, gold seal, soap bar etc. All hash basically (oh and slate too). However, just before I went to the USA Hydroponics were becoming popular and most dealers were setting up farms in the middle of nowhere and growing skunk weed. Named probably because it smells like skunks themselves.

Any way, I've been getting these random thoughts lately as to what is available these days. I moved away from Brixton in '99 and pretty much never went back (barring once in 2010 to sort my cousin's modem out) so I am completely out of touch. Is it all weed now? or is actually cannabis still doing the rounds?

I even had a dream about it lately. Obviously as much as I would love to roll up a double king sized doofer and get stoned out of my nut eventually it made me ill and paranoid etc.

 

Actual cannabis? It's all cannabis, just processed differently - https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/what-is-hashish

 

I meant solids, not weed. So Hashish would probably be the correct terminology?

 

I would imagine that home-growing brought down the price of raw cannabis, which is much bulkier and hard to "import" than hash. So people tend to buy it raw and process it however they like. I know someone who buys it and makes cannabis butter to help with his fibromyalgia.

Old-skool hash was nasty anyway, what with all the stuff ground in to bulk it up

 

Depends how old you are if you never smoke solids before around 1997-8 then you missed out is all i can say. You can still get the occasional 'pollen' but its not something that passes me by very often these days. Its all that OTT weed these days.

 

I started when I was 13. I guess that would have been about when my Bipolar started to really kick my ass. I used to love red seal for the smell/flavour, and gold seal, but they did used to give me one banging headache the next morning Still, hair of the dog and all that.

I smoked all the way until I was 20. So 7 years, at least a 'teenth a day. By the end I was going through at least an eighth a day (or a henry as we used to call it) and then all of a sudden one day it just didn't agree with me any more at all. Panic attacks, suicidal thoughts etc. I was also taking a lot of MDMA (powder and pills, smoking and swallowing) too to try and combat my moods. Of course, I didn't know it then but it was only once I came off the pills and started seeking medical help that I realised.

But yeah, solid was my thing. I hated weed. Sodding seeds bulking it out and popping in your face ! mind you saying that at least you didn't get hot rock burns all over yourself..

After I quit it was becoming more and more extreme. I mean, toward the end I was getting this skunk that was so strong it literally incapacitated you and some of my mates were literally hallucinating. Not good tbh, much preferred my solids you always knew where you were with that !

Thing is I suppose that any one who smokes it wants the cheapest and fastest way of getting there. Which is why I got this feeling that solids aren't around any more.

 

Well that lovely headache the next morning would have been the turpentine in the soap bar you smoked. Weed of any form is well known now to have a significant effect on developing teenage brains, so sadly you probably did a fair bit of damage.

In terms of availability now, although not a smoker myself, as far as I am aware, availability has never been higher. The rise of the darknet has connected more buyers with more dealers. Even when I did smoke, maybe about 10 years ago, it was very possible to get charas (an afghan hand rub style hash), kief which was compressed crystals and then varying degrees of really squishy stuff. Hard hash is a thing of the past as quite frankly, it shouldn't be that way.

 

It was '94 or so when I first tried it, so I either got the ass-end or, because I live in NI, it was always that way because the supply was overseen by some very shady groups.

If it has seeds then it's bad weed - Seeds mean it's been pollinated, but desirable weed comes from the unpollinated female plants, or sinsemilla. I still smoke it occasionally when my back freaks out to the point where I can't stand up or walk - Two, sometimes three times a year. I trust it a lot more than the only prescription medication that helps - even the doctor who prescribed it warned me to only take it when it was absolutely necessary.

That sounds like an indica, which is a body hit. It will make you "relaxed" (It's what I use for my back issues). Sativa, on the other hand - the group that functional California pot smokers use - is more of a head hit. It's the giggly, creative group of strains. Also, if you prefer it mild, never ever try edibles.

This channel is not only very entertaining, but might give you some insight in to today's state of affairs - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTtM96PSK0ttQLHRKsLSX_4T3SXW7uObv