Blue Dream, and Some Fringe Benefits to Destigmatizing Cannabis

First, I’d like to apologize for missing last week. I’d meant to write a brief post explaining, but I just didn’t have it in me for even that. You see, it turns out that that amazing Guster concert that my family went to might have been a bit of a spreader event for this most recent strain of COVID. Which sucks. Having been so careful during the whole of the pandemic, I’ve never come close to anything that could be considered a spreader or super spreader event, outside of the possibility of school functions once the kids were all back in physical classrooms together. Even talking about it almost feels like I’m being judgemental about the fact that there was a concert and that we went to it. I don’t really feel that way, but saying I was somewhere that COVID got around feels icky.

So, anyway, yeah, I got COVID a little over a week ago, and so did almost everyone in the family (somehow my immunosuppressed kid dodged it, of all people). So I was toast. I also hadn’t used any cannabis in days at that point, and while I obviously don’t need to be currently using and under the effects of a strain in order to review it, I guess I just needed a short break from cannabis in general while I was feeling so gross. Luckily, this wasn’t nearly as bad a version of COVID as it has been, and in particular the version all five of us got a couple years ago (the only time all of us got it at the same time). All that being said, any THC use made me feel so much worse the first time around that I decided to just go cold turkey while I was still feeling any symptoms, which made it five days without any THC this time, and the longest break I’ve taken from THC at least since I started working in the industry, and perhaps even longer than that since I had a med card and so easy access.

And that’s not even the full preamble that I planned. For that, I want to take a beat to talk about a particular fringe benefit to the continuing destigmatization of cannabis in our culture. Sure, we think about easier and more consistent access to better and better quality weed, we have more product types to choose from than ever before (I just discovered in the last two weeks that there are cannabis suppositories for instance), and people are not being prosecuted (in most places) for normal cannabis use. And there are so many others. But the one that has had the biggest impact on me in the last week is the fact that our kids are growing up in a world where people aren’t being villainized as much as or to the degree that they used to be for using cannabis.

I mention this because this past week I told my kids exactly what it is that I do for a living, and what my personal cannabis use is and why I do it. Like most conversations of substance that I intend to have with someone, I play it through in my head somewhat compulsively for longer than I’d like, looking for variations that may occur, in order to be as prepared as possible for any direction the conversation may go. It feels like the way high level politicians approach debate prep, where they have stand-ins for their opponents, and they rehearse their own talking points, but also practice responding to different answers their opponents may give or challenges that they present. Except it’s all me, and it’s usually all in my head.

So, to say that I had planned for all conceivable responses from my kids to the revelation that their dad sells cannabis feels like an understatement. So of course, I sat them down, prepared for the worst but hoping for the best, and they responded in the most unsurprised, non-nonplussed humans I’ve ever seen.

Me:
“So, guys, before the beginning of the school year, so I guess I’ve been trying to do this all summer, I wanted to talk to you about exactly what I do at work. I feel like you guys know that we’ve been a little vague about what plants I work with specifically. Before I say it, does anyone have a guess?”

One of the kids:
“You said it’s like alcohol, it’s like medicine but some people use it for fun.”

Me:
“Yeah, but do you know the name of the plant? No? So, it’s cannabis. Some people call it ‘weed’…”

Kids:
*Looking at me, waiting for the big reveal.

Me:
“Cannabis? Some people call it marijuana, but I don’t like that name, and I can explain later if you want…”

Kids:
…

Me:
“Pot? Weed?”

Kids:
“Okay.”

Me:
“Not a big deal then? Cool. Cool cool.”

I could keep trying to recreate the conversation in this memetic form, but I’ll spare you. Basically, it’s not that they didn’t care at all, but they hadn’t been indoctrinated into the cult of DARE, or some other shitty misinformation fear factory that lead a generation or more of kids to be taught that weed is a drug and all drugs are bad. And you’re bad if you use them.

I’ve written previously about how I didn’t actually try cannabis until college, because I had been slowly digging myself out of that mindset for years at that point. I didn’t refrain from smoking pot in high school primarily because of health reasons or fear of getting in trouble. These were also true, but they paled in comparison to the fact that I just had a moral objection to using drugs, just like I’d been taught. Honestly, given that I otherwise saw myself as an outsider, an iconoclast, the one line that hooked me as a pre-teen being this one is weird. Maybe it was those other factors – health and getting in trouble – that made this one stick. But I’m glad it’s not just gone in me, but it seems to be greatly diminished in this generation of kids.

To wrap up this pre-review bit, I would also note that my kids had legitimately curious questions about cannabis, about my job, and about my personal use, including asking if that’s the smell they smell coming from my brother’s basement when we’re visiting, which was hilarious. But most of the questions were really thoughtful and showed a level of maturity that I wasn’t sure I was going to see given that they’re 12, 10, and 10. But you know what they didn’t ask about? What it feels like to get high. There was no curiosity about that, because it seems like they already understand that because everyone uses it differently and for different reasons, that there wasn’t going to be a single or simple answer. They themselves brought up that they look forward to being adults so that they can – I shit you not – decide if they want to use it in the first place, and how they might if they did decide to do so. One noted that they have to always take the highest dose of medicine, so they’ll probably have a high tolerance, and I have no idea where they got that idea, but cool. And another simply said “I’ll probably try edibles, since I don’t like the idea of smoking.” Mind you, they were talking very specifically about use well after they turn 21. I did cut the conversation off at this point, once they had wandered into that territory, but again, I was so impressed with how mature they were about it.

Okay, so I’m trying to keep the review brief because I let this all get long (as always), and this week’s strain is so popular and well-known that it really doesn’t need me. It’s like if I endorsed a presidential candidate. The subject is so much more famous than me that my recommendation could go unnoticed. Which is almost how I approach this one at work too. I’m doing Blue Dream no disservice by not telling every customer about it, as this is a strain that so many people will get even if that’s not what they were in for, because they know it that well, and like it that much.

Blue Dream’s exact origins seem to be unclear, but the strain is about 20 years old, at least, and probably originated in California. It’s a hybrid of Blueberry (a cross of Purple Thai and landrace Thai) and Haze (itself a cross of the landraces Thai and South American), and while often listed as a Sativa, is really a true Hybrid considering its lineage. This Blue Dream is yet another phenomenal example of Divine Buds’ cultivation of these strains with old school genetics (see Acapulco Gold, Blue Widow, Jack Herer, Northern Lights, and even Super Lemon Haze). I see a lot of straight lines to Thai in their strains. I think I need to find some plain old Thai.

Anyway, Blue Dream reeks of skunk (and Skunk), with a peppery and almost cheesy pungence that almost but doesn’t quite overtake the sweetness underneath from the Blueberry, which takes on an almost citrusy quality. This is another bud that you know is going to be a good high. I would have known this would be a good high 25 years ago when I had first started smoking and didn’t know anything about this. You can just tell.

Okay, a half dozen or so reviews in, praises sung time and time again, and I finally have to say anything less than laudatory about Divine Buds. And this is purely aesthetic, and has zero bearing on quality. And I have this complaint about other cultivators too, so I’m not trying to single them out. I wish their flower came in jars. There, I said it. They grow some if not most of my favorite strains, and their nugs get a little flat in the bags they come in. Which, seriously, only affects me in as much as – as I have noted before – I take all of my own pictures of the flower and concentrates I review, and I just wish Divine Buds’ nugs had a little more camera appeal, and literally only because I’m selfish and want prettier pictures for this blog. That’s it! Divine Buds, if you’re reading, this is one of those “if I don’t ever have even the tiniest criticism then I feel like I’m not being unbiased enough” situations. But, as usual, I digress.

The nugs I’ve seen from this batch of Blue Dream are goodly sized, the “fat thumb” sort, medium green speckled with paler greens, with small clusters of brown pistils, and appearing quite dense (seemingly as a result of the aforementioned bag-related compression). They’re sticky to the touch, which is nice, and give a bit more than they look like they would, given the appearance of density.

The smoke is clean and smooth, making for an easy hit. The flavor collapses into a classically bitter herbal from the more complex aroma, but leaves a distinct lingering of skunk. I’ve been getting back into skunky strains recently. I almost wrote “as usual, not a fan of skunky,” but then I realized I’ve been saying that kind of thing more and more recently, either here or in person, so maybe I am a fan of skunky, and I just hadn’t had good skunky strains in a while? Anyway, it sounds foul, but it was very enjoyable. Like my review of Khalifa Kush, sometimes a strain is simultaneously a model of modern high quality cultivation, yet somehow still feels nostalgic and ignites a sense memory from a time that it couldn’t have been there. I guess it’s possible that I smoked old school Blue Dream back in college, but who knows at this point. This strain gets me there.

Which brings me to the high. It’s upliftingly euphoric, riding the line between a functional high and a hardly functional stoned. It feels like one hit more or less and it could tip either way, except that it walks that tightrope over a greater margin or error than a single hit. There’s also a calmness to the high, both head and body, coming from the Blueberry, which I have praised before, as far back as my first review of Blue Widow.

So I’ll leave it there for you. Blue Dream. It’s a new-ish classic, one of the more famous and popular strains around, and for good reason. It gets the job done. It’s a great high, it’s got a great body feel, and the distinct aroma and flavor of finely cultivated cannabis.

If you don’t know, now you know.