Is the bud a hit or miss for you all these days? It seems after Corona virus that all the weed slowly started going to shit. I mean yeah you find some good shit here and there but rarely or it gets snatched up really quick because all the real smokers well, know what's smoking. During corona everyone all of sudden had "exotic" weed. Eights all of a sudden $40 to $50 for shit you could get for $30. Then you have this shit going around that looks like dank and taste a bit like it but it fizzles out after a while and really isn't laced with enough THC and doesn't get you as high as you would expect. Then some of the dealers don't want to sell the higher end stuff because it costs them a arm and leg to get it. So it's more profitable them to sell weed with a lesser quality. I always feel like I'm searching for that "next pack" that will be "the one" I just remember the good stuff going around abundantly but now it's rare and rarer. Don't get me wrong I still get good shit like the Lemon cherry gelato and the runts packs but even then those aren't the hardest hitting strains. I do have a high tolerance I admit Rant over
legal has brought on a toll on quality. most the local market is "hang dried" killing any quality out the gate. even after 4 ish years for my area it's largely a hit n miss, but things are getting better.
It's not exactly legal to be growing weed where I live at and I don't have a single family dwelling so I really don't think of growing marijuana as a viable option right now. Tent gorilla grow maybe, but y'all have to stop telling people to grow your own weed as if it's as easy as just taking some seeds and throwing them in some soil in your window sill. It's actually Alot of work and takes a quite a bit of expertise to grow some real fire shit.
Well atleast I know I'm not THAT crazy for thinking these things. I can see this being a huge upsale for the legal market. "buy legal or smoke street weed that isn't going to get you high for long". Its like I run across a lot of bud that looks fire but isnt.
I live in an area where its legal to grow your own and give it away within the regs, but no rec sales. My brother lives a few minutes from the state line where he can easily cross into a rec sale state and just pick up an ounce) He comes down about 2-3 times per year to help bring in harvests, and collect a lot of the shake and trim for edibles. Even though we might have a pound of more of great cured weed ready smoke from a prior harvest, he always brings a few 8ths from the 2-3 dispensaries near him one state over. We do this to check out new strains for possible seed purchase, but also to compare whats the difference between a 70-80$ top shelf 1/8 at the dispensary, vs what I can grow (and what is costs me in lights, dirt etc to grow it, which is about $168 per plant over 5 months to yield between 8-12 ounces per plant dried) Either I'm getting better at growing, or the dispensary flower has been going down in potency and flavor for the last 2-3 years has been my experience, but don't just take my word for it. This was a test of some $10 no-name GG4 seeds I grew last year and some bud advertised as "top end" GG4 buds bought for about $70 an eighth a few months ago. My bud is below the store on top) My bud certainly has more trichs, especially when you zoom it in more, smells a lot stronger too (although I don't know how long the store weed was in the bag before my brother bought to accurately compare) While its totally possible that both events are occurring to some degree, I highly doubt its all my skill in the growing divide between what I grow, and what I buy for "research". Side note on this experiment, my buds where analyzed by Green Analytics lab in VA to have between 18-22% THC on average. The GG4 advertised at the store was said to be 24%, but I seriously doubt it from my experience and my smoking of it (although I wasn't about to pay over $100 and shipping to have the lab test out some buds my brother already overpaid imo $75 bucks for. I test my own occasionally to verify advertised THC from the seed bank, and to have documentation on the absence of herbicides, pesticides, metals or other compounds some people have (sometimes legit) concerns about in their weed. So long story short, yes, my anecdotal experience from my area of Virginia has been very similar to yours in which the quality of dispensary weed has been in noticeable decline (especially medical, and especially in states where medical is the only legal way) The good news is most people I know who legally home cultivate, still grow some excellent stuff, and its generally been getting better quality and more varied strains over the last few years. My best advice to you mate would be if you can't grow your own, find, fuck, or befriend someone who does grow well (the well is important, there are plenty of folks out there who can grow weed even shittier than what you can buy at a dispensary, though its usually just inexperience or budget / keeping things on the DL constraints.) Best of luck and hope this adds some anecdotal evidence in favor of your "declining weed quality" theory mate!
Man, I don't even know...I'm in Wyoming now, and happy for whatever these hustlers can find, in Utah I mostly didn't pay for it and ultimately weed just has one goal, get me high. Legal states might be levelin' off though, eventually you've done all you could with genetics.
