Marijuana like fine wine

Interesting article in the Chicago Sun-Times, mostly notable for the fact that I have rarely seen, in a mainstream publication, the mention of marijuana as a connoisseur item (at least, other than in Oakland).

“It’s like a fine glass of wine where you twirl it, swish it in your mouth. You savor it,” Kate said. “Some kinds are evergreen-smelling. Some are orangey, sticky. We like to try different strains and compare.”

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39 Responses to Marijuana like fine wine

  1. Danas says:

    This is my kind of thing. I hate wine but love tasting different types of cannabis: homegrown, outdoor, organic or chemical, afghani or northern lights…. mmmm makes me drool every time I think about it…. but that makes me a mindless criminal according to the law :/

  2. Francis says:

    Well this story isn’t going to be helpful to the prohibs’ argument that while you can enjoy alcohol for the “taste,” people only use cannabis to “get high.”

  3. allan says:

    oh no… what this means is that now the Prohibs can say

    “not only do the get high… but they’re so delusional they think they’re connoisseurs! They enjoy the flavor… pffft!

    Next thing will be that people get high and have sex! Druggie perverts! Oh… and and… and then artists and writers and musicians will claim that it sparks the creative processes! PFFFT…

    (that was my short-version Linda impersonation, if I’d thought of it then I woulda gone full blown on Halloween and scared all you kids!))

  4. claygooding says:

    thanks for taking it easy on us allan.

    wait until they figure out that every strain has a different buzz and that by changing the grow fertilizers and enhancers you can change the buzz every time you grow it.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      One of the things that so annoys me about prohibitionists is the not uncommon perception many share that pot is pot is pot. They simply can not grasp the reality that the reason the cartels would die practically overnight after the establishment of a reasonable, regulated market is because their products sucks just a degree or two less than prohibition itself. I never forget to think just how lucky I am that people over the Internet aren’t available for strangling when I run into one of the morons who thinks that it should be legalized, with Dr. El-assholey or his equivalent put in charge of production. No people, that’s no way to put the cartels out of business. He’s the only thing that keeps cartel brick weed from being bottom of the barrel.

      • darkcycle says:

        Here-here. Let’s see, Sour Diesel..organic grown in good old soil…let’s try some….Bubble-bubble, snork, Pfhhhhhh….
        Hmmm…sweet, kinda spicy with a taste that’s both familiar and elusive, after taste is sweet-fuely, sort of berry-like. Head hits right away, making my fingers clumsy….
        Nope. Nothing at all like wine, wine tastes bitter and gives me killer indigestion.
        I like this better. *holding up a large bud*

    • Chris says:

      I try to have many different strains on hand at once. It’s definitely not all the same.

  5. AeronwyRemembers says:

    .
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    “Despite strong anti-drug rhetoric from U.S. officials, State Department cables recently made available by Wikileaks show that the U.S. has been aware of the drug ties of one of Honduras’ most powerful and wealthy individuals since 2004, yet has continued to support him. U.S. military and police assistance is also aiding the businessman, landowner and coup-backer Miguel Facussé, in a campaign of repression targeted at the campesinos whose land Facussé wants for production of palm oil. Despite the objections of 87 members of Congress, U.S. funding for the Honduran military and police continues, even though reports continue to emerge of police involvement in killings, such as in the recent case of the son of a university rector, and journalists and human rights activists continue to be targeted, with impunity.”

    http://pubrecord.org/world/9813/wikileaks-reveals-honduran-dealer/

  6. Duncan20903 says:

    You’d better believe if it were legal that there would be an industry that caters to the cannabis snobs, right down to the cannabis equivalent of the “swish and spit” wine tasting professionals and amateurs of today.

    • darkcycle says:

      And the variations…how about a Cali outdoor? There are so many trainwreck variants out there that Humboldt trainwreck and Orange trainwreck are nothing alike. “Mountain Grown” has real meaning, a highland and a lowland of the same variety will likewise be completely different.
      Hmmm, the imagination runs wild ahead of the palate…MMMMMMM!

      • Plant down Babylon says:

        Big Island Kine is ALL outdoor grown!
        That’s why we voted in the ‘peaceful sky’ law to stop the INCESSANT helicopters from flying! (didn’t seem to make a difference however. Where do they get the funding?!)

        But i agree,darkcycle, Outdoor grown ROCKS!

  7. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    There must be something in the water in Chicago, the Know Nothings there seem particularly stupid there. I guess that’s how the politicians there get away with saying that “we don’t want to be like California” despite being at the absolute bottom of the list for dealing with their State’s addiction problem. I mean at the bottom of the list by objective measures, they’re pretty darn good at producing subjective nonsense.

    The poster who calls himself “ru-connected” is such a moron I wouldn’t be shocked to learn he’s actually a pothead intent on making the Know Nothing prohibitionistss look bad. No, I don’t think it’s likely, just within the realm of possibility.

    • darkcycle says:

      Yeah. that’s pretty awful. Like an illiterate ActivistOne. My mom always told me “Never argue with a fool, people might not know the difference”. It’s sage advice. Idiots like that are best marveled at from a distance and not approached.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      OK, no doubt about it, “ru-connected” is a fraud.

      travispaula

      11:40 AM on November 4, 2011

      my friend’s step-sister makes $81 every hour on the computer. She has been out of work for 9 months but last month her check was $7401 just working on the computer for a few hours. Go to this site xxxxxxxxxx.com

      ru-connected
      11:53 AM on November 4, 2011

      This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore ru-connected. Show DetailsHide Details

      Another pothead on the loose.

    • Francis says:

      You’d think that people from Chicago would understand the folly of prohibition better than anyone.

      (One note about the story: that “user” in the title grates on me a little. How about “consumer” or “enthusiast”? Or am I being overly sensitive?)

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .
        Are you really asking the guy who self identifies as a person who enjoys cannabis, calls certain controversial laws “cannabis patient protection laws” and cruses Google because I have to type out a certain word starting with the letter m in order to find the stories I wish to proselytize under if it’s OK to not call yourself a luser, or is that just a rhetorical question?

        It annoys me to no end as well Francis. But how about aficionado? The only problem I have with that word is spelling it. How the heck did it end up with two Os and only one F? I think someone down at the dictionary factory was asleep at the switch.

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .
          Oops sorry for the typo; a user is not a luser.

        • Matthew Meyer says:

          Yeah, just for fun I found and rewrote a news blurb on an alcohol orgy:

          Thousands of [alcohol users] will be at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick this weekend for the 33rd Annual Tri-Cities Wine Festival.
          There will be wine tasting from 95 wineries from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana — featuring 450 wines.
          The judging for the event started Tuesday, and the winners will be announced tomorrow night.
          Organizers say the wine festival is not just for [alcohol users], but for anyone who enjoys our region’s wines.
          The event is open to the public, but you must be at least 21-years old to attend. Tickets can be purchased at Ticketmaster, or the Toyota Center ticket office.

          http://www.kvewtv.com/article/2011/nov/04/tri-cities-wine-festival/

  8. allan says:

    Here’s a book review that might be of interest to one or two here:

    Prohibition makes an evidence-based comeback
    The Prohibitionists of 1920s America could only look in envy at the way that ban-happy moralists have stormed the corridors of power today.

    Today Snowdon sees Prohibitionists once again gaining the upper hand against liberals (this at a time when there exists a paradoxical situation where you get many so-called ‘liberals’ pushing for illiberal laws). However, he is quick to point out the differences between the early twentieth-century teetotal movement and its current incarnation: ‘Unlike their forebears, “alcohol control” groups are not in the business of moral suasion, nor do they rely on donations from the public. Instead they are overtly political lobby groups run by a small number of media-savvy professionals campaigning for what might be called “little prohibitions”.’ These ‘fear entrepreneurs’ use the media to generate unnecessary moral panics around substances ranging from so-called date-rape drug Rohypnol to the stimulant Meow Meow. [emphasis added]

  9. allan says:

    hmmm… i like the sounds a changing mind makes, kind of like I like a good wine or puff of some tasty herb:

    Crossing The Border: A Case For Legalizing Drugs

    Perhaps opinions have changed. I know mine has. 30 years ago, I was against narcotics legalization. Now, reluctantly, I support a policy I call legalization with stigmatization: if you work in a transport job — a pilot or bus driver, for example — you must submit to random drug use tests, like the U.S. military does.

    Drug trafficking empowers terrorists and criminals. For the good of the U.S., as well as Mexico, we must open the dialog on drug legalization.</i

    It appears there may be a discussion but my old ‘puter hates Disqus…

  10. allan says:

    hmmm… hope no one minds if I post ’em as I find ’em.

    Our answer to Gil “Droop Dogg” Kerlikowske, Norm Stamper, talks about the Occupy movement.

    I was in Seattle for WTO, with my family, we marched in the big march from the stadium. When we got into downtown and I smelled the gas and saw the burnt dumpsters I knew we’d walked far enough, my kids were way little and didn’t need that version of life yet. By the time we got back uphill to the car and found our way onto I-5, police cars were coming from everywhere, heading into downtown.

    The Seattle HempFest is way more fun… I’ll havta get there in 2012. Took my kids to that too when they were wee ones, actually got interviewed – just picked outta the crowd – by one of the Seattle papers. Delivered a carload (literally carLOAD) of fresh vegies from a local farmer a few years back to HF… it’s a great gig and one hell of a lot of people. (I always find someone I know who invites me to the back of the booth for a break.)

    Anyway… I’d been wondering what Norm thought about all these protestations.

    Norm Stamper on the Occupy Wall Street movement

    He’s learned the hard way that large-scale demonstrations inevitably devolve into debates about police tactics, likely much to the glee of the bankers and politicians who initially are the focus.

    “Divide and conquer,” Stamper said. “It’s as old as we are as people.”

    First lesson: Use of chemical agents—tear gas, pepper spray, etc.—against non-violent demonstrators is fundamentally wrong.

    “Use tear gas and you’re going to make far more militant those demonstrators whose tactics have otherwise been nonviolent,” Stamper said. “It doesn’t mean they’re necessarily going to throw rocks, but they’re going to join scores, if not hundreds or thousands, of others who are turning their focus from the economy and jobs and corporate greed and irresponsible regulation of businesses to the police.”

    When that happens, he said, law enforcement loses credibility and reputations are tainted.

    • darkcycle says:

      Norm is Great. Not so much then, but I gotta admit…he’s come ’round.
      He never goes into the Heat he took from..everybody during WTO. The pressure to try and control that demonstration was terrific and as he said, the more forceful they were the worse it got.
      And I would like to point out that the Marches all started as feeder marches that first day. They all came from different parts of the city, meaning that after that one big march, people dispersed in groups to about five different smaller protests. After the Unions mostly dispersed there were several different centers the police were trying to control, with protestors moving pretty freely between them. That was when they got overwhelmed. Not by the numbers of protestors, but by the fact that they were spread from the downtown Westin Hotel (where Clintoon stayed) to the Seattle Center and all over the pike-pine corridor. If I remember and I do, they were using Belltown as a corridor. Later that night, well after the violence started they were able to push the protestors together at the foot of Pike St and drive them up into Capitol Hill. Another monumental mistake. Capitol Hill is the place many of the protestors came from, it’s students and artists and the heart of the GLBT culture in this City. Those folks all came out to HELP the protestors battle Police….Oh boy, I was stamping my feet and howling with glee at that one…

      • darkcycle says:

        By the way, Occupy Bellingham is a hoot. In contrast to all the other Occupy Camps there is no police presence. At all! Not one cop is getting overtime to glare at the protestors. They don’t even have a taciturn Meter Maid (oooh, they’re really really grumpy here) cruising up and down in her cushman scooter.
        During the Protest marches the crowd will swarm into an intersection and block it, but, being Bellingham, they’d block it for exactly one light cycle, then clear it. Wouldn’t want to inconvenience anybody with our civil disobedience. Here it’s civil disobedience, emphasis on the “civil”.

  11. vickyvampire says:

    Damn it Allan good Link on Snowdon Book could never read it though would be spiting up a frigging load of freight train of nails just hate the the pleasure killers Prohibitionists and suppressors of any kind.Its beyond insidious at this point in this techno society are we no smarter now,should have learned from past mistakes.

  12. AeronwyRemembers says:

    ‘insidious’ .. Thanks Vikky; the perfect word to describe prohibition; I’m going to use it immediately!

    http://www.kutnews.org/post/crossing-border-case-legalizing-drugs

    And thanks Allan for the link!

  13. ezrydn says:

    Darkcycle,

    I worked under Norm when he was Asst Chief for
    SDPD. Back then, I would have never thought of him as he is today. He was more an “admin” person than an officer. I also remember him as not being very personable to his rank and file. Wonder what happened to change him?

    • darkcycle says:

      It’s the crucible. Somewhat the same as us, I’d guess.

    • allan says:

      I haven’t met Norm but I’ve talked to him and he seems a nice, caring guy. And really smart… I sure hope LEAP keeps pushing the point that a true peer of Drug Kzar Droop Dogg is willing and able to debate him (and make hamburger of him).

      God I wish some org would start a campaign publicly vilifying Gil’s lying ass.

      Hey ez… keep your eye out for a foxy blond gringa abuela friend o’ mine, name of Lorraine. Knowing how small the world really is I have no doubt your paths will cross. The woman has a mind like a steel trap, prolly one of the smartest people I’ve ever known (warning – do NOT play Scrabble® w/ her!)

  14. darkcycle says:

    Besides, as an administrator (or Military officer), there’s things you just don’t do around the rank and file. Like question your own administration…

  15. Nunavut Tripper says:

    Just found this gem of information over on THC Farmer.
    Seems that cannabis is not an aphrodisiac after all.it actualy ruins your sex life. No wonder I’m down to three times a week…damn.

    Studies suggest that THC has an inhibitory effect on the penis muscle
    http://www.livescience.com/12825-mar…-function.html

    Pot Use May Mellow Out Men’s Sexual Function
    by Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
    February 11, 2011 11:35 AM

    Marijuana users sometimes report that pot enhances their desire for sex. But a new review of research on marijuana and sexual health suggests that male smokers could be courting sexual dysfunction.

    Research on the topic is contradictory and few studies are high-quality, said study researcher Rany Shamloul, a physician with appointments at the University of Ottawa and Queen’s University in Canada as well as the University of Cairo. But recent research – including the finding that the penis contains receptors for marijuana’s active ingredient – suggests that young men may want to think about long-term effects before rolling a joint, Shamloul told LiveScience.

    “It’s a strong message to our younger generations and younger men,” Shamloul said.

    Shamloul reported his findings online Jan. 26 in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

    Sex and drugs

    Scientists first began to study marijuana and sex in the 1970s. Some researchers found that cannabis seemed to have the effect of a love drug; in one 1982 study published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 75 percent of male pot smokers said the drug enhanced their sex lives. Meanwhile, another study published in the same journal the same year found that erectile dysfunction was twice as common in marijuana users – not such good news for lit lotharios. Other research suggests a dose effect, in which small amounts of marijuana have little impact on sexual dysfunction, but more marijuana makes for fewer erections.

    But problems are rife with this research, Shamloul said, because none of the studies used validated measurement techniques when surveying men about their sexual function. The different questions used could skew the responses, as could the drug itself, he noted in the review. The 39 percent of men in the original 1982 study who said marijuana extended the duration of sex may just have been experiencing the drug’s altering effects on the perception of time.

    What most concerns Shamloul is a study published in 2010 in the journal European Urology. In that study, researchers found receptors for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, in penis tissue from five male patients and six rhesus monkeys. These receptors were mainly in the smooth muscle of the penis, Shamloul said. Additional lab studies suggest that THC has an inhibitory effect on the muscle.

    “This is a more serious effect on the erectile function because the smooth muscle makes up 70 percent to 80 percent of the penis itself,” Shamloul said.

    Men and marijuana

    Marijuana use is widespread, especially among men at their sexual peak in life, Shamloul said. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports that 162 million people worldwide use marijuana each year. More than 22 million use it daily. That makes understanding long-term effects important, Shamloul said.

    People tend to focus on the possible upsides of marijuana more than the possible downsides, said Sharon Johnson, a professor of social work at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, who has studied marijuana use and sexual health in the past. Her study, published in 2004 in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, found that marijuana users have a slightly elevated risk of inhibited orgasms and pain during sex. (Johnson was not involved in Shamloul’s review study.)

    Research on sexual health and marijuana use in women is even less common than studies in men, Shamloul said.

    “What we are really missing are clinical studies,” Shamloul said. “We are stuck with only animal studies and molecular studies, and some clinical studies done in the ’60s and ’70s, most on a very small number of men… We need well-designed, placebo-control studies examining marijuana’s effect in both the short-term and long-term.”
    __________________
    ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      I’m really pissed about the $1500 that I spent on my vasectomy now. Do you know how much pot you can buy for $1500? You know, that’s probably $2500 in constant 2011 dollars, it has been a number of years. Do you know how much pot you can buy for $2500??

      Where the heck do they dig up their research subjects? Why in the world do they think that publishing “research” which no one inside our world will recognize as familiar is an effective propaganda tool?

      working link:
      http://www.livescience.com/12825-marijuana-men-sexual-function.html

    • allan says:

      gawd I love being abnormal… at 60 I can’t say that’s true at all. Let’s see, I’ve smoked regularly since I was 20, had my first child at 40 and at 60 I, well… libido is doing fine. (we don’ wanna scare the kids… old people still having sex… eeewwwwwww…).

      And it’s not so much about “enhanced” or “debilitating” effects. It’s more about lightening up and maybe even guffawing with your also-stoned partner whilst foolin’ around… silly and sex aren’t mutually exclusive!

    • darkcycle says:

      “People tend to focus on the possible upsides of marijuana more than the possible downsides, said Sharon Johnson, a professor of social work at the University of Missouri”
      Wha?!!!!

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .
        I sure can’t hear myself saying that it would be a bad thing if wee Willy O’Wanker had a little less life in him. He had this bad habit of always being pointed in the direction of heartache and pain. Well he still does, but with age comes wisdom and experience and nowadays I mostly ignore him when he encourages mischief.

  16. darkcycle says:

    Q: What is worn under the Kilt?
    A: Nothing’s worn under the Kilt, it’s all in proper working order.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      Well since you brought up kilts…a picture of me great great grand daddy on me father’s side is on my living room wall, in full dress uniform of whatever they call (called?) the Scottish Army, he was some kind of high level officer. Only the manliest of men can get away with wearing a skirt you know. Dad was a Navy man, made it to Commander. Growing up in the Navy isn’t all that much fun. Especially since I favor Mom’s side of the family beyond being the old mens’ namesake.

      Mom’s side was from Ireland, and ended up in the US because the British came by the farm one day and took great grand dad’s prize pig in lieu of taxes due. Well, great grand dad didn’t like that at all, took exception, and promptly marched down to holding pen at the British Revenue Office in the middle of the very next night and stole it back, “to feed his poor starvin’ family” at least according to the officially approved family version. But there’s no doubt in my mind that he stole it back because it was his fucking pig, at least if great grand dad was anything like me (not unlikely since we share some DNA). Oh let’s not forget that he probably found the British annoying (also presumed on the basis of shared DNA). So anyway, in the “revenge is a dish best served cold” category, great grand dad ended up a wanted man and had to hop the next tramp steamer and went on the lam to America to avoid charges of income tax evasion and grand theft pig. There were no reports concerning the final disposition of the pig, though I think it safe to presume that there was no happy ending for him.

  17. Scott says:

    Cannabis also allows careful combinations of different types to create unique effects (what my friends and I call “salading”). For example, if one enjoys a more wild strain, but wants to smooth it out a bit, one can mix about 10-20% Granddaddy Purple into the bowl.

    The other way around works brilliantly. A mellow type drives the mix (70-80%), while adding some wild type brings an awesome texture to the effects.

    All two-way combinations bring another level to the ride that a single type of cannabis cannot match (even hybrids). Want more complexity? Add another type. Three-ways done right are like going from stereo to surround sound, adding what feels literally like an extra dimension to the effects.

    The challenge is finding the combinations (including ratios) that work right for the moment you’re in (e.g. hiking with Strawberry Cough and Granddaddy Purple combined, allowing the former to drive the effects).

    Cannabis connoisseurship is alive and well, and has an unlimited future as far as I can tell.

    I also find that vaporization, by removing the harmful effects of smoking and smoke (which I believe causes the minor cannabis hangover), taking away the smell (one can easily vaporize cannabis in a movie theater bathroom right before the movie starts, and no one likely knows), adds a degree of civility to cannabis (despite the contrasting bathroom example :)), and never to condescend upon those who prefer smoking it.

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