MMJ - So close, yet so Farr.

I heard the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment was dead. Does this mean that the feds are gonna come after the medical marijuana clubs again?

-Puck Sautawneyphil

You are almost correct. The Rohrabacher-Farr amendment is now called the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer (try saying it three times fast) amendment, since Sam Farr retired last year. This amendment precludes federal law enforcement agencies from spending any money to go after medical marijuana businesses that are compliant with state laws. This amendment has protected cannabis clubs for four years. Last week, the House passed a new budget, but bowing to pressure from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, did not include this amendment. However, the Senate, being smarter about these things, included the amendment in its disaster aid and debt bill. The House passed the Senate’s bill, and now we have a three-month reprieve until the whole thing starts up again. Yay politics!

Going after law-abiding clubs is dumb. Big ups to the Senate for being smart, and big ups to the activists and lobbyists that got us three months. It’s now up to us to remind elected officials that their job is to follow the will of the people. Get to work. 

Are there technical differences between strains with names ending in “dream” “og” “kush” et al?

-@scottmaybstoned (via Twitter)

“Kush” used to refer to strains that originated in the Hindu Kush mountain regions near Pakistan and Afghanistan. These days it has become more of a superlative not identified with any particular strain. “Dream” is used to denote a “Haze” variant. Haze is an old-school super sativa with a hellacious buzz and it would make some people crazy anxious so folks started crossing it with indicas to smooth it out. So, when you cross a Blueberry with a Haze, you get Blue Dream. “OG” is just “OG.” It used to refer to a type of Kush, but now OG is its own flavor. 

The naming of weed strains is unregulated, and some unscrupulous club owners will give a random strain a fancy name if they think it will boost sales, but that sort of thing is rare these days, since there are so many brands and farms trying to create buzz (sorry) for their proprietary strains. Ed Rosenthal’s “Big Book of Buds” series is a good way to learn about all the strain names and genetic derivations. Have fun learning.