What's In A Name?
Playboy Africa|July 2020
The cannabis world ponders whether legalization and scientific advances will put an end to colorfully named strains (looking at you, Sour Diesel)
Michelle Lhooq
What's In A Name?

The names of familiar cannabis strains are intertwined with particular phases of my life. I think of them fondly, like old friends: Sour Diesel, the East Coast stalwart that kept me buzzed through college, our covert relationship conducted behind dorm room doors. Panama Red, the old-school hippie I fell in love with one sticky summer in New York. Blue Dream, the ethereal It girl that keeps showing up at parties in Los Angeles. There’s a thrill in discovering strains that light up my body’s chemistry; intimacy grows with the ones I seek out again and again.

But the allegation, heard in cannabis-friendly circles and the media, that such names are a big scam haunts me. Perhaps this conversation begins with the scientifically-backed discovery that classifying strains as sativa or indica is bunk, given that decades of cross-pollination between the two subspecies has transformed most of today’s strains into hybrids. Researchers at the University of Northern Colorado’s School of Biological Sciences tested the DNA of 30 cannabis strains to find not only that sativa/indica is a false binary but that strains of the same name can display widespread genetic inconsistencies. Even ostensibly identical strains grown by different breeders under variable soil and weather conditions can have divergent chemical profiles. So if two jars of Durban Poison can take on dissimilar tastes and effects when grown by two different brands, does that mean cannabis names reveal absolutely nothing?

This story is from the July 2020 edition of Playboy Africa.

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This story is from the July 2020 edition of Playboy Africa.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.