Strained Love

(Well, almost without fear. At the last minute, I asked SFR not to identify me as the author of this essay.)

My chickening out not withstanding, there are good things happening for medical cannabis patients in New Mexico. The dispensary experience is restricted to card-carrying patients, and laws limiting plant counts mean we will never see the huge variety of strains available to our neighbors in Colorado. Yet, there is a positive twist: The strains we see on offer at the dispensary are all highly selected, well grown out, lovingly manicured and sealed in tamper-resistant packaging.

Santa Fe patients have a handful of local dispensaries to choose from. Lately, New Mexico Top Organics is among my favorites. All the strains on offer are displayed in wide-mouth glass jars. The patient is encouraged to visually inspect and smell the buds. To me, this is the best part of the trip. The aromatherapy alone is hugely rewarding; all the terpenes, the major olfactory components, come rushing up out of the jar, lighting up pleasure centers in the brain. Citrus and pine, rose petals and wine! I definitely follow my nose when opting for one strain over another.

What other factors should one consider? Get to the heart of the two basic kind of cannabis: sativa and indica. It's still not a simple descriptor, but strain geeks generally prize the sativa plants for their mood-elevating and energy-boosting properties. Indica fans cite the body effects and anxietyquelling effects of their favorite indica strains.

Really, the only way to learn how you react to a particular strain is to try it. A couple of the Top Organics buds that I find helpful are great examples of the difference. So here's a quick matchup of Blue Dream, a sativa-dominant plant, versus Tangerine Kush, an indicadominant offering. Labels say both buds contain 17 percent THC.

Like our New Mexico blue corn, Blue Dream really is blue. Actually, it's mostly the stem and shade leaves that turn blue as the plant matures, but the buds exhibit a Persian lime green, almost like an evergreen. On the nose, we find fresh lavender, blueberries, and a kerosene smell, often referred to as diesel. The oily nose effect promises a complex smoke, and Blue Dream delivers on the promise. There is a huge-mouth filling roundness upon inhalation, with floral high notes and a long mint finish. I felt an immediate rollicking high, with a decided sativa daydream follow-through.

Compare this to Tangerine Kush, which presents a frosty key lime color with excellent resin development and a distinct citrus aroma, paired with a mild sort of barnyard funk, referred to as sour. This should not be thought of as a negative; it's simply a characteristic of certain plant strains. Tangerine Kush smoke proves the point; there is no wildness or funk on the palate. The sparkling citrus upon inhalation morphs into a lingering orange liqueur finish.

Tangerine Kush is scarcely one dimensional; it's a complex mixture of fruit and resin-y hashish flavors, typical of these Hindu Kush-derived strains. I found this indica-dominant strain to be grounding and centering in its effect, like stepping out of the summer heat and into a shaded grove.

Before conducting this like-for-like comparison, I was certain that I would prefer the racy exoticism of Blue Dream. What I found was that sometimes a racy sativa is just too much for everyday medicine. But for creativity, thinking outside the box (way outside) and just plain fun, Blue Dream is the bomb. I'll be the guy smoking it at this summer's Rave on the Mesa. For dealing with the workaday world, its sorrows and challenges, I'll take the kush.

Santa Fe Reporter