Do you think weed is better now than in the 70s, 80s and 90s?

[TomH]

I did a simple search and my stoned arse didn’t see anything like this, but it seems like a question than has to have been asked before!

Is weed better today than it was in decades past?
I didn’t smoke in the 60s, not idea what it was like, but in the 70s and 80s, I had some of the greatest weed I can possibly imagine. Aromas that just apparently don’t exist anymore!
I used to regularly get something called “Purple Sierra”, it was purple and smelled like a Christmas tree farm.
My buddy used to get thai stick that a pinner share by 4 people would render all of us wasted!
I smoked some African weed that was like mushrooms! I sat in my yard and watched grass grow for a few hours!
I can also remember some skunk that smelled like Pepe le’ pew’s ass pipe!

Today, I have froot loops, berry and skunk that even occasionally smells a little! Even my own weed doesn’t compare to those aromas (in my memory)!

Now, the weed today is probably more potent, but I’m not sure I’d check off the “better” box though. Just way different!

In my humble opinion, I prefer the weed from my memories, but I’m pleased with the weed from my garden!

Your experience and stories welcomed!

 

[GoodShit97]

I've got no input on the 70s, 80s, or 90s, I'm not old enough lol.
I only started smoking in like 2002, but the weed definitely seemed better, was also a lit stinkier!!! The stuff I can get now is what I call "Instagram weed" it's only good in photos. It has no taste/smell or high at all. These new cookie/cake strains are all overrated, I may give away/donate the rest of my cake/cookie crosses as they just lack potency

 

[Pipecarver]

Well I've been smoking it since the 60's and although a few memorable smokes I think today's weed blows the doors off the old stuff. Flavour, circumstances, and age play a roll in how high you get or remember getting high.
We smoked leaf in my teens and got high and enjoyed it. Some was probably in the 5-7% thc range. We've grown tolerant and crap weed is now what? 15% thc

We used to have " weed" you hide behind bleachers & wait for a guy to slap a bag in your hand after you've paid for it. Now we have 15,000,000+ strains and our local liqueur store sells it with maybe 100 available types with higher percentages of thc than we ever dreamed of smoking.

 

[MDK]

I feel like it has to be better today just looking at the dirt in the old high times mags. However, what we have today generally sucks compared to what we had from around 2000-2012

Then cookies hit and it all became the same. I'm in a few Facebook groups and for instance this guy was showing off his seed collection, trying to diss someone who said he didn't know shit. He is going through the list, hundred dollar packs, 500 packs, these here these seeds...1k a pack. Those seeds gelato 45 x sunset sherbet bx1. What the fuck. I just don't understand why you'd pay 1k for that. Wack. All the crosses were cake runtz papaya cookie...all the shit that any and everyone is crossing

 

[GoodShit97]

Those seeds gelato 45 x sunset sherbet bx1. What the fuck. I just don't understand why you'd pay 1k for that. Wack. All the crosses were cake runtz papaya cookie...

Same as scumbucket beleaf...

 

[growsinse79]

I did a simple search and my stoned arse didn’t see anything like this, but it seems like a question than has to have been asked before!

Is weed better today than it was in decades past?
I didn’t smoke in the 60s, not idea what it was like, but in the 70s and 80s, I had some of the greatest weed I can possibly imagine. Aromas that just apparently don’t exist anymore!
I used to regularly get something called “Purple Sierra”, it was purple and smelled like a Christmas tree farm.
My buddy used to get thai stick that a pinner share by 4 people would render all of us wasted!
I smoked some African weed that was like mushrooms! I sat in my yard and watched grass grow for a few hours!
I can also remember some skunk that smelled like Pepe le’ pew’s ass pipe!

Today, I have froot loops, berry and skunk that even occasionally smells a little! Even my own weed doesn’t compare to those aromas (in my memory)!

Now, the weed today is probably more potent, but I’m not sure I’d check off the “better” box though. Just way different!

In my humble opinion, I prefer the weed from my memories, but I’m pleased with the weed from my garden!

Your experience and stories welcomed!

Nope.

 

[growsinse79]

Best answer

 

[rocj77]

I started smoking in the early 90s and while the majority of the stuff cant compete with any of the modern stuff, I had some really top shelf stuff in the mid and late 90s that I have yet to find anything that can beat it. I have a theory which is probably wrong, but I think a lot of those strains in the 80s and 90s had a larger % of CBD and other cannabinoids that added to the effect and I tested this out a bit over the summer, I went to the dispensary and bought a few strains that were low 30s thc with minimal terp % and no cbd or cbg then I bought a few strains that were lower like 15-18% thc but had higher amounts of cbd and found a strain that had 13% thc and 16%cbd and personally I thought the 15% thc flower kicked the crap out of the 32% stuff I had bought along with it. I even ended up preferring a 2:1 cbd/thc strain to some of the high thc flower they had it just had more of a full spectrum feel to it

 

[Bandit420]

Today's weed is better due to much of it being grown indoors.
In those eras, outdoor grown was much like grapes and wine. You had good years and bad.
There was also an era of commercial grown being done by pros and homegrown was terrible. That has now flipped.
Products and info to grow are much better today. The world of organics has thrived and has now surpassed old salt based formulas to get better quality in a harvest. In that you get better terps which in turn give a better entourage effect making weed seem more potent than earlier eras.
The genetics really have not changed all that much but they are grown, dried, and cured today better than at any other time in history.

Really IMO the biggest issue with today's weed is hype and greed. There's more love for the money growing weed can bring than the pure love for the plant like it was back then. Nobody really crusades for the plant anymore. It's all about "getting mine" so you have breeders who are more so pollen chuckers chasing hype with branding.

The golden era of cannabis IMO was the 90s. Skunk #1, NL #5, White Widow, Afghani, and OG Kush.
OGK came from bagseed but today BS is frowned upon due to hype and misinformation. At it's heart OGK was simply bagseed then rebranded thousands of times over but at the end of the day, that skunky lemon high potent shit will always be OGK to me.
NL, WW, and Skunks are still around, just rebranded, hyped up, and often grown better than they were back then

 

[smoke]

"Civilized people prefer hash"

Nothing compares to the laughing weed of the 70s

 

[Pipecarver]

"Civilized people prefer hash"

Nothing compares to the laughing weed of the 70s

Was it the weed or the fact you were young enjoying something new, My wife who's never smoked weeds started on gummy's a few years back she takes them at 9pm by 11pm shes a giggly fun 77 yr old ready for bed...she sometimes giggles her way to sleep a bed fart can send her into hysterics, specially if its hers...

 

[CannaGranny]

I smoked my first time in 1977. My older Cousin from Memphis brought it and smoked it with me. I got so high, I could see my Mom through the bar between the kitchen and den and could NOT remember her name!
I finished it up with a severe case of munchies which then found me in the kitchen eating grape jelly on crackers! (Still pondering her name) NUTS!
I was sold on it!
Back then, we got feckeddd up. That was three million joints ago. I think what has actually changed is our tolerance levels.

 

[TomH]

I smoked my first time in 1977. My older Cousin from Memphis brought it and smoked it with me. I got so high, I could see my Mom through the bar between the kitchen and den and could NOT remember her name!
I finished it up with a severe case of munchies which then found me in the kitchen eating grape jelly on crackers! (Still pondering her name) NUTS!
I was sold on it!
Back then, we got feckeddd up. That was three million joints ago. I think what has actually changed is our tolerance levels.

did she ever tell you her name?

I think I've forgotten nearly everything I've ever known at least twice from smoking too much weed!

 

[MDK]

I smoked my first time in 1977. My older Cousin from Memphis brought it and smoked it with me. I got so high, I could see my Mom through the bar between the kitchen and den and could NOT remember her name!
I finished it up with a severe case of munchies which then found me in the kitchen eating grape jelly on crackers! (Still pondering her name) NUTS!
I was sold on it!
Back then, we got feckeddd up. That was three million joints ago. I think what has actually changed is our tolerance levels.

No shit take a break and just wait and see. I quit for a few months while my wife was pregnant because she quit too so..first I stopped smoking around her but I could see her jealousy when I'd come in all stoney eyed. So I quit. Boy when I smoked again let me tell ya....I rolled a blunt of some wedding cake and I just got higher and higher with every toke.

I drove a big circle around my town....found myself going 40 in a 55....got up into town and noticed what had to be a cop sitting back, ahhh fuck I think I'm gonna go to jail and not see my kid be born (months from legalization)...I shoved the blunt down into an open soda and drove by that sumbitch jittery as all get out. When I pulled into my driveway I thanked my lucky stars and thought "I'll never do that again"....well here we are and I lied lmao

 

[growsinse79]

I smoked my first time in 1977. My older Cousin from Memphis brought it and smoked it with me. I got so high, I could see my Mom through the bar between the kitchen and den and could NOT remember her name!
I finished it up with a severe case of munchies which then found me in the kitchen eating grape jelly on crackers! (Still pondering her name) NUTS!
I was sold on it!
Back then, we got feckeddd up. That was three million joints ago. I think what has actually changed is our tolerance levels.

Maybe a little of both. Sure, most people have easier access to high potency bud so they have a high tolerance. But the weed is way different imo. 1977 the weed was probably landrace sativa. I never saw indica until the early 80s.

 

[Moe.Red]

Best answer

Boy, I am amazed Tommy Chong knows nothing about Hybrid Vigor.

Maybe he was high and forgot.

 

[MysticEpipedon]

I think weed has improved tremendously over the decades. I've smoked since '71 and grown since '76. I attribute it mostly to the work of breeders.

That doesn't mean we didn't get high AF in the 70s and 80s.

Our nervous systems become acclimated to the amount of THC and other cannabinoids we regularly expose ourselves to, by creating more or fewer cannabinoid receptors. When we don't take in much THC, the nervous system creates more receptors. When we take in a lot of THC each day, the nervous system creates fewer receptors.

When you have a lot of receptors, from either smoking low potency weed or abstaining, suddenly smoking higher potency weed will get you amazingly high. Think of smoking 1970s-era Colombian for years, and then suddenly smoking Hawaiian or Thai, or Nepalese hash.

Weed potency has been improving steadily, IMO. I have seeds from about 15 years ago that just don't measure up, potency-wise, to more recently bred strains.

 

[Moe.Red]

I think weed has improved tremendously over the decades. I've smoked since '71 and grown since '76. I attribute it mostly to the work of breeders.

That doesn't mean we didn't get high AF in the 70s and 80s.

Our nervous systems become acclimated to the amount of THC and other cannabinoids we regularly expose ourselves to, by creating more or fewer cannabinoid receptors. When we don't take in much THC, the nervous system creates more receptors. When we take in a lot of THC each day, the nervous system creates fewer receptors.

When you have a lot of receptors, from either smoking low potency weed or abstaining, suddenly smoking higher potency weed will get you amazingly high. Think of smoking 1970s-era Colombian for years, and then suddenly smoking Hawaiian or Thai, or Nepalese hash.

Weed potency has been improving steadily, IMO. I have seeds from about 15 years ago that just don't measure up, potency-wise, to more recently bred strains.

To add to that, grow an IBL strain and compare to a hybrid. There is a reason those are considered starting points. Weed gets better (and worse) by breeders working it.

 

[steamroller]

First smoked in 1975-76.
$10 1/4 ounce, $35 ounce, $120 Qps were the way early 80's.
Pot is overall a lot better today. Most people have access to fire IMO.
Back then there was dirt weed and there was Columbian Gold, Hawaiin, Thia stick, Jamaican complete with Red stripe bottle caps.
But the good stuff was not always there. Holidays when buds came back from college and stuff.
Then somebody created sinsemilla~!
Home grown is relative to where you live.
Maui wowie is HG if you in Maui~!

 

[Moe.Red]

Good point. Half the stuff I got back then had seeds in it.

 

[steamroller]

Good point. Half the stuff I got back then had seeds in it.

83 seeds make gram.
Imagine getting a half ounce with 4 grams of seeds~!
YUP~!

 

[steamroller]

Why Marijuana Is Stronger Than It Used To Be - Grunge

Marijuana has evolved a lot since the days of "Reefer Madness" to being legal in much of the U.S. today, but it's stronger than it used to be. Here's why.

www.grunge.com

 

[Moe.Red]

Why Marijuana Is Stronger Than It Used To Be - Grunge

Marijuana has evolved a lot since the days of "Reefer Madness" to being legal in much of the U.S. today, but it's stronger than it used to be. Here's why.

www.grunge.com

According to the Timber Cannabis Co, there are several reasons for this: an improvement in cultivation techniques, a better understanding of how the marijuana plant works, and being able to grow marijuana in controlled environments rather than having to illegally import it.

Staci Gruber — director of the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery (MIND) program — pointed to studies suggesting an over 300% increase in THC content from 1995 to 2017. Elsewhere, a 2018 paper published at the National Library of Medicine about the potency of marijuana in Colorado revealed that between 1995 and 2015, there was a huge 212% jump in THC content found in cannabis flowers.

I think the other big leap over the years are the genetics.

 

[SiamSam]

According to the Timber Cannabis Co, there are several reasons for this: an improvement in cultivation techniques, a better understanding of how the marijuana plant works, and being able to grow marijuana in controlled environments rather than having to illegally import it.

Staci Gruber — director of the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery (MIND) program — pointed to studies suggesting an over 300% increase in THC content from 1995 to 2017. Elsewhere, a 2018 paper published at the National Library of Medicine about the potency of marijuana in Colorado revealed that between 1995 and 2015, there was a huge 212% jump in THC content found in cannabis flowers.

I think the other big leap over the years are the genetics.

If all humans are 99% the same, are all weed plants 99% the same too. Do weed plants start to look like their growers over time?

 

[SSgrower]

did she ever tell you her name?

I think I've forgotten nearly everything I've ever known at least twice from smoking too much weed!

Tolerance has something to do with our high for sure, I smoked "Christmas tree", Skunk, columbian gold, panama. 1976 and I was in or near Memphis. SS

 

[Bandit420]

Good point. Half the stuff I got back then had seeds in it.

Likely imported from Mexico but even Northern California grown weed had seeds up until the mid 80s.

Mexican weed gets a very bad rap today as it should....it's blood weed IMO, but there was a time when it was pretty good and those genetics, skunk, are in a lot of what we grow today. Those South American skunk sativas crossed with afghani indicas is kinda where it all began for hybridization we see and smoke today.

The cartels though, ruined it and they still are. Like they never evolved and even got worse in the practice of both growing and smuggling.
The US and it's bogus war on drugs sure didn't help either. Like a volatile cocktail of Dick Nixon, Jimmie Carter, Nancy Regan, CIA, and sadistic cartels south of the border really mucked some shit up. But then again if none of that woulda happened maybe indoor cultivation and us adopting Dutch growing practices creating sensi and "kind bud" woulda never happened either.

 

[MysticEpipedon]

83 seeds make gram.
Imagine getting a half ounce with 4 grams of seeds~!
YUP~!

Reminds me of an incident that happened to my brother and I, over 40 years ago.

We were planning a big 3-week backpacking trip in the Rockies one summer, so spent June and July preparing. One preparation was making sure we had enough weed. A friend from school amazingly came up with some great black hash that was going for $35/quarter z, so I said, "Get me 3/4ths!! He also said his source had a 1/4 lb of Colombian that he wanted to sell, and an acquaintance of my brother was in the market.

Since my friend came up with fantastic hash, I figured it would be safe to trust him with my brother's friend's money, without seeing the product.

So we went to pick up the hash and weed. The fucking moron hands me 5 grams of hash, which was 3/4 of 1/4 z. When he heard "get me 3/4s!" he heard "get me 3/4 of a 1/4!" OK, a blithering idiot for certain, but then we saw the 1/4 pound. It was 2/3 to 3/4 seeds and no buds, just silt and seeds!!! And we paid in advance!

OK, now he's a blithering idiot, rip-off piece of shit.

We finished the hash before we ever saw the west side of the Hudson River. Our names were mud in our local Connecticut reefer market after coming up with the big bag o' seeds n' silt. We ended up taking every top off the reefer in our garden (immature, as it was Colombian Gold at the end of July in the northeast), drying it and using it as our basic weed supply. (In 1980, smoking leaves was common.) We also had a few z's of second rate weed that we tossed in the old Isomerizer-2 and made some oil. Then we headed west. The stash lasted 2 of the 3 weeks we were out there.

The day after we ran out, we were hitchhiking and got picked up by a guy with Connecticut plates who was smoking a joint. After finishing it, he tossed us a bag and told us to roll another. The bag was 2/3 to 3/4 seeds, the rest was silt. I caught a look from my brother out of the corner of my eye and smiled.

 

[MDK]

Reminds me of an incident that happened to my brother and I, over 40 years ago.

We were planning a big 3-week backpacking trip in the Rockies one summer, so spent June and July preparing. One preparation was making sure we had enough weed. A friend from school amazingly came up with some great black hash that was going for $35/quarter z, so I said, "Get me 3/4ths!! He also said his source had a 1/4 lb of Colombian that he wanted to sell, and an acquaintance of my brother was in the market.

Since my friend came up with fantastic hash, I figured it would be safe to trust him with my brother's friend's money, without seeing the product.

So we went to pick up the hash and weed. The fucking moron hands me 5 grams of hash, which was 3/4 of 1/4 z. When he heard "get me 3/4s!" he heard "get me 3/4 of a 1/4!" OK, a blithering idiot for certain, but then we saw the 1/4 pound. It was 2/3 to 3/4 seeds and no buds, just silt and seeds!!! And we paid in advance!

OK, now he's a blithering idiot, rip-off piece of shit.

We finished the hash before we ever saw the west side of the Hudson River. Our names were mud in our local Connecticut reefer market after coming up with the big bag o' seeds n' silt. We ended up taking every top off the reefer in our garden (immature, as it was Colombian Gold at the end of July in the northeast), drying it and using it as our basic weed supply. (In 1980, smoking leaves was common.) We also had a few z's of second rate weed that we tossed in the old Isomerizer-2 and made some oil. Then we headed west. The stash lasted 2 of the 3 weeks we were out there.

The day after we ran out, we were hitchhiking and got picked up by a guy with Connecticut plates who was smoking a joint. After finishing it, he tossed us a bag and told us to roll another. The bag was 2/3 to 3/4 seeds, the rest was silt. I caught a look from my brother out of the corner of my eye and smiled.

Dude too funny, we had a drought in Missouri around 2005 or 2006....cops busted a large shipment coming in and had billboards all over town mocking stoners saying shit like "we hear it's dry" or "we busted your source"....it was some bold ass shit on their part. Anyway couldn't find weed anywhere, if you had some no matter the quality it sold.

We had a chance to get a pound for 300 which was already crazy low so somethings up but we take the shot me and my buddy go in on it, it's through his cousin so it's for sure just don't know how the quality is. Bro it was all males...someone took the time to pull over to a wild patch of ditch weed and pull a bunch down. It was seeds and silt/leaves. It was light brown. The light brown color got it the nickname "the L-Beezy". Once we burned through that I needed something else. Was talking with a friend who didn't smoke and mentioned it and he was like I can get some weed. So I took the shot, got an ounce. This here we called "the fish scale" long before the strain. It was most likely some old moldy weed. I couldn't smoke it, I sold it to people who were well aware and happy to buy it, oh well lol

 

[Garbage_bear]

I dunno man. My buddy stole a nug from his pops and we smoked it. One nug and I swear I was hallucinating. We were laughing and my buddies face turned into a clown. Strong lest weed I’ve ever smoked. Maybe it was laced. This was in the 80’s. And the skunk! Holy shiitake that stuff was awesome. You could smell it through a closed car door. Left an oily skunk layer in your mouth and got you high AF. I don’t see weed like this anymore. It’s good but I remember it being waaaay different and very good, dank and strong.

 

[growsinse79]

I dunno man. My buddy stole a nug from his pops and we smoked it. One nug and I swear I was hallucinating. We were laughing and my buddies face turned into a clown. Strong lest weed I’ve ever smoked. Maybe it was laced. This was in the 80’s. And the skunk! Holy shiitake that stuff was awesome. You could smell it through a closed car door. Left an oily skunk layer in your mouth and got you high AF. I don’t see weed like this anymore. It’s good but I remember it being waaaay different and very good, dank and strong.

I wish I had as good of buds as I grew in the early 80s. I have some that are close, but still looking...