it is weed day! a day to celebrate cannabis, marijuana, pot, whatever you wanna call it esp if you live somewhere where it is legal like I do! High fives from up here in Canada to Jamaica and Holland and the cool states etc. I'm a big stoner so I know some stuff about it.

the legend is that weed became associated with 4/20 and 4:20 pm bc of "the Waldos", some teens in the 70s from San Rafael, California had a weed treasure map and a secret plan to meet at 4:20 pm to go adventuring for it.

Afterward it became their code for getting high in general and that got picked up as a meme, or so the story goes. The internet tells me this is true and they are real and they are still friends. https://420waldos.com/ 

the main feel-good component or "cannabinoid" is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which can be relaxing and euphoric and entheogenic and give you the munchies, although some strains have a significant amount of cannabidiol (CBD) which has a friendly relationship with the effects of THC

(seems to suppress the less fun effects while making the more fun effects more available) and on its own it works well as a pain killer or anxiety aid ime (but it doesn't get you 'high' without its THC friends).

these things do stuff because we have an endocannabinoid system that is sensitive to them but tbh I don't think we really get it yet. here's a small infographic about it anyway.

people seem to mostly recognize the big spiky marijuana leaves and associate weed w them but the parts of the plant you actually use to get high are these beautiful little dried flower buds covered in little crystals; they're usually green but they can also be pretty purples

you buy these lil bud buddies, use an herb grinder to grind 'em up, & use a vaporizer to vape 'em or use a pipe or roll some into a joint (a lil weed cigarette) & smoke it. in tobacco paper, it's a blunt & you can try to share it to make new friends! https://twitter.com/maybegray/status/1233181269522956290?s=20

bongs are also a popular choice, weed goes in a little bowl at the end that you light and once you've pulled a hit of smoke through the water inside you pull the bowl out and take all the smoke in in one breath (if you can!) like so https://twitter.com/maybegray/status/1205672578687258624?s=20

you can also get kief (the word means pleasure and it refers to just the little crystals from the flower buds) which have a much higher concentration of THC. I like to wet the tips of joints with my tongue and dip them in kief for an extra delicious first hit

kief can also be pressed into little cakes and those little cakes are called hasish and you can smoke or vaporize them too. cannabinoids can also be extracted through alcohol to create tinctures or pressed into oils which you can put on your skin or in your mouth

or you can bake pot brownies w em, go nuts, get creative, baking is a meme rn (just remember the effects of cannabinoids come on slower/last longer when ingested so when dosing start low + go slow!) obv *cough cough* vaping/ingesting are healthier than smoking *cough cough cough*

there are also two different species of marijuana plants, indicas are native to colder regions and sativas are native to hotter regions. indicas have a reputation for a heavier more body-focused high that can range from calm to v sleepy.

sativas have a reputation for giving bubblier mind highs that are seen as more connecting/creative but frankly we have cross-bred the hell out of 'em & variations in highs have more to do w variations in hydrocarbon compounds called terpenes that don't correlate w the two species

Terpenes are also why different strains of weed taste and smell very different. Myrcene and Limonene herbal and fruity, Linalool and Terpineol are more floral, and Pinene, Terpinolene and Caryophellene are earthy and spicy.

I have a medical license so I can order from medical producers that use colour coded labels to show the terpene breakdowns of different strains and these are more helpful ime for exploring which strains I like best! (Blue Dream is actually my current fav)

obviously, there is a whole 420 culture, there's so so much more I could say about weed as a recreational drug and as an alternative to psychopharmacological therapy, as an entheogenic entity, etc. but I think I'll wrap up my celebratory weed basics thread here & go roll a joint.

chainsmoking decarbed shake this morning and it has been a lovely spirit guide so I felt called to revisit this thread and sing it’s praises. “shake” is the weed debris that gets left behind in the process of harvesting & packaging dried flower, so dispensaries sell it cheap.

it’s usually a little over 50% off for a little under 50% of the regular THC content and it’s a little janky but if you like to smoke a lot and esp if you like microdosing (for stuff like pain, anxiety, appetite, focus, depression, etc. or just for fun) shake can be a good option