# How good was Maui Wowie and how does it hold up today? (Marijuana)?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Tags:** weed-pot-marijuana
**Created:** [August 21, 2022, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044 "2022-08-21T18:33:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2022, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/21 "2022-09-05T15:56:53Z")
Back in the day, we didn’t call it Maui Wowie, we just called it Hawaiian (in upstate NY). It was rare and expensive.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2022, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/22 "2022-09-06T11:22:28Z")
> [@JaneDoe42](#):
>
> whack any male plants I could identify. I’d go back a few weeks later to whack the rest of the males and leave it until harvest time because I didn’t want to make easy to follow trails.
I’ve only grown indoors. Years ago I tried to work a grow into my schedule, which included a week long cruise. I took cuttings from a plant that I _ **mistakenly** _ identified as female. I rooted my cuttings and planted them in six five gallon buckets of soil.
I put those six plants under a 1000 watts HPS light, set my timer for 12/12 to induce flowering. I then left for vacation, knowing that my plants would grow considerably and need watering on my return.
I came home from vacation to six huge male plants. I didn’t cry, it was too funny. The plants were absolutely gorgeous, but pure garbage. I chopped them up and put them in my compost pile.
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### Author:  [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2022, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/23 "2022-09-06T21:18:29Z")
I know I shouldn’t have laughed…
I’ve accidently left males a few times. I sold the resulting seedy stuff to a street dealer who unloaded it to the tourists in Waikiki. No guilt, the tourists got better weed than they were used to, my guy made a few bucks and I got enough to finance my next trip to the jungle.
I’m sure many of those seeds made their way back to CONUS (Continental United States), where they were carefully planted and cared for. Who knows, it is possible that you have smoked a bit of the descendants of my mistakes. 😉
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### Author:  [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2022, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/24 "2022-09-07T00:14:37Z")
> [@JaneDoe42](#):
>
> Who knows, it is possible that you have smoked a bit of the descendants of my mistakes.
How many degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon?
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### Author:  [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2022, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/25 "2022-09-13T18:12:59Z")
We had a friend who went to Hawaii and came back with something packaged in a baggie like normal weed. Kona Gold or Maui Wowie or something. It was way better than the $20/oz stuff that was common in 1978. He also had something called Tubed Cola or Tubed Kona. I think it was a longish bud, maybe 6 inches or so, packaged in a long, thin, heat sealed bag. It smelled like nothing else we had ever experienced and was very potent. IIRC correctly he also had actual Thai stick, Buds tied around a thin piece of bamboo. Also, very good stuff. I haven’t seen anything like them in the intervening years. Although, due to work I hadn’t touched or been around weed for almost that entire time.
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### Author:  [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2022, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/26 "2022-09-13T20:42:38Z")
Is there actually any formal record anywhere of the historical strength of illegal drugs? Are concentrations recorded for seized drugs? (and is this information stored for previous years, long after any court case has passed) You’ll often hear facts like “Decades of the drug war has resulted in more pure heroin on the streets” or “LSD was way stronger in the 1960s” (Or conversely “Weed was way weaker in the 1960s”). But is there accurate numbers to back this kind of thing up?
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### Author:  [@swampffox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampffox)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2022, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/27 "2022-09-13T20:45:30Z")
There was even a passing reference to it in _Half-Baked_, a.k.a., the greatest stoner movie of all time.
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### Author:  [@Joeu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joeu)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2022, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/28 "2022-09-16T19:15:37Z")
> [@MikeF](#):
>
> . IIRC correctly he also had actual Thai stick, Buds tied around a thin piece of bamboo. Also, very good stuff. I haven’t seen anything like them in the intervening years
We used to get Thai Stick from time to time in the early '80s in Berkeley. I remember it being more expensive than the usual (Humboldt) weed that came in, and absolutely worth it.
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### Author:  [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2022, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/29 "2022-09-17T20:07:08Z")
> [@MikeF](#):
>
> We had a friend who went to Hawaii and came back with something packaged in a baggie like normal weed.
That would have been something like my mistakes. Good weed, better than what was commonly available in the mainland but certainly not something I’d try to sell to my regular customers. I had a reputation to protect after all!
> [@MikeF](#):
>
> I think it was a longish bud, maybe 6 inches or so, packaged in a long, thin, heat sealed bag.
That is the sort of thing I sold to my regular customers. It was years before I figured out that I could use my heat sealer for food as well…I did grow some excellent weed back then.
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### Author:  [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2022, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/30 "2022-09-18T00:55:21Z")
I get the impression from all these posts that if I purchase a particular variety (is that the correct word?) from a dispensary, then I can presume that it is essentially identical to the same variety from a different dispensary? Is there a government agency (USA or elsewhere) who oversees this stuff?
For example, if I’m in the supermarket and a pile of apples is marked “Granny Smith”, I feel safe that it is indeed a Granny Smith and NOT a Golden Delicious, even though I have no idea who oversees the labeling. But the apple industry is well-established, and I presume there are market forces (of some kind) to ensure this sort of quality control.
In contrast, I imagine that the Maui Wowie (for example) sold in any given dispensary is called that ONLY because it is descended from seeds/plants which some street vendor (once upon a time) CLAIMED to be Maui Wowie. If there’s any truth to that, then this Maui Wowie could be totally unrelated to the Maui Wowie from a different dispensary. (I hope I explained that clearly enough.) Is this at all accurate?
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2022, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/31 "2022-09-18T01:08:22Z")
The business is well enough established that in the main, what you get from dispensary “A” as " **Wakanda" sativa** will be the same strain as found at dispensary “B” under that name. “ **Skywalker** ” will be the same strain on the West Coast as it is on the East Coast. This is at legal outlets, of course. Whatever Doug down at the corner sells you is up for grabs. There is a strain out there called “ **Maui Wowie**.” With all the grow coming out of Hawai’i, I’d assume that it is likely the same strain we got back in the day. Only…different.
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2022, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/32 "2022-09-18T01:12:13Z")
It’s my understanding that one of the major issues is that in order to be in as much accordance to the law as possible, because of federal laws, marijuana cannot legally cross state lines, even if it’s legal in both states. Not even seeds can be transported. That means legal weed must be grown within that state. That’s not a problem in places like California or Colorado, but in a place like DC, that’s a considerable hurdle. I don’t know what they tell the government where they get their supply from, if anything, but it’s unlikely all of the legal marijuana being distributed throughout DC was grown here.
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2022, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/33 "2022-09-18T05:04:06Z")
> [@DCnDC](#):
>
> but in a place like DC, that’s a considerable hurdle. I don’t know what they tell the government where they get their supply from, if anything, but it’s unlikely all of the legal marijuana being distributed throughout DC was grown here.
That gives me the idea for a film, a struggling congressional intern turns to growing marijuana to help pay rent in D.C.
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2022, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/34 "2022-10-12T22:21:50Z")
Sorry to resurrect a zombie, but I didn’t think my question was worth a new thread.
When someone says, “the kind of stuff they smoked in Vietnam”, is that good or bad?
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2022, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/35 "2022-10-12T23:08:00Z")
Could go either way, but I’d lean towards “good shit.”
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2022, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/36 "2022-10-12T23:26:29Z")
From what I’ve read, it was literally found wild just about everywhere in the jungles of Vietnam and while it was reportedly much more potent than what was available in the states, which was probably still primarily shitty Mexican brick weed, it probably wouldn’t hold a candle to what’s being produced and sold today.
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### Author:  [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2022, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/37 "2022-10-14T01:17:27Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> Sorry to resurrect a zombie, but I didn’t think my question was worth a new thread.
>
> When someone says, “the kind of stuff they smoked in Vietnam”, is that good or bad?
It’s kind of like the spicy veg dish they’ve might’ve had, depends.
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### Author:  [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2022, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-was-maui-wowie-and-how-does-it-hold-up-today-marijuana/970044/38 "2022-10-14T01:21:37Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Maui and Acapulco were better than the ditch weed most of us smoked. Compared to today’s designer weed, they are…ok. Let me put it this way - today’s weed is Alan. AG/MW are Charlie.
>
> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE3HAqRrDZI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE3HAqRrDZI)
In a nutshell what is the thrust of her comparison use slang terms of you like.
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