The scare mongering that I heard was that small local growers would be forced out by large conglomerate farmers and that is coming to pass. One of the touted benefits, as I recall, was lower prices despite taxation because of increased competition.
When I was younger, there was just “pot” and “weed” but now we can select from indica, sativa, and hybrid, CBD/THC, and now the buzz (ha!) is about terpenes. It’s similar to how when I was younger, we had red wine or white, and if the place was fancy, they might have blush.
Now there are entire stores devoted to hundreds of different brands and varieties. There’s a dispensary within walking distance of me that took over an entire grocery store. I don’t know how many years it would take to try everything once.
All I know is some sativa gets me almost as anxious as if I was on oral prednisone. Not fun. And indica gummies taken quite accidentally with some vodka-laced watermelon not labeled as such did knock the pain down for a while, but the time dilation was very weird.
Yep, there is so much more going on with terpenes and other components of the plant. In 2020 scientists discovered THCP. There’s also THC-O-acetate. Along with delta-8 there are other minor components.
It’s a damn shame “the Feds” stifled research on cannabis for so long. It’s an interesting plant.
I beg to differ. I checked one dispensary in Quincy, Il and it is twice the price of black market stuff.
I never could tell the difference myself. But I think that THC-rich strains that also have high CBD do make me calmer. I had this stuff called “9 Pound Hammer” once… it was like taking a double dose of Percocet. I was super calm, lucid, and pretty blissed out.
Always wanted to try the famous old strains like Panama Red. Now so many strains, names and such… it’s all like, whatever
I believe that if there is one store in town and you’re in an area with lots of growers. Most areas are saturated and not surrounded by farms. In fairness, I get “blackmarket” weed for free because I know people who grow.
So if you vape the stuff, is it a lot different in terms of the type of high you get and the strain characteristics get lost? I’m a neophyte, but I seem to remember reading that the oil doesn’t have a lot of these other chemicals flower or similar has.
Those are good friends to have. 20+ years ago I was helping a buddy move into his moms house months after she had died. I tried to open a door in his basement and it was locked. He said “check this out!”. Holy Shit! Lights, fans, hydroponic pumps. The right side was sprouting plants and the left side was budding plants.
I don’t buy cheap oil. Cresco Live Liquid Resin has pretty much everything that was in the plant present in the oil.
Every grower/producer has their ways of doing things. Some make a distillate from the plants and add in terpenes in the same % they are present in the strain. I prefer the way Cresco does it (explained at the linked page).
That said, to me, smoking from a pipe creates a slightly different high because of the process; smelling the bud, looking at the bud, grinding the bud, smelling the ground up bud, packing the pipe, hitting the green bowl, pausing (seconds/minutes/hours), inspecting the bowl and hitting again. Rinse and repeat.
With a cartridge I stick it in my mouth and inhale. Most of my batteries are auto-draw. Negative pressure created by inhalation turns the battery on. Boom. Next hit whenever I want, no attention to the pen needed.
There’s also location. I smoke pipes at home, use my pen out and about. There’s a meme: I used to hide in the woods behind my house to smoke a bowl. Now I hit my pen at Target. Where you are effects your high. Sensory input sitting on my porch watching the sunset (what I’m doing now) is different then being at a bar or concert or the in-laws place and sensory input influences the high.
Edibles are a whole nother thing.
If you’re ever in western Pennsylvania, hit me up.
Pennsylvania started the Medical Marijuana program in 2018 (Praise be to Governor Wolf) and things are still settling. We’ve had shortages as the patient base has increased quicker than the growers (who must be in PA) expand.
I can still get street weed cheaper than legal weed, but it has improved in the past year as more licenses to grow/produce are awarded. I support the program, haven’t bought street weed in 3 years or so.
In WA state, it is cheap. Of course, I haven’t bought any on the “black market” for a long time, but it is a lot less than back when I was in college. You can get an ounce for $40 in Spokane, WA stores. I buy much smaller quantities, but it is still cheap.
Edit to add: I just checked one online store and they have $30 ounces. Not going to vouch for the quality at that price point, but I don’t know how you get less expensive than that.
Must be nice. I checked Quincy less than a year ago and it was $595 for 1 oz and black market was and is $250.
Road trip? Plan on at least 4-6x the return travel time.
I did a brief check and you can get $200 ounces in Santa Barbara but everything is more expensive here. I randomly checked one place in L.A. and there was a $70 ounce offered.
Come to the ever-GREEN state. 
WA didn’t make booze cheaper taking it out of state run liquor stores. If you do come, bring some of your cheap CA booze. Thanks!
What’s the booze in CA? In Omaha, NE it’s $8 for 1.75L vodka (by the case).
You can bring booze too! WA is expensive and ID isn’t that much better (I live on the border).
Around here, you see a lot of ID plates at the WA-border weed shops (not legal in ID) and a lot of WA plates at the ID-border liquor stores.
A handy guide:
All this talk about prices prompted me to check out the comparative pricing at the Ontario Cannabis Store.
Keep in mind, for context, that we Canucks love our “sin taxes” – wine and liquor is generally much more expensive here than almost anywhere in the US. The philosophy is “if you don’t like the high prices, don’t drink – you’ll be healthier for it!”. Same now with cannabis.
Anyway, I checked out a high-potency hybrid called BC Strawnana, 23% to 30% THC, whose price is probably typical. 3.5g dried flower is CAD $43.95 ($12.56/g); 14g is $139.95 ($10/g).
14 grams is half an ounce, so CAD $280 an ounce, which is USD $213 an ounce.
Expensive, as one would expect with our famous sin tax, but not totally outrageous. Pre-rolls, edibles, and oils are probably more expensive per unit of THC/CBD content.
We’re right around there In Pennsylvania if you hit a sale. Of course, since it’s our medicine we aren’t taxed. If recreational ever passes they’ll tax them hard.