When it comes to plant drugs, you often have the option of the plant, or manufactured products. Which is better? Read on…

Plant drugs

Not every drug is a plant. Though some like LSD and MDMA are based on plants or are synthesized using plants (ergot fungus and sassafras, respectively), some popular drugs, are nothing but a plant. Think of weed. We call it by this word because it’s literally a weed that grows by roadsides in many places. It doesn’t require any preparation beyond heating it; and plenty is gained without heat at all. Magic mushrooms are another great example of a basic plant drug that can be pulled from the ground and ingested, with no further preparation.

Beyond this, we have a range of drugs that started as natural, but were then processed into something stronger. Like heroin. Heroin is morphine processed with ascetic acid. Or cocaine, a processed form of coca leaves that involves nitric acid. In these cases there’s a certain amount of processing that goes on, but its done around the basis of the original plant. However, due to the processing; the results are a much more intense product. Cocaine is even processed further to make crack, a more intense version of cocaine.

Plant drugs have been used for thousands of years, long past recorded history. Some of what we know comes from fossilized findings, and carbon dated remnants. In terms of recorded history, from medical books to scripture; plants factor in as far as recordings go back. Different locations of the world worked with what they each had available. And they often came to the exact same understandings of a plant, in differing periods and locations; for which there would have been no communication or ways to share ideas.

Plants were (and are) widely used for spiritual purposes by many indigenous tribes the world over; as well as for medical treatments, and recreational use. Sometimes they are used so much, and so entrenched in culture; that modern governments allow them. Peyote is a great example. It’s used so widely by native cultures in the US, the federal government finally legalized the plant for spiritual use; a law that applies to anyone who wants to use the plant for this purpose, even beyond native tribes.

Synthetic drugs

The other side in plants vs manufactured products, is the manufactured products. These fall into two categories in my mind: products that are made from a plant, but produced in a different form; or completely synthesized, lab-made drugs. In either case, these products don’t grow directly out of the ground.

When it comes to products made from the plant, without creating a new drug; one of the best examples is vape products for cannabis and tobacco. And by this I specifically mean oil vapes, since dry herb vapes don’t require any level of production for the weed used. Oil vapes are vapes that use oil cartridges, and these cartridges contain compounds from the plants, that are leached into the oil. Instead of dealing with the plant, the user just deals with an oil cartridge and a battery.

Edible products are also included here. A brownie is not directly weed, and a gummy is not directly a mushroom. The drugs must be processed to some degree to create an edible form. This is something the average person can do in their kitchen with the right setup; but something for which there is a large and growing sales market, as well. Whereas you can choose what to put in when cooking at home; store-bought products include whatever ingredients the given company chose for their recipe.

When it comes to synthesized lab-made drugs, some examples are drugs like LSD, MDMA, antidepressants, synthetic opioids, Tylenol, and methamphetamine. There is no original form of any of these, so the only way they exist, is as lab-made products. Whether they’re synthesized using a plant is not important; as the drugs themselves are too different from the plants that they’re made from, to be associated with them in terms of effects.

Plants vs manufactured products – when manufactured is better

Some drugs only exist as one or the other. There is no natural form of methamphetamine, but there is also no lab-made version of salvia. Others exist in both realms. You can eat amanita mushrooms, or buy the gummy version; and same with cannabis. Both of these plants, and their accompanying industries, are great examples of the difference between plants and manufactured products.

Which is better? This is a matter of opinion. When it comes to weed, some manufactured products, like vapes, provide a more intense high than the plant itself; because they’re a more concentrated version. This is a useful concept for medicating; when often a very strong version of something is needed to get a medical effect. The weed industry provides both options, plants and manufactured products; and either can be decent in terms of effects, with manufactured products often offering a more intense experience.

Amanita mushrooms are another plant drug that has a good reason for manufacturing. These mushrooms come with a main compound that can make a person sick; though not enough to die. This compound, ibotenic acid, can be processed out through the decarboxylation method of boiling. This can be done by the individual who wants to use them; or by manufacturers who produce gummies or other edible products. In the latter case, all the user must do, is eat the product.

Manufactured products also come with the upside of dosing. We don’t all want or need the same amount, but its hard to know how much of the active compounds (or dangerous compounds) we’re taking in, when consuming plant material. Manufactured products generally have measured levels of compounds, creating a consistent experience; and making it easier for those who are less familiar with something, to get it right. This idea of consistency promotes the API market for pharmaceuticals.

Plants vs manufactured products – when plants are better

There are some issues, however, with manufactured products. Just like they can sometimes be more potent than their plant counterparts, sometimes it’s the opposite. Amanita mushrooms are once again a an applicable example. They’re newer to American culture, and don’t have a history of use as a plant. But they’re also hallucinogenic mushrooms (though different from psilocybin, as they work mainly off the compound muscimol). Producers seem generally afraid to create products with full-blown effects, which creates a market of products that don’t do much, even though the mushrooms themselves, do.

In terms of products being too strong, this is also an issue. A newer rise in emergency room visits is connected with very high THC products, which have become the norm. Whereas plants don’t generally have more than 20% THC (although this amount is incredibly inflated from earlier decades), manufactured products boast numbers like 90% THC. This is no longer in the standard realm of today; and its not shocking that more people get sick. Luckily, THC overdoses are not deadly, just uncomfortable.

Another issue is companies adding toxic substances. Not only does weed not need a lot of pesticides or other chemicals, it wasn’t an industry associated with them as a black market. Yet now with mass legal production, we’re suddenly dealing with sprayed weed, and overuse of agricultural chemicals. What once was a clean black market, is now a grossly dirty legal market; yet its the legal market that always brags about testing. Even though those tests back up just how dirty legal production is.

And then think about vapes. Weed might be sprayed with chemicals, but it doesn’t have to be. A vape cart doesn’t exist without the addition of some chemicals. Some are used that don’t have to be, like flavoring or colorants. But other things are necessary since its not a standard state for weed to be in, and it has to be preserved for transport. As such, things like stabilizers and preservatives (vitamin e-acetate) come into play. And this is beyond whatever other tinkering a manufacturer might do.

The same can be said for gummies, and other edibles. The US food market is not a pretty place, because regulation allows for tons of dangerous chemicals in food production. Sure, its possible to make a clean cannabis or mushroom edible, just like its possible to grow organic vegetables, or produce clean meat. However, just because something can happen, doesn’t mean it will. Edibles are food products; and liable to have a list of chemical ingredients, that only people with high level science degrees can pronounce.

Final thoughts

The reality is that for some drugs, both a plant option and a manufactured option, exist. It comes down to a buyer’s personal decision as to what is better. If you want the most basic, unadulterated form; the plant is best. But if you need a stronger product, want the convenience of vapes or edibles, need specific dosing, or have more trust in manufactured products; then this is probably the better option. Either way, if its well made/grown, you should definitely catch a buzz.

Hey all! Cool that you’re with us at Cannadelics.com; a news source in the independent realm, reporting on the most interesting stories in the growing cannabis and hallucinogen worlds. Hang out with us regularly to catch the updates; and get signed up to the Cannadelics Weekly Newsletter; so you’re always up on what’s going down.

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The headiest of holidays has arrived as the hash world preps to celebrate 7/10.

If you hold your laptop upside down, you’ll quickly notice 710 when inverted spells out “oil.” Back when Task Rok and the other hash forefathers figured it out they decided to turn it into a holiday more than a decade ago.

While we don’t smoke much oil anymore, we still love hash! To this day, 7/10 remains the biggest celebration of hash in North America, and the Euros ate this one up a lot easier than 4/20; so they’re in, too.

Here are some of our favorite hash companies from around the globe in honor of the holiday.

Hanami Gardens

If you find yourself a few hundred kilometers off the coast of Africa smoking some of the best hash of your life, there is a reasonable chance you’ve got a hold of some Hanami Gardens. The pride of the Canary Islands when it comes to hash, it’s easy to argue Hanami is a top-five European hash player. Their single-sourced material is some of the nicest flowers we’ve seen outside of the U.S., never mind the hash they are making from it.

Hash and Flowers

California’s Hash and Flowers have had a monster few years. And sure, Honey Banana this, Honey Banana that, I get it. But it should be noted they have a lot of other crazy flavors that have come down the pipeline over the years from a variety or different terpene profiles. This includes some of my favorite runs ever of Wilson F3 and the elusive Watermelon Zkittelz. Hash and Flowers’ disposable vape pens are also among the hardest hitters.

HolyWater

The HolyWater team has always been there—riding along with hash history and evolving for the times. The Oakland-based company brought some of the first wet terps to the market in the age of shatter before we were really starting to see any BHO badders at scale. It was a revolution. They’ve kept up with the times and bagged a whole bunch of awards in the process. Their most recent collaboration with Deep East Oakland Farms is just further evidence that despite their longevity and various formats over the years, they are still right there at the top.

Dochazed

The week of Spannabis is the largest on the hash calendar outside of North America by a mile. In addition to the awards handed out by Spannabis for elite hash, events like The Ego Clash Barcelona, Masters of Rosin, and Dab-A-Doo are each considerable prizes in their own right. Dochazed found himself on every podium that weekend with much of the material coming from last year’s Ego Clash Barcelona flower champ Unobtainium Artisan Floristry. They were all absolute fire, he even let me pick his Ego Clash entry from the two finalists he had left before the contest. It was super-flattering!

Simpleeadam

The Banana God that Simpleeadam brought to The Ego Clash in Northern California this year was some of the most highly regarded hash in some time. In a room full of some of the greatest hash minds on the planet, everyone was “simplee” blown away by the terps he was able to preserve in the extraction process. This is also another hash hit for Compton, CA and the team at Masonic Seed Co. Expect to see a lot of people attempt to mirror Simpleeadam’s success with the strain, but seeing is believing in this case.

Wooksauce Winery

The husband and wife team at Wooksauce Winery have firmly staked their claim for real estate in the upper echelons of the hash market. The Emerald Cup win in 2022 was more of a validation of the work they were putting forward than some big surprise. Also in a world that is ready to press everything into rosin, Wooksauce is dropping some of the finest melts in the game and actually giving people a shot at having access to real six-star hash.

Community

Sister company to the multiple-time Emerald Cup champions at Kalya. While the quality holds up with anybody on the list, the price is more in line with the name. Community makes great concentrates accessible to consumers at very fair prices. Community’s rise has also mirrored that of Kalya’s over the past couple of years. The company now has a presence from The Emerald Triangle all the way to San Diego. If you’re on the hunt for spectacular affordable terps this holiday season, this is definitely the brand on this list that will win the battle.

Uncle’s Farm

Piatella is finally on the map in North America. I wrote about it last year but didn’t know it was called that. Thankfully, Roger from Puffco was here to save you from my ignorance and use the digital dab movement to carve piatella’s place in cannabis hype history. Among European hash circles, it’s basically illegal to use the P-word without giving some type of homage to the piatella godfathers at Uncle’s Farm who helped backbone its rise onto the Spanish hash scene a few years ago. The pandemic was a big reason you didn’t hear about the process sooner. Numerous American hash extractors are currently experimenting in hopes of creating something that looks remotely like Uncle’s Farm.

Nature’s Lab

Another company that has smoothly made the transition to the solventless era is Nature’s Lab. Don’t get us wrong, the C4 they entered into the Desert Smoke-off in 2019 was crazy heat, but times have changed a lot over the last few years when it come to the availability of great solventless and people don’t appreciate well-done BHO like they should. But given the OG “nature” of the company they have access to some spectacular material from great farmers. The Sour Donkey from Kaya Farms pictured here is an excellent example.

Mountain Man Melts

One of the Emerald Triangles fastest rising rec brands, Mountain Main Melts is one of the shining gems of quality available to consumers. In a world where people lean on Zkittelz and candy terps because so many strains aren’t commercially viable, Mountain Man has a spread of funky terps that will knock your socks off. The loudest of the pack being their new Fatso runs hitting the market. They used AI to design the label!

Punch Extracts

When it came to helping consumers who weren’t as savvy about terps, few things have proven as useful as Punch Extracts’ tier system. It made it a lot easier for people to understand how the producer was dictating the quality of the products as opposed to just looking up at the prices on the menu. And the Tier Ones really are something special. The Punch team tossed me a jar of the Ramblatan at The Emerald Cup awards show, had it been in the contest I bet it would have ended up in the top ten. Absolutely wild and special terps.

West Coast Alchemy

Few names get California Hash Heads as excited as West Coast Alchemy. Long known for their excellent flavors and collaborations with the likes of huge names like Symbiotic Genetics, the terps coming out of West Coast Alchemy have always done the talking. Sometimes things get a little bit more hype than usual—as was the case recently with their Zushi rosin drop in collaboration with The Ten Co. The limited batch of 76 two-gram jars were fetching $1,000 dollars a pop. Nothing else has ever come close to those kinds of numbers.

Highland Grown

The pride of Scottish cannabis, Highland Grown isn’t just producing the best hash we’ve seen from the Scottish highlands but also the best flower. It was absolutely immaculate and mate it easy to understand why the hash was coming out so good. The star of the show is their Resin Wraps, think of a preroll with the paper swapped out for hash. They are quite the party and have done well on the European contest circuit. There is a solid argument to be made that Highland Grown is producing the best hash and flower in the UK period.

And that’s a fat dab of first-class hash from around the world. Have a happy 7/10 Oil Day, even if every day is a good day for extracts.

Using marijuana has become more socially acceptable. Nearly half of adults (48%) say they have at least tried marijuana, in line with the 43% to 49% range recorded since 2015. People are finding it a less caloric choice than beer, easy to find in a significant number of states, and there is no hangover.  But for the millions who esophageal issues or just don’t like to smoke and are new or new”ish” to consuming – here are some options!

Infused Food

Forget the cliche brownie, today’s world includes an entire menu of delicious treats. Top chocolatiers have been making master creations in high end retailers and amateurs have been having success at home. Have have you tried pulled pork? Mac & cheese? Caramel corn? Foie gras?  Low dosage food can combine a variety of sensual experiences and make for a wonderful journey.

Thanks to ever-growing acceptance from consumers and lawmakers, cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydocannabinol (THC), as well as food and beverage products containing them, are booming in popularity. Sales of CBD, now legal in some capacity in 46 states, reached $5.3 billion in 2021, a 15% increase from the year before, and are predicted to hit $26 billion by 2026!

Beverages

RELATED: 8 Things You Need To Know About Eating Marijuana Edibles

And for those who want a little caffeine jolt with their cannabis, there are infused coffees you can buy at a retail store. Or you can brew your own easily at home.

Tinctures

Cannabis tinctures have been around for centuries but fell out of favor in the 1930s following the U.S. prohibition of marijuana. But the potent method is making a comeback as more and more Americans find non-smoked marijuana healthier and cleaner.

Tinctures are essentially concentrated marijuana in liquid form. Dosing varies depending, but in general an eyedropper or two. When you read a story about a child using CBD oil to combat epileptic seizures, chances are he or she is medicated via tincture.

Tinctures are discreet and easily fit in a purse or pocket. Add an eyedropper to a beverage or take it straight.

Skin Care

Yes, you can bathe, exfoliate, shampoo, shave and moisturize with marijuana. Don’t fear the skunky marijuana smell; these products are not only infused with cannabis, but they contain natural scents such as lavender, mint and citrus.

Concerned skin-care products get me high? Most products are made with hemp, marijuana’s non-psychoactive cousin. And even if THC was present in these products (most don’t), it will not be absorbed by the CB2 receptors on your epidermis. So you get the therapeutic benefit without any of the euphoria.

RELATED: What Is The Safest Way To Consume Cannabis?

Vape Pens

Vape pens are the third most popular category in Canada and second most popular in the US, capturing 17.1% and 23.6% market share respectively according to respected data firm Headset. The slim, inconspicuous, ubiquitous devices have become standard use factor for many enthusiasts. The vape pens are easy to carry and conceal when discretion is key. If convenience, cost and efficiency matter to you, consider a vape pen.

Vape pens, as the name implies, is a vaporization method, meaning there is no combustion of plant matter. The heating element brings the temperature just hot enough to create a light vapor. No inhaling smoke.

Vaporizers

For home use, larger vaporizers are becoming trendy. The Volcano he industry standard for years and is the go-to device used by Bill Maher, Willie Nelson, and other cannabis aficionados. The Herbalizer is an egg-shaped contraption that looks like something from the future.

Related: What Is The Safest Way To Consume Cannabis?

These appliances come at a high price, but are worth it in the long run since they require less herb to achieve the required effect. Plus, they are healthier for you than smoking.

Concentrates

For the more adventurous think wax, shatter, oil or crumble. You’re going to be hearing these terms a lot if you start hitting up the local marijuana store.

These are concentrates typically producing an enhanced and quicker high. If you are a beginner, be careful. Concentrates are for those with a higher tolerance for THC and/or medical patients that require super-intense dosages.

My advice: Leave these extracts to those who know what they’re doing. Find a savvy friend to show you the ropes the first few times. And prepare to sit or lay down.

Please note, synthetic marijuana is NOT an alternative. Please leave that stuff to the amateurs.  This weekend, kick back, chill and have an adventure.