Sampling the L.A. Weed Scene in 2016

Although Cannabis is technically illegal at a Federal level nationwide, in Los Angeles you would never know that. It feels like the city has completely accepted it as a positive part of life. I was staying right on the hectic Hollywood Boulevard, and walking around at night my nose was enticed by a different weed smell approximately every 50 yards from people walking around with a joint. It all smelled absolutely delicious.

Carson, South Bay

Bordered by the famous Long Beach and Compton districts I expected the Herb standards in Carson to be high, and they sure delivered. My Carson crew set the scene for a great night: The most epic BBQ I had ever seen, dope Hip-Hop and stinky top-grade Marijuana. Heaven. I jotted down some tasting notes of the highlights: • Animal Cookies – GSC x Fire OG. This smelled really sexy. It had a pronounced spice to it with major earth notes in the nose. Like a warming spice.

The smell translated to the taste well in a pipe for me. • Bernie Sanders – Continuing on from where Obama OG left off is the Bernie. This was one of the finest I had out there. A cut above in terms of flavour on tongue, and also it cut through the other strains high with ease. Classic OG Kush undertones, but with less of the acidic “Lemon Pledge” fizz that pure OG Kush is known for. • Blueberry Diesel – this was probably my favourite nose smell of the lot.

The taste was classic Blueberry tartness but with a slight spice. All high notes to the flavour, a sour tart fruit explosion. Pretty uplifting clear sociable high, leaning towards the Diesel in the phenotype I tried. • Louis xiii OG – A classic LA strain, and one I enjoy at home too. A lot of these OG Kush crosses are fairly similar, but the Louis xiii is one of the richest bass notes to be found.

It's a very Sativa leaning high too, and messy. I find it unwise to smoke Louis xiii if I have to be focused. More Sativa leaning open bud structure than some other OG strains. The classic OG sour tongue tingle is present in Louis xiii. • Skywalker OG – This had a different spice again, and was mostly bass notes in the nose. There was a certain lemon sweetness creeping in as opposed to the sour lemon in some OG. Semi open structure, very crystalline.

The Dispensary, Carson After a day of blazing and BBQ, my friends took me to their favourite dispensary to get some of my own herb. Unfortunately I couldn't go inside the building, as all licensed Caregivers are very strict about letting non prescription patients in. There is soon to be a vote in California to legalize recreational Cannabis too, so this may soon change. My buddy knows what's good so I asked him to choose me the best variety mix of top grade in the shop.

Man, he came back with some choice material, which I was able to make more detailed notes on: • Private Reserve Girl Scout Cookies (GSC) – this has been the hot new breeding base since about 2013, when LA was truly gripped by Cookies fever. A cross of OG Kush and Durban Poison. There have been reports of Cherry Pie in there, but apparently this is untrue, although they do both share the same original Durban genes (Cherry Pie being a cross of the same Durban x Grandaddy Purp).

In the nose I was getting whiffs of cherry, apricot pastry, starfruit, mango chutney. Spicy sweet-savoury. Visually it was tight hard buds, solid, round. Classic extreme Indica structure, although the flavour and high is more hybrid balanced. You can tell it's nicely frosted but due to the incredibly tight structure it isn't as eye catching in appearance as some of the more open structured strains. The smell did translate to the taste nicely, with rich flavours of mango chutney coming through.

Very spicy to the tongue but different to a Haze spice taste. Heavy lung expansion. After-taste stays on the palate for a very long time, like a soluble fruit flavoured vitamin drink. The high was trippy, with balanced stony body and head high. Good muscle relaxant properties. Strong and memorable. • Gorilla Cookies – weighing in at a whopping 26.9% THC, this one was a badass. It's composed of GSC x Gorilla Glue.

Smell to the nose was possibly the dankest dirtiest most pungent weed I've ever smelt, in a good way! It had a very rich “Umami” smell. A mix of chilli, all spice, smelly feet, sweet pastry, butt-holes and soy sauce. Not for everyone, but certainly memorable and I just couldn't stop smelling it. Appearance was much more open structured than the original GSC and looked more crystalline, although I would say there wasn't all that much in it in terms of strength between the two.

That rough dank smell did not translate to the taste at all, which was notably sweeter to the tongue with notes of caramel, apple, cinnamon, spice and cherry in the mix. It was a little more astringent to the palate than the GSC, and not as delicious to the tongue in my opinion. The high was much more Sativa leaning than the GSC. Active, cerebral, fuzzy but not especially trippy. Good and strong clear hit. • Private Reserve Crown OG – One of the best OG strains out there in my opinion. Smell reminds me of the Kosher Kush, Presidential OG, Skywalker OG variants. Sweet molasses mixed with lime cordial. Lush.

Taste was delicious like sweet cream. None of the acidic tongue tingle that some OG strains are renowned for. Quite a one-dimensional smell with all bass notes, but that is not a bad thing as it sure plays those bass notes like a funk master! The high was heavy heavy Indica stone. The most couchlock, monged out, fat eyelids, meditative sleepy high I got while I was out there. Definite night time weed. • Cali Sunshine – this was a fruity Sativa to write home about. Smell to the nose was of artificial orange flavour, like orange Tang drink or a fizzy Fanta. The structure was fairly tight for a Sativa.

The high was clear and smooth. A great sociable party smoke or for focused creative work. The smell didn't translate too well to the taste, which although delicious didn't have the orange Tang flavour come through. • Cracker Jack – I assume this to be a Jack Herer hybrid. Again an artificial fruity smell, although of course this was a naturally occurring feature to the strain, not artificially added! Mixed fruit this time, sweet high notes. Slight honey. Lovely. The smell translated to the taste pretty well, and it really was a summery treat to the palate in a pipe. The high was a little trippy but overall still fairly clear. • Sweet Dream – a Blue Dream hybrid. This Sativa had the tart blue undertones of the Blue Dream, but paired it up with a sweet red fruit raspberry jam element which was great. A little more bass note in with the highs to the nose. Blue Dream is one of my all time favourites anyway, so it was nice to get this alternative take.

The smell translates a little differently to the taste, with more spice coming through on the tongue than is present in the nose. The high was the most messy of the three Sativas, with a pretty trippy giggly fun vibe going down. I got the munchies from this one and left in search of chocolate churros. Night Life Going to clubs and bars around LA it soon becomes apparent that nobody bats an eyelid at smoking a pipe right outside on the pavement.

I was told that “you have to really be acting the fool to get busted for weed out here”. Of course it is still a nice gesture to stop blazing if a cop is walking directly past you, but with a Medical Certificate you're basically OK. I checked out some dope Hip Hop at The Mint, a crew from Pomona who have just been signed to Snoop's label. Fonzerelli Mayne (who can do a wicked London accent), Fia$co, Authentic Hustle, Mister Lune, King Bishop and Big Sir Loon are all names to watch in the Rap game. Also worth checking out in the LA underground scene are Kris Ransom and Philieano, who have worked with the likes of “Scrap” Fretty (2Pac's old producer) and are hitting it hard with a fresh style.

Hollywood Boulevard is buzzing. “Hollyweird” the rest of LA calls it. I fit right in. After a few drinks in various buzzing bars, we ended up at a place unexpectedly doing karaoke. Being a karaoke virgin I decided to finally pop my cherry, and spurred on by a pipe of Sweet Dream and swig of Hennessy I belted out a wonky rendition of The Specials classic “Ghost Town”. On my nocturnal travels I sampled a truly dank strain – Hunnypot Weed. This is a legendary clone only local strain, but if you can find it I suggest you hit it to the max! It's all bass sweetness, really sticky and spicy. Super rich flavour on the tongue too. I taste the ubiquitous OG Kush in there somewhere, but there's something else, like the sweet creamy Indian dessert Kulfi, or perhaps a sweet plum chutney. Delicious. I understand the recipe is a closely guarded secret. A rooftop garden party at Mama Shelter provided panoramic views across LA. This place was decked out with enormous sofas, luxuriously overladen with pillows.

It was exactly the kind of place I expected to see in Hollywood. I was actually asked politely to refrain from smoking herb up there, but a quick trip downstairs provided opportunity to hit the pipe right outside, which nobody cared about at all. Ending the night with an authentic LA taco from a van cured my munchies nicely. He asked if I wanted it hot – it wasn't until half way through the second one I noticed my mouth was smouldering! I would say LA is probably my favourite city in the world. Of course it has it's problems like anywhere else, but my experiences every time I've visited have been pretty much all positive. The people are friendly. The food, music and weed are good and there is a real vibe that you can be yourself and follow whatever dreams you have. I'm already looking forward to returning! Author: Baron Wasteland