Say what?

Now that I've been around the marijuana industry for awhile, I find myself regularly using words that weren't even part of my knowledge base only a few months ago. Words like indica, sativa and clone pepper my everyday conversations.

The pharmacists at Peace in Medicine Center have been a wealth of information. When I asked what indica and sativa was, they didn't even laugh at me. "Indica and sativa are opposite ends of the spectrum," TJ told me. "All marijuana strains fall somewhere along the scale between indica and sativa," Ruben added. Then they pointed out two books in our office library: Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life, and The Cannabible. "You really need to look through these," they told me.

So I did what I was told and read everything I could get my hands and eyes on. Not only did I learn what indica and sativa meant, I learned a whole bunch of other new words like blunt, spliff, kif, kush and trichomes. I learned how to make pipes out of apples and empty pop cans. I learned that THC stands for tetrahydrocannabinol, one of 66 cannabinoids isolated in the cannabis plant so far.

So now, just a few months later, I am often surprised by the words coming out of my mouth. When you're a sponge in a new industry, you don't always realize what information you've absorbed until you have to repeat it to someone else. Discussing marijuana in all its forms and flavors is now part of my daily routine.

So what's the difference between indica and sativa? Indica is better for nighttime; sativa is better for daytime. Indica puts my husband in the snore zone; sativa makes him chatter incessantly. Indica makes my eyes redder and my mouth drier than sativa. Indica is short and fat; sativa is tall and slender.

Now I wonder what I was smoking back in the 70s and 80s when I didn't know (or didn't know enough to care) what I was smoking. Like most everyone else back then, I thought pot was pot; some was just better and more expensive than others. Now I'm better educated.

Somebody load up the vape and pass the Donkey Dick!