First time smoking weed? Start here

Any varsity stoner will tell you that now is a great time to get into cannabis. With recreational legalization sweeping the States, an introduction to cannabis no longer necessitates a clandestine search for a reliable dealer. Instead, novice users are faced with an abundance of cultivars bred for astronomical highs, sometimes intrusively knowledgeable budtenders, and shops full of customers decidedly confident in their selections. If you’re a potential toker still working up the nerve to cross the threshold of your local dispensary, it can all be a tad overwhelming. 

To all the canna-curious folks out there, this step-by-step explainer will help you feel like a ganga guru before you even step foot in a dispensary

Choosing a strain for the first time

Spoiler alert: sativa, indica, and hybrid designations only marginally describe how a strain might affect you. For those not familiar with the folklore, sativa supposedly implies a stimulating strain, while indica indicates a more sedative strain. It is between these two poles that all hybrid strains fall, and those innumerable hybrids are bred for all manner of effects from deeply therapeutic to straight-up celebratory. In reality, unless you plucked it from a wild field in Nepal or Afghanistan, most all weed is a hybrid. And indica and sativa are designations more useful and meaningful to growers than consumers.

What’s more important than those broad designations? The strain’s terpenes and the percentages . Together these can give you a far more accurate prediction of how a given cultivar, or strain, might affect you. So, instead of focusing on indica or sativa, take some time to consider what you want out of your high. Are you looking to relax? Sleep better? Feel more aroused, energetic, or euphoric? Figuring out your intention will make choosing the right strain much simpler. 

Tip: Once you know what your goal is, take a spin through and filter strains by the effect that’s right for you.

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