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Great cannabis products abound, but there’s nothing like fresh, juicy buds.
You probably know it as good old-fashioned ‘weed’: delightful nugs, or colas, packed with all the stuff that gives the cannabis plant its magic. Harvested from the female plant, the flower is covered in trichomes, the tiny crystal extremities containing the plant’s cannabinoids and terpenes. These compounds give weed its effects and flavor, and smoking flower is typically the quickest and most reliable way to experience them. Whether you roll a joint with it, smoke it out of a pipe or bong, or heat it in a vaporizer, canna flower is a tried and tested classic for connoisseurs and the canna-curious alike.
If you’re new to cannabis, smoking or vaporizing dry flower is a great place to start. The cannabis experience varies significantly from product to product and between different bud strains. Still, flower will give you a general idea of what to expect from cannabis consumption in terms of flavor and effect.
A smokable flower is likelier to elicit a manageable first-time high, whereas concentrates, edibles, and other high-potency products can overwhelm new users. For medical marijuana patients, flower offers the most immediate onset of effects and potential wellness benefits, including stress relief, pain relief, inflammation reduction, and sleep aid.
For more experienced users, flower is a core cannabis product that delivers the flavor and effects of the plant as mother nature intended. It’s also versatile for cooking edibles or fresh-pressing concentrate at home. Most folks who regularly use flower roll it in a joint or smoke it from a pipe or bong. Flower vaporizers have also become popular recently, heating weed enough to inhale it without combusting plant material, thus avoiding tar and carcinogens. These consumption methods require a grinder, which you use to grind your bud into a more malleable, consumable texture and density.
Because of the way it interacts with the body, cannabis affects everyone differently. Two people could smoke the same flower strain and have surprisingly different reactions. With that said, most first-time users will experience an intoxicating high and some form of deep body relaxation, likely peaking within 10 to 20 minutes of consumption. Gradually decreasing for the next few hours.
Newcomers should note that different weed strains exhibit different effects and flavor profiles. One strain may prove more beneficial than another. CBD flower, for example, has higher concentrations of Cannabidiol (CBD) than Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), so it’s less intoxicating and more wellness-focused. Furthermore, strains vary in their THC concentrations, and most flower on the recreational market is highly potent. If you’re new to smoking THC flower, starting your journey with lower THC percentages, optimally within the 13% to 25% range, is best.