I'm on my third year of growing my own weed. This years harvest was purple satellite from humbolt seeds. I use a dry herb vape and roughly consume 0.15g to 0.2g in a small canister. It's almost too much. I'm a life long smoker and this shit is so strong I almost didn't enjoy it sometimes.

It's a consequence of weed being illegal. If you need fewer grams to get high (because it has higher THC content) you can sell less weed for the same money which makes smuggling it much more cost effective.

Us IT nerds at university made a makeshift vaporizer out of an end table, an air mattress compressor, a steel ashtray, a soldering iron, some sort of wire mesh, a large glass bowl, and some aquarium tubing.

I’m really enjoying my vaporizer. Confusingly named because it’s very different that a vape. Basically you load real weed into it, not oil, and it heats its just enough to get you high without smoking. Feels much healthier on the lungs than a regular joint.

It's gotta be one of the only positive bits of progress the US has had since 2001. I don't even smoke (combust) anymore. I got one of these a few years back and never turned back. It's incredible. I haven't bought flower in like 5 years.

https://www.elementvape.com/focus-v-carta-2

Years ago I would try to hide my pot smoking from my parents.

Now I am hiding my pot smoking from my kids.

Someday my kids will be hiding their pot smoking from me.

And my dad ended up getting into hydroponic gardening shortly after I moved out.

The circle of life, man.

I would just keep swiping their vapes and not say anything. See how long it takes.

Tbh, if I saw my dad absolutely fucked up after hitting my vape pen as a teenager, it would probably have rattled me enough to make me stop for a few years at least.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but that article is just typical fear mongering BS. It keeps the eyes of parents glued to the screen and consuming ads. Doesn't even say what "spice" is. Articles like this are basically broiler-llate and come out every few months. Notice how they manage to blame social media, and how they don't mention any adults using it at all.

I found the wikipedia article on these things more useful and less biased. Spice seems to mostly refer to a designer drug that is similar to THC, but is not THC. And while it is often used to lace marijuana or mixed with weed vapes, it isn't just weed.

It's like hearing about people adding PCP or LSD to weed and freaking out about how dangerous weed is. Like... Yeah you shouldn't buy drugs from some random guy on Snapchat.

Yeah. Spice/synthetic full cannabinoid receptor agonists are honestly terrifying and have such dramatically different effects from legit cannabis.

I'm from Western Canada and while our experience is very very far from the rest of NA's...(none of our shit came from Mexico) one thing that's definitely changed over the last few decades is the knowledge base of cannabis growers in general.

There are more cannabis specific products such as nutrient blends, pest, and environmental controls. Off the shelf products you can order online that used to be custom made or end you up on a list.

People understand pruning, topping, and branch lining. This becomes especially apparent when you compare amateur growers to intermediate and medical grade growers.

Than there's the genetics being improved through breeding. .

But the main thing I'm told is that a lot of weed in the USA came from outdoor grows in Mexico. Which outdoor can never, ever, compete with indoor.

I didn't know they'd been working on this shit like it's the cure for cancer

I was a good boy who didn't do drugs until adulthood, and I have medical marijuana now. The feedback I've gotten from pretty much everyone who did drugs in the 90's and 00's vs today is the same as your experience. The "weed nerds" have spent decades in their labs and the state-by-state legalization has greatly accelerated their progress.

Even my pharmacist warned me when I first got my medical card "if this is your first time using medical marijuana it's a lot stronger than what is usually on the street, so watch out".

Always gotta tell myself “just a little puff or two from the vape, no more, or you’re going to think that you’re gonna die”

A few months ago, the local dispensary was out of the vape I would normally buy, so I tried a new one instead. Took a hit, thought "Well, guess I'm going to bed right now, then," and laid in bed. That thing hit me so hard, at one point I had to check the news on my phone to confirm whether there'd been another earthquake, or if I'd just ripped a massive fart and not realized.