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Elephant Crush

Marijuana Name Game Still Hazy

hazy sky

Last year marijuana.net published an article titled “The Marijuana Name Game.”  While the article takes on a light tone in the beginning, it does highlight some big problems with medical marijuana.  The article cites a quote from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (The Balcony Scene Act 2-Scene 2) where Juliet says “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Although we are proud of our own efforts of The Werc Shop and Marijuana.net in trying to make sense of the name game, there still is so much work to be done.  Marijuana is fun, but popular culture typically only focuses on “stoner” humor, forgetting that cannabis is a wonderful medicine providing relief to so many in need.  Without a true labeling and classification system set in place by state governments, it can be difficult for patients to know exactly what medicine is ideal for them, especially based on the names alone.  What exactly does OG Kush mean to someone with chronic pain.  Green Crack actually sounds like it may be more harmful than helpful.

We recently learned that a strain named Elephant Crush was recently created but was initially based on a fictional strain included in the novel “Baked,” by Mark Haskell Smith.  In the book, the fictional character Miro Basinas, a botanist creates elephant crush and wins the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam.  The character has grown tired of supposed tasteless hybrids and creates Elephant Crush to have a sweet mango taste.  Waterfall Wellness now actually is carrying a strain named Elephant Crush and it is said to be based on the strain from “Baked”.  Columnist David Downs recently wrote an article titled “Smell the Truth” which describes his trip to Waterfall Wellness.  Downs inquires about the genetics of Elephant Crush, but the budtender has no answers and says the genetics are a mystery.  We have to ask, would a shrug of the shoulders be considered an acceptable explanation for what is included in conventional medicines?

This is not the first time we have seen strains take on names from fictional works.  Pineapple Express is one of the most famous examples of this as the strain did not exist before the Seth Rogen and James Franco movie was released.  There is nothing wrong with having some fun with medical marijuana but the focus needs to be on genetics and science.  With a proper labeling system, silly and fun names could continue to be the norm if the necessary genetic information was included.

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