Big Data suggests Marijuana Users Can't Name their Favorite Strains and that's okay

Big data / Analytics firms like Highyieldinsights are finding that marijuana user's regardless of frequency are having a hard time naming their favorite strains. At face value that sounds like something out of a stoner movie.

Like Dave's not here man, and dude where'd you park your car, level i dunno's...

Northern Lights - 3 days after harvest 11/2017

But their numbers were actually fairly high.

Approximately 1 in 3 users who smoke a couple times a week could not name their favorite strain. Most were at best able to say they liked, sativa, indica, or hybrid types. And only 1 in 4 infrequent users could name a favorite strain (but if you're not a frequent user, should you really be expected to know this?).

This is largely just free promo for what they are capable of providing consumers of data and analytics. I for one eat this stuff up faster then OG kush brownies. Sorry for the pun. But it's interesting and that statistics they provide are pretty easy to understand.

It's crazy to think that frequent users wouldn't know their brand, right? Maybe not.

Legal marijuana has been around for such a short time and the industry does not have the best track record for being able to provide a product over and over again. Which doesn't set a good standard for consumers to be selective and recalling which brand/strain was good a couple times ago.

In fact people can go into a shop and find that the product or flower they had come to purchase is no longer be available.

And there is research which shows strains can vary wildly genetically speaking between shops. So patrons may get different experiences from the same strain purchased at different stores.

This isn't like beer, cigarettes or other consumer products.

You can't just go into a store any store in the country and expect to get the same product, the same quality/potency, the same experience, and yes the same price each and every time you shop.

What's your point?

I've been throwing a lot of shade on all of the bass ackwards strain names. Getting all sorts of frustrated over how the strain names tell you nothing about the type of cannabis or expected effects.

But I came to realize that the names of these strains are not the problem. They are the creative draw for the consumer.

Like when you go into a liquor store, to buy beer. Say you want IPA, there are going to be a lot of brands to choose from. The average IPA drinker has a general idea about the taste and potency.

This over time will become a norm for cannabis users.

With better practices, improved branding, and genetic / potency testing labeling. Users are going to get a better handle on which types of cannabis they prefer.

I will agree that there are some truly offensive pot strains out there, and I'd like to see that change. But really it all comes down to luck, which strains become popular and which don't.

And I'm okay with all the crazy names that are out there. There are sites online that will tell you the lineage and effects of most strains.

I think they have it wrong that strain names are meaningless. They obviously serve a purpose in helping catch the eye of consumers.

I don't see why people can't simply start by identifying their favorite type as, Indica, Sativa, hybrid, or even CBD types. Those 4 classes in my mind are a great starting point. I don't see how we can create a new naming convention for marijuana strains, nor is it necessary.

I for one don't need to say my favorite strain is x, y or z. I think it's best to have a couple options from each type (I, S, H, C).

What do you think?


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MM's

Marijuana Use In Married Couples Reduces Likelihood Of Domestic Abuse

An article from 2014 published in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, "Couples' marijuana use is inversely related to their intimate partner violence over the first 9 years of marriage.", has been circulating through a ton of popular websites.

I don't want to get of track so i'll keep my rant about how/why this happens brief.

But seriously think about that or a second. This article was published in 2014. So why are all the attention now? I don't have that answer, aside from assuming all of these sites are copying each other for clicks to their sites. I mean that's fine it's something that happens on probably all social websites.

Here are all the sites that were running this 2014 article:

Washington post - Christopher Ingraham - 26Aug2014 (Awesome time to report this article)

High Times - Samantha Cashin - 09Apr2018 (4 years later...)

Fatherly.com - Lauren Vinopal - 12Jul2018 (4 years later and now you can borrow from other sites)

So these are just a few that cite this study, and yet all of them simply re-state the findings in the study. Which is fine but again it's just a puff piece. It's click bait for getting people to your website so you can generate ad revenue. 

--- deep breath --- 

...rant over...

Back to the article

I certainly do not want to downplay the conclusions made from this study, looking at marijuana use and rates of intimate partner violence (IPV). It's pretty awesome that they were able to follow so many couples 634 to be exact and for 9 years!!! (here is the full article: link)

Here are the amazing findings they were able to conclude:

• about 1 in 5 married women and 1 in 3 married men admitted to using marijuana
• IPV rates were lower where at lease one spouse used marijuana
• Marijuana use hinted towards less frequent IPV, with the lowest IPV group being the couples who both used marijuana frequently
• Important to note: subjects were all heterosexual, newly married, and first time married couples

Aside from the results supporting fewer incidence of domestic violence in couples that use marijuana. There was a lot of unpleasant information in that article.

The study only looked at one type of IPV. That being physical aggression and injury (e.g. slapping, beating up, choking). But there are at least three categories of IPV: psychological, physical, and sexual aggression.

I felt that this study was limited in the design to only look at physical IPV. I would like to see where the others ranked in this type of longitudinal study.

I also was a little upset that none of the websites actually expanded on the findings and or limitations. 

I bring this point up because there was an article from 2008 same journal (Psychol Addict Behav) out of Ohio U, showed that Marijuana use was associated with IPV by men arrested for domestic violence. In this article they were able to conclude that marijuana use was related to all three forms of IPV. 2008 Article - Marijuana related to all forms of IPV. 

One last point about the positive article. There were some pretty discouraging figures in the paper.

• Nearly 40% of all husbands conducted IPV on their wives, with an average of 4.0 times per year. And keep in mind the survey was only asking for physical forms of domestic violence.

That is just way too high. Way too high.

Again not trying to undermine the interesting findings. I just think the study was limited to a single arm of intimate partner violence. 

And then when it's picked up by websites who are going to spin the news largely on the title and summary, it's just a little frustrating.

If you read either of these articles let me know what your takeaway is!

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2018 East Coast Outdoor Growing Season Gets Tested As Temperatures Drop

Got a couple or a lot of weeks left in your flowering stage? Starting to worry if you're going to have enough days to get to the harvest before it gets too cold?

Welcome to the unpredictable world of New England weather...

This weekend brought the first real break in an otherwise long and continuous stretch of very hot and near unbearable levels of humidity. However that also meant dangerously low evening temperatures. Some parts of New England saw well into the mid-40's.

While that's not going to kill your crop. It's not going to help move things along much either.

Luckily the temperatures in the greater area appear to be coming back into the 60's and 70's.

Courtesy of https://www.news10.com/weather

If our crop was a football team (go Pats btw), we'd be looking at a hail Mary toss right about now to get to the endzone (i.e. Harvest). Case and point, we're about 2-4 weeks in of a possible 8-12 week flowering cycle. And the temps have started to drop below the 50's.

We're hoping for mild couple of months into late October. But who really knows. We read the farmer's almanac, which if accurate said something about a cold winter. But we don't need to get to winter...just to middle fall.

We aren't going to be creating any outdoor palace for these ladies. It's just fingers crossed and hope for the best.

How's everyone else managing things around dropping temperatures?




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MM's