Can You Paint With All The Colours Of The Weed?

How Does One Paint With Weed, Exactly?

With commitment and, of course, sheer focus.

Or, you know, not at all. The painting is more of a metaphor here, so try to think of it that way. It’s really not a metaphor, of course, it’s more of a reference I’m shoehorning in for a chuckle. If it didn’t make you laugh, that’s still OK! It made me smile when I wrote it, and that’s more important, anyway.

I want to try something a little bit different with this post, so here’s what I’m planning to do: I want to look at the ‘colours’ of weed, or at least the important ones. A lot of famous strains have colour words right in the name, but some colours have important traits and effects associated with them, while others don’t.

Take Pink, for example. If you see the word ‘Pink’ in the name of a strain, you can guarantee that strain shares its genetic heritage with the legendary Pink Kush. That means the flavour will probably follow a certain profile, and the child strain will likely share at least a few of the effects of its Pink parent.

‘Pink’ has been extremely popular in Canada for years now, but it’s not the only cannabis colour with a well-defined array of qualities. ‘Blue’ strains often trace their lineage back to the infamous Blueberry, and ‘Purple’ strains are all descended from the venerated Afghan Purple. For these strains, colour words are more than just an indication of the colour of the leaves or hairs that line the marijuana flower. These words are like the strain’s last name, that tell you where they came from, and can even influence those strains’ effects.

Not all colours are created equal, though! I provided 3 examples of colours above that have important genetic connotations, but there are also colour words that are completely meaningless! ‘Black’ is a great example of this, as there are a number of strains that have ‘Black’ in the name, but very few of them share any traits, effects, or genetics.

I really think it’s worth the time to look at all the Colours of Weed, and maybe even try to define a few new ones! For example, one of the oldest known ‘Black’ strains is the well-known Black Domina, so maybe we could look at the effects of that strain and decide what makes it ‘Black’. We could even look at hybrids derived from Black Domina, and rename them more appropriately if they share the strain’s effects and qualities.

So You’re Not Really Painting Anything

Not literally, no! It’s a metaphor (kind of).

I’m hoping that, by looking at a few of the important words we use to talk about our favorite strains of cannabis, that we can try to clean up one of the messiest parts of the cannabis industry: the abundance of meaningless strain names that don’t tell you anything about the weed you’re buying!

I’m not saying we get rid of all the fun names out there, but I want them to make sense. For example, I’m a big fan of strain names like Death Star, which combines the ‘Death’ prefix from Death Bubba with the ‘Star’ suffix of Sensi Star. Death Star’s name is representative of both the parent strains that were crossed to create it, and that’s obvious right off the bat.

On the other end of things, you might have strains like Sunset Sherbert: Sunset Sherbert is a cross of Girl Scout Cookies with Pink Panties, but you wouldn’t know that from the name. When I see ‘Sherbert’, I immediately start to think that one of the parent strains might be Gelato, or another strain with ice cream in the name. A better name for Sunset Sherbert, if we think about it, might be something like ‘Pink Cookies’ or ‘Pink Girl Scout’. That would make it far more clear what you were buying, and provide a hint about the strain’s effects and flavour.

That’s the kind of thought I’d like to kick this experiment off with: making names make sense. You might come up with the coolest strain name in the world, but it won’t matter if it doesn’t match the profile of whatever cannabis you give the name to. Words have power, but when it comes to cannabis, a lot of that power has been reduced by decades of neglectful nomenclature. We can fix that without too much trouble, but there might be a few casualties along the way.

For example, would your favorite strain still be your favorite strain if it went by a different name? For all the fans of Sunset Sherbet out there, how would you feel about calling it Pink Cookies instead? That’s just one example, and I promise that there are a lot more where that came from.

Just think about a few of the strains you like best, and what else you could call them. Maybe do some research, find out more about the parent strains that made them, and you might just be surprised to learn how little the genetics and effects are both reflected in the names of strains you know and love.