Why Cannabis is Long Overdue For a Golden Age Renaissance

White Widow. Sour Diesel. OG Kush. Afghani, …Maui fuckin Wowie. You know the names, but if you’re under the age of 40 and buy your weed via the legal recreational market, can you recall the last time you saw one of these legends for sale, let alone smoked one?

No doubt there are some connoisseurs of the classics still lurking out there who know a dude who knows a dude, or are willing to drive a distance to find classics but I suspect many young people wouldn’t be able to tell you the last time they huffed from the hall-of-canna-fame.

It’s weird to me that such a rapidly expanding industry is oddly bereft of it’s forefathers. 

Before my most recent haul of Kona Gold I wouldn’t have been able to tell you either the last time I saw a landrace descendant. Yes, I’ve smoked, enjoyed, and written reviews on Maui Wowie and Black Widow, and a pre-roll of Purple Thai, but that’s about it. 

This isn’t for a lack of wanting. I fucking LOVE OGs and heirlooms. There’s something about their directness and focused smell and effect.

They are cultivated with a concerted intentionality that is sometimes forgotten with new school eXoTiCs..

This is the type of flower that is truly excelling in a uniquely refined set of terpene parameters.

Ikagari weed.

These are the same reasons why I’ll always enjoy a clean crisp craft pilsner over the latest greatest fruit smoothie double IPA or a cup of single origin Kenyan unwashed black coffee over Starbucks latest and greatest syrupy cup-o-garbage.

Given the amount of Japanese rice lagers I’ve been seeing pop up on PNW menus these last few summers I’m thinking I’m not the only one who enjoys the refreshing clarity of a product which is the result of an earnest singular intention. 

Expertly blended bourbons of wheat, rye, and corn are lovely and smooth, but there’s also something to be said for tasting each grain itself. The spice of a rye-dominant mash. The dangerous smoothness of wheat whiskey. Cask strength. As distilled to its essence as can be.

Why then don’t we see equal market emphasis and producing and selling similarly differentiated cannabis genetics? 

Why Are Classic Heirloom Strains Revered?

First and foremost anything that “paves the way” for an entire multi-billion dollar industry will always be revered as a “classic”.

From music to automobiles when something breaks a mold and leaves an impression on our collective psyche it instantly becomes a classic, whether the populace is aware of it at the time or not. 

The Middle East and Central-South Asian kushes, the rank Skunks and Dutch Hazes, the Latin American reds and golds. The weed that normal people were able to get their hands on in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, are more often than not either forgotten to history OR coveted as precious keepsakes today. 

And yes, not all classics are landraces and not all landraces are classics but for arguments sake I’m lumping these two categories into one because of the high degree of genetic overlap and shared scarcity in today’s legal market.

Technically we could say landraces grown outside of their origins are “heirloom strains” which is synonymous with “classics”. 

Sure, there are still plenty a hippie cultivating these time capsules but they remain elusive and the recreational market sure as hell hasn’t yet got wise to their magic. 

In terms of why these genetics are so popular among the devout you have to remember how illegal cannabis was back in the day (and unfortunately STILL is in many states and countries) and that procuring herb that was actually cultivated with care and had a name attached to it was the illicit “top shelf” of the time. 

Many growers themselves were unaware of the specific genetic history of their grows at the time, being more focused on avoiding the law and maximizing yields in as secretive a way as possible with the limited resources at hand. 

These black market cultivators not only paved the way for legal cannabis in America but because of the illicit nature of the whole industry keeping track of unhybridized genetics over decades proved to be no small challenge.   

Additionally, and I think perhaps taken for granted in today’s fully globalized world, is the geographic and cultural connections associated with these founding flowers. 

The fresh and bright Columbian and Acapulco Golds. The sour lemon and gaseous Dutch Hazes. South Africa’s Durban Poison. Hindu Valley Kushes. All of these strains exhibit characteristics to where they were mass-cultivated by locals for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years prior. Given the long time spans of unhybridized cultivation we’re talking terroir on steroids. 

Geographic associations are strong memory builders. Perhaps there’s something about stimulating both the part of the brain responsible for geography with the part responsible for  sensory experiences that creates an extra potent memory. 

Fresh sushi at Seoul’s Noryangjin wholesale market. Hawaiian pineapples. Italian pizzas. French wine. Fish and chips. Wisconsin cheese curds. SCOTCH!

Heirloom strains associated with distinct places in the world with long and proud lineage stories thus rightly become objects of intense desire for those in the know. There is something about being human and wanting to connect with the past, to breathe in history and to walk in the shoes of legends that will always make true unadulterated Malawi Gold nearly worth its weight in real gold. 

Through first-hand experience I can report that the reverence is not manufactured. Having smoked Maui Wowie and a truly exceptional harvest of Black Widow from Trichome Farms I can say the hype over true classics is well deserved. 

On the off chance I do stumble upon one of these rarities I’ll always give it a sniff (if in a deli-style market), and likely walk out with at least an eighth. That’s what happened a couple weeks ago at Kaleafa in Beaverton while shopping for some CBD flower and seeing the biggest nug of my life in a jar of Kona Gold from Virgin Leaf. 

This 4.01 gram furball of bright orange citrus fruit has been a treat to smoke, and I’m typically not even an “sativa-leaning” type of guy. Generally when shopping I default to the dessert strains or stanky-ranky GMOs. If not those then you’ll often find me dipping my toes into the glittery candy indulgences that are modern day hype strains. 

But the classics still get me excited because so far, at least in my relatively limited experience, they’ve all been solid homeruns. They are rather specialized in both smell/taste departments as well as the effects. Smell and tasting notes are sharper and more delineated. Effects are razor-sharp in their ability to pierce your cannabinoid system in a distinct and memorable way. 

So, if the old school can be so great, then why in the heck don’t we see more of them among all the new school dispensary menus of today?

Reasons Why Classics Are Hard to Find

So what gives? If the classics are so great then why aren’t they everywhere? Shouldn’t demand result in supply? Do the rules of capitalism not apply in the world of cannabis?

I’ve long pondered this very question. Heirlooms and OG strains ARE verifiably great, that much I know through personal experience. As to why they only comprise a tiny fraction of the recreational market, is another mystery entirely.

In talking with various budtenders and after dwelling on this question in the hours after I smoking said classics I have a few theories as to why this is the case. 

Surely there are factors at play that I don’t touch upon here, but there are a few of the big reasons why we don’t see classics, OGs, or landraces that often in the mainstream rec scene:

1. Finding Authenticity Can Be Challenging

Since many of these genetics came to the United States decades ago in a time when cannabis was still highly illegal nation-wide, they didn’t have the kind of accurate record keeping or genetic papertrail that modern computing, science, and discord servers provide us with today.

As such, when someone said they had a cut of real Amnesia Haze, the classical hybrid of South Asian and Jamaican landraces, it has historically been hard to verify that claim unless you had personally grown it for generations or smoked enough of it to be able to determine authenticity. 

Given there are so many different Hazes out there it has been easy enough for unscrupulous sellers to claim their product to be Amnesia when in reality it’s genetically-speaking a much mor recently bred Haze hybrid. 

This problem has always existed and perpetuates today even among the exotics and hype strains. Much of the “Runtz” out there isn’t actually Runtz. Same with The Original Z (formerly known as “Zkittlez”). Same with Gelato #33. So on and and so forth. 

If there is popular demand for a strain you can bet your ass the market has a bunch of counterfeit versions of it, and that applies to literally everything.

Finding reliable sources for genetics or clones is not an easy task and requires a grower to actually be plugged into the true legacy OGs and since many of these OGs prefer to keep a low profile or have chosen not to participate in the recreational market, the number of people with access isn’t huge. 

With a market full of frauds and the trailblazers aging, there just isn’t a ton of trust or even healthy breeding plants to produce large amounts of heritage bud to make noticeable impacts on retail shelves and all it takes is one bad experience with a fake for someone to be potentially be turned off to the classics forever.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Just like wild wolves the internationally-derived strains of the 60s, 70s, and 80s do still exist and could be rehabilitated if the demand exists. 

So next time you’re hitting up your local dispensary why not ask if they’ve ever tried sourcing some Panama Red, Bubba Kush, or Malawi Gold. 

2. Consumerist Brainwashing

The “new new”, the “hype strains”, “COOKIES”. Capitalism rules everything around us and while it has provided impressive levels of innovation and competition, it isn’t without its downsides as well.

Capitalism is the framework within which consumerism exists. Without consumerism capitalism fails because there’s nobody trading their time and money for products and services. The more Americans consume the more companies can produce and earn and so trillions in marketing dollars are spent to fuel the cycle endlessly.

Despite the best efforts of the federal reserve and Wall Street, this cycle does not run indefinitely nor does it run free of error. Sometimes we consume too much, which generally results in unsustainable levels of bad debt, which in turn then can cumulatively crash the global economy. 

Yeah, I’m still jaded we bailed out the banks in 2008 while every other tax paying American would go homeless if they fucked up that bad. 

Back here in 2024 though consumer spending accounted for a whopping 67.6% of the United States GDP, which is pretty wild to think about given how much our industrial complex likes to spend on “defense”.

When the cycle of production and consumption inevitably falters (the economy is a cyclical beast), whether due to bad lending practices or low interest-driven bubbles of euphoria, the entire system grinds to a halt. This is what we call a recession or in severe cases, a depression.

To bolster its total potential and insulate itself from cycles of boom and bust, capitalism as one of its core tenets advocates for endless mindless consumption. Grow Grow Grow. Inflate Inflate Inflate. More, more, more, MORE! 

Besides destroying the environment and fueling unsustainable debt levels, this has also fueled the evolution of marketing strategy wherein consumers are taught that enough is never enough, that new is always better than old, and short-term trends over minimalism or timelessness.  

It doesn’t matter if you are wise to the game you inevitably get trapped in the cycles via various nefarious tactics such as planned obsolescence engineering, which is to intentionally engineer something that will only last a certain time period before it breaks or fails or becomes “not cool”, thereby forcing consumers to buy again and again in perpetuity.

The cannabis industry is no exception. Companies are always chasing the new highest THC percentages (often in rather deceptive ways), and with slick flashy branding we’re constantly being sold the new shiny hype. 

Now I must acknowledge much of the hype is legitimately good. I like a good Runtz strain. I like a lot of Cookies flavors. When Oregrown sells out of a fresh drop of Evan’s Creek Toad Venom in a week I desire it even more. I’m American and lived through the pandemic, I’m programmed to respond to FOMO. 

So while new shiny glittery things are fun and exciting they do have a tendency to steal a bit of the limelight from the old reliable stalwarts that many of us grew up coveting, simply because very few people are putting effort into cultivating these to an exceptional standard nor is anyone dumping time or energy into marketing them, which is a shame. 

Honestly I think a balance can be struck. People do it all the time in other industries. Buy a hybrid Camry for reliability and fuel efficiency so that you can keep your filthy slut of an ‘69 El Camino SS in pristine condition in the garage for lazy Sunday pleasure cruises. 

Heck, in composing this excessively long ode to heirloom cannabis strains I’ve listened to everything from the latest and greatest Anjunadeep tracks to Neil Young and Don Henley. Who doesn’t enjoy variety, whether in food, in music, fashion, or… CANNABIS GENETICS!

Old and new both slap, just in different ways. Currently the cannabis industry might be a little overly fixated on the new, perhaps to the detriment of the old, but at last, c’est le syndrome de l’objet brillant.

3. Business Brads Lacking Creativity

Segwaying from endless cycles of consumption straight into the folks largely responsible for holding the mantle of consumerism high for the sake of the holy profit we have the business Brads and Brianas. 

To put it succinctly, the cannabis industry is absolutely CHALK FULL of business bro chodes who never cared about cannabis, never will care about cannabis, and are who are pretending to care about cannabis simply to make a profit. 

With a regular stream of sensationalized cannabis industry boom news stories these mercenaries of mids flock to cannabis like moths to light in search of more profit and more personal wealth.

For many long-time tokers the levels of inauthenticity that accompany these speculators is plenty reason enough to be skeptical of the actual product they end up pushing. It can be tough though when they hide behind an anonymous brand that you don’t realize is bunk until it’s too late. 

In my dozens of interactions with industry employees, from people making edibles to those growing, harvesting, and selling cannabis in dispensaries, I’ve yet to meet a single person who didn’t have at least one horror story about working for some self-entitled brat of a cannabis business owner. 

There are two main contributing factors at play here that I believe have resulted in a disproportionate number of insincere fake fucks dominating what should be one of, if not the most egalitarian industries in the country. 

We shouldn’t be surprised though. Predatory “entrepreneurs” exist in every industry and you can never thwart them all, like a swarm of deep woods mosquitos where for every one you slap there are a dozen more already sucking your blood. 

Why is this?

Well, whenever there is a “gold rush” in any particular industry it’s often the most aggressive and most hawkish that often have the free time and pre-existing financial resources to secure the permits, the land, the leases, the equipment, and the labor. 

Your hippie uncle that’s been growing amazing landraces continuously for decades simply doesn’t have the same bloodthirst or financial resources required for national expansion that Chadly McChaderson has. 

Second, and perhaps most consequentially, is the fact that given federal prohibition makes it nearly impossible to secure a traditional business loan from a big bank like you can do with 99% of other business types. 

As such, only those with existing access to millions of dollars in capital are the ones who initially thrive, while those with the experience and expertise, but who don’t have land-owning oligarchy flowing through their veins are unable to participate. 

Now, this isn’t to say there aren’t exceptions. Jesce Horton of renowned LOWD cannabis here in Portland is just one example of what hard work and perseverance CAN result in. There are farms and dispensaries who have achieved what they have not via privilege but through sheer determination of will. 

When these people “make it” it’s because they are offering superior product that are bred and cultivated with deep knowledge that can’t be bought, which is one of the few advantages that industry OGs have over moneybags. 

Unfortunately it would seem that people like Mr. Horton are still in the minority in a rapidly consolidating industry where deep pockets of liquid capital continue to steer the direction of the industry overall.

Many a business bro who never cared about cannabis and now only care about it because of the profit potential are bound to fail to fully understand the spectacular properties that OG strains and landraces provide because they weren’t around to experience them in the first place. 

Instead many of them will start their cannabis journey on the date they draft their business plan, which means the market research will be oriented towards the big names (and the genetics they sell) of today and not of yesterday, leaving a retail gap in cannabis’ long genetic timeline. 

There are also legitimate cannabis lovers out there running businesses that only grow new stuff simply because in their own minds the classics are outdated and boring because that’s what they grew up smoking and don’t find exciting anymore, which is a perfectly fair perspective to have.

Every year a new generation of American consumers turns 21+ and every year that passes the days of roadkill-smelling Skunks and amnesia-inducing Hazes get further and further behind us, to the point where they are hardly visible in our rearview mirrors anymore. 

I don’t think things will remain this way forever. Some states like Oregon are offering small business grants specifically to people of color while established entrepreneurs like LOWDs Jesce Horton have teamed up with other business leaders to provide low interest loans and grants to communities disproportionately harmed by cannabis criminalization.

These social activists and business leaders are also supporting organizations like the Minority Cannabis Business Association that was created to better help serve minority cannabis businesses and local communities by connecting, empowering, and advocating for policy change that creates more opportunities for marginalized entrepreneurs. 

This goes to show that not all cannabis business owners are purely motivated by profit and there are ethical operators out there working hard to make the industry a more inclusive place where business success isn’t dictated entirely by how much capital you start out with. 

Additionally I strongly believe that “the classics” are bound to experience a resurgence in popularity on their own, regardless who is running what percent of cannabusinesses. 

Retro is “in” and doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere anytime soon. Legalization continues to sweep the nation. Capital will become easier to acquire for 420 businesses and the internet will continue to assist consumers in making more informed decisions. Young people actually care about responsible business behavior and are shopping with their dollars. Change is indeed happening. 

We collectively have the power to help steer the direction of the industry if we so choose to do so! 

4. Herd Mentality Still Dominates

When any state legalizes cannabis there is a process and pattern that plays out in similar ways in every state. It goes something like: overexcitement, overproduction, and then overreaction. 

Permits are snatched up, sometimes at a volume that outpaces actual demand, and production is ramped up to the point where quantity becomes the core focus of many businesses, often to the detriment of quality.

One of the biggest reasons new businesses fail is because they simply try to copy the success of other businesses without any additional value add or market differentiation. This can work for a while but eventually the market becomes saturated with a bunch of clones selling the same thing. 

We can see this herd mentality play out all over the country and to some degree the world.

For example, when Runtz sells well then EVERYONE starts growing Runtz. Trop sells well so they all sell Trop. Candy strains, desserts, permanent markers and soaps galore. On and on it goes, leaping from hot thing to hot thing. 

There are always too many people simply trying to copy the success of others without taking the time or energy to innovate and create something new and unique. 

I get the logic. From a business perspective minimizing risk is a stalwart tenant of maximizing your chances at achieving and maintaining operating profitability. 

On the flip side though, consumers become increasingly immune to hype when every single farm and dispensary out there are selling roughly the same lineup of genetics.

Follow the money and profit. It’s a proven mantra, but it is constrained by a definable maximum saturation point that once crossed, has a tendency to fuck over everyone because of the supply glut. 

Every year we see new headlines made about this or that recreational market imploding due to oversupply because too many operators are singularly focused on following the money and are forgetting about the benefit, dare I say necessity, of actually building a sustainable brand with unique value propositions for consumers. 

Sure, there is a large demand for low cost “get the job done” mids just like there will always be demand for easy drinking light beer and budget airlines and Carhart. For the volume tokers or for the squad smokers being able to pick up a sub-$100 ounce isn’t a preference, it’s a necessity. 

If you’re rolling 2g blunts for the homies on the daily then $17/gram Gucci ganja isn’t usually within the squad budget. 

Heck, even for beginners partaking in canna-tourism they often don’t need nor do they necessarily want the stickiest of the icky. I’d argue growers could profit by selling more balanced strains (higher CBD content, lower THC content) to new customers and experienced customers seeking therapeutic benefit and fun flavors.

But swing by any handful of franchise dispensaries in your market and you’re bound to find an abundance of focus on cheap weed. Sometimes that cheap weed is perfectly acceptable, sometimes it’s shwag. More concerning is that sometimes it’s grown in questionable circumstances by questionable individuals and is of questionable safety.

Meanwhile, in contrast to the herd-driven corporate market the craft market, which are far more likely to offer heirloom genetics on their menus, continues to boom:

There appears to be no end in sight regarding the ceiling for premium-grade cannabis and as such more cultivators and dispensaries alike would benefit from breaking with the herd and focusing on providing a truly exceptional experience over a truly cheap experience. 

This requires careful curation of genetics, small-batch craft cultivated flower, and an army of dispensaries offering diverse menus that appeal to multiple market segments not just one or two.

Why The Future Is Heirloom

Despite the challenges, I am quite confident that whoever is willing to put in the time and dedication in cultivating true classics shall find great success in the next decade of whatever the recreational market ultimately evolves into. 

Properly grown and correctly marketed, heirloom bud could easily create a tsunami of interest in the old school. You can see the trend in other industries, from fashion to music, “retro” stuff has been “in” for quite some time. 

Unlike many other trends, retro and vintage don’t seem to fall out-of-style as much as they rotate between periods. 90’s, 2000’s, 80’s, 70’s; you can see various aesthetic aspects of all of these time periods in any major metropolitan city today. Retro is no one-hit-wonder, it’s a bonafide time buffet where history has become a vibe and everyone is a time traveler. 

Will the originals ever outsell the new kids on the block? Perhaps not. But the current ratio, which if I had to pull a split out of my ass of say 90/10 of modern hybrids-to-classics, is criminally imbalanced. 

Maybe the consumer needs a bit of education and never forget that a little bit of quality marketing can go a long way. Both obstacles are easily surmountable and I strongly believe those who are able to pull it off will be rewarded handsomely for their efforts. 

The interest is there and growing. The market is primed. All the industry needs to do is zig a little more to balance some of the dominant zagging going on. 

Aggregating legal market cannabis shopper demographic data from Headset.io and New Frontier Data we find that over 20% of shoppers are 35 years or older. That’s nearly a quarter of the market that have probably been exposed to or are aware of heirloom strains and could easily be catered to on top of the “youth” who may have less existing knowledge of “the old school”. 

The /trees community on Reddit seem to corroborate some of these assumptions, largely agreeing with many of the root causes identified here.

As the high end, top-shelf, connoisseur-grade cannabis options grow so will the thirst for the purist, cleanest, must authentic iterations of the genetics that started it all. The source. The original sauce. 

Our canna-saviors.  

The time has come for a renaissance in heirloom genetics. Give the recreational market access to the progenitors of all the hype we’ve been enjoying. Let’s reconnect with our roots as an industry and take the rec market to the next level. 

But hey, these are just the ramblings of one dude who smoked a bunch of Kona Gold and went down a half-dozen internet rabbit holes.

I want to know what you think!