Dear Stoner: I went to my friend's house who is growing now and asked to see his plants. He said they were "sleeping," and I wasn't allowed in the room. Has he just smoked so much that he thinks his plants sleep?
Non Toker
Dear NT: Marijuana relies on the sunlight to tell it when to bloom into a flower from a vegetative state. More precisely: Most varieties of cannabis crave their time in darkness — and in nature, that's usually in the fall as the sun starts dipping down into the southern sky. But how long a plant needs to flower depends on where its genetics are rooted. Sativas originally bred and grown in the tropics near the equator — where the change in daylight is minimal from winter to summer — take longer to flower, some as long as sixteen to eighteen weeks under artificial lights timed to twelve hours of darkness each day. In more northern and southern latitudes, that change is drastic. In Colorado, we get just less than nine and a half hours of daylight by the time the winter solstice rolls around; plants — mostly indicas — have evolved to flower much quicker.
So when your friend tells you his girls are sleeping, let them have their beauty rest. You'll appreciate it in a few weeks, when they're ready for the Ball (jar).
Dear Stoner: Why does my bubbler get me more stoned than a regular pipe?
Phil D. Bong
Dear PDB: Believe it or not, along with the tars and other chemicals the water might be absorbing, it's also removing some of the THC and other cannabinoids from your hit. In fact, you're better off smoking a sticky, fat joint. A NORML study conducted a dozen or so years ago in California showed that bongs actually have higher tar-to-THC ratios in their smoke than even a joint does. A joint produced about thirteen parts of tar for every one part THC; bongs had about 30 percent higher tar-to-THC ratios. And while the study was conducted using some weak-ass, government-supplied weed with a THC content of about 2.3 percent, that doesn't mean it wouldn't apply to today's high-powered, 20-plus percent super herb available in medical shops.
The reason you're getting so stoned is because of the chimney's worth of smoke you just slammed into your pulmonary vein. Some would say that's more efficient, others would say it's just nuts. If you're really concerned about the dangers of combustion, the best idea would be to join the 21st century, get a vaporizer and forget about burning your weed altogether.
