Ok so when I created this blog I just wanted to keep it as a personal diary. A place where I can go back a few years from now and remember all the amazing strains that might no longer be around. One thing I have learned is change is constant and you should document the things you are passionate about.
Overtime though my feelings have slightly changed. I almost feel an obligation to document all these Strains not just for me but also for you. I feel that even though we are 20 years into marijuana legalization in Cali, other states are still in their infancy. Many new people have yet to be introduced to safe legal marijuana and I want people to have an unbiassed source to learn from and enjoy my experience.
So as I continue down the path to document the wild world of weed, I have made my way to the once 800 lb Gorilla in the room. Medmen.
Medmen was one of the first recreational clubs to open in 2018 in California and was located in West Hollywood. Soon after they opened other locations in Florida, Nevada and New York.
They were positioned to succeed as they had everything from lobbyists to big name Hollywood partnerships such as Gwyneth Paltrow’s brand Goop. However due to poor leadership, the CEO blew threw tons of doe and growing too fast, what once was believed to be the one Dispensary that was going to take over recently closed 5 locations in Florida.
The design of the Medmen in San Diego was clean and sleek. It was very similar design to an apple store where there are a bunch of tables around the room with iPads on top. The iPads display the products for that section such flowers, concentrates, cartridges, edibles etc. In addition on the flower table there are containers with the flowers that give you a chance to look at and smell the flowers.
I have seen this design at other clubs in and out of state. Usually when they display the weed in these setups they take the flowers out of the original container and the new container never does the flowers justice and never works for being able to smell the flower.
Medmen did a good job of showcasing the products in other ways by having the all the products on shelves going around the room. You as the customer walk up and grab whatever you want and then walk up to the counter to pay.
To be honest it felt a little too accessible, like if I went back to my days as a magician I can make all that shit disappear. Now keep in mind they know who you are as you check in with your ID so the likelihood of consequences after performing magic would probably be high.
Now I ended up getting a few strains of weed on the trip to Medmen, but today I wanted to review Max from the Statemade line.
When Medmen first opened they outsourced the growing of their flowers to 3rd parties. Those 3rd party strains are what Medmen called Statemade. To my knowledge the Statemade flowers are being phased out and are now on sale at Medmen location.
It is also worth noting Medmen has since released their own in house strains called Medmen Red where the strains go by traditional strain naming convention. Also Medmen Red is significantly less expensive coming in at $40 bucks vs the $55-60 of Statemade. Stay tuned for a Medmen Red review cming soon.
So let dig into the Max from the Statemade line. The name Max was not a familiar strain name to me. I did some research and it looks like with the Statemade line Medmen rebranded the strains in way where they tried to describe the effects similar to the Canndescent Cannabis line.
Max is suggested as “Made for Activity” and is Sativa. As soon as I opened up the jar, there he was my old arch nemesis….Train Wreck. Everything about cannabis is subjective. Some people prefer different flavor or different highs. The trainwreck high was never the high for me, a little too heady, but that wont stop me from testing and trying a new dispensary.
Trainwreck is a cross of Afghani, Mexican and Thai. Afghani is an indica dominant from the Afghan region I have discussed before. The sativa dominant Mexican Strain is a cross of Durban Poison and Hash Plant. Where the Thai Strain is a decedent from Land Race that was grown in Thailand and is also where the term Thai Sticks comes from as the Thai growers use to dry the flowers on a stick.
The bud are a light shade of green, with lots of orange hairs and a fair amount of crystals. I did like how the jar I got had three large buds in it.
The aroma is how I knew it was trainwreck. There is a sharp bitting characteristic to the scent of TW. The nose is a sharp, earthy, sour and floral.
The inhale was surprisingly not as pungent as TW can be, it was much more reserved sour and earthy foundation with light floral notes.
The exhale added a pleasant amount of earthy pungency while continuing the earthy direction it began with.
There was no expansion and to be honest a couple of hits in I began developing a cough. Smoking so much top shelf for so many years my body actually rejects mids. And my body told me this was mids. So I stopped smoking it.
The high was what to be expected. The trainwreck high is a very euphoric disconnected spacey my head is floating around the room looking at my body followed by a nice a body high. Even though I am not a fan of this strain, you might be. The high is great for treating PTSD and anxiety.
So was it worth the money and would I buy it again? No it was mids sold as top shelf. I was not impressed. Furthermore this is where rebranding strains as generic names doesn’t benefit anyone. Had this strain been sold as Trainwreck, I would have passed.
THC: 24.36%
CBD: 0.02%
