The legalization of recreational cannabis in some US states has finally brought to this country the transparency needed to fuel an enormous wave of creativity in all-things marijuana. For those of you interested in deep-diving into the new wealth of public information on cannabis, here are the sites that keep me up-to-date on all the serious and silly goings on in the industry.
The Cannabist– a longstanding resource with a large group of writers able to bring in news and information from a broad range of topics that includes clothing, parenting and sports.
High Times – maybe the longest-standing cannabis magazine, this website focuses on the latest news and trends across culture, growing, edibles and more.
Leafly – This website has emerged as the go-to spot to quickly find dispensaries and bud info. They’ve done an excellent job, since their start just a few years ago, of maintaining a clean, user-friendly site and mobile app while quickly expanding their content to include deeper threads: terpene definitions, a nice collection of ‘cannabis 101‘ resources, and several news lines.
NCBI– and if you really want to geek out on the data, I refer you to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, operated by the US National Library of Medicine, a website that presents a no-nonsense library of biomedical and genomic information.
NORML – Founded in 1970, this group works to reform marijuana laws. While their focus is legislative, because they’re one of the oldest such organizations they’ve had time to build up a lot of good “pot 101” content like FAQs, policy fact sheets, a nice primer article and, my personal favorite, nice summaries on recent medical research; a great site for getting your hands on cannabis data.
The Weed Blog – a nice running collection of headlines in a range of areas like culture, cooking, and growing. Their mission: “facilitating a constructive conversation about marijuana in America”.
And a few more sites that make most ‘top 10’ lists:
Herb.co– this site began as ‘The Stoner’s Cookbook’ and still hosts a lot of good cooking content along with a wide array of news on policy, health, strains, and etc.; a great resource for foodies!
PsychonautWiki– a LOT of information on a LOT of psychoactive substances, natural and synthetic.
And Grow Light Central provides a few more ‘best of’ lists that might be of interest. So many helpful lists of lists! I feel a spreadsheet coming on.
And definitions for some common terms:
Cannabis: also known as marijuana; a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant that is used for medicinal, shamanic, or recreational use. Cannabis is ingested via smoking, vaporizing or eating.
THC, tetrahydrocannabinol: one of the many cannabinoids created by the cannabis plant, THC is a psychotropic substance and responsible for the ‘high’ feeling associated with using marijuana.
CBD, cannabidiol: one of at least 113 active cannabinoids made by the cannabis plant, CBD is so far associated with anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic effects.
Cannabis sativa: a species or strain of cannabis plant; this strain is associated with a more energetic, creative high.
Cannabis indica: a species or strain of cannabis plant; this strain is associated with a relaxed, sleepy or mellow high.
