Barbara Bud
12/11/2014
THC 13.3%, CBD 0; $8/g from Tilray
This was the third strain I've tried so far. It was very different from Rene Mist and Jack Herer, and I much preferred it. The negatives aren't as bad, and the high is much more enjoyable for me.
It took awhile to actually get my order. I had to wait 'til after the weekend for it to be shipped, then the carrier messed up and delayed it another day. The packaging was a bit excessive, and came with another free grinding mat.
Despite the extra packaging, when I opened the bag, I found all the buds squished together into a single big blob. A couple stems were maybe a bit longer than need-be, and there were a few tiny pieces of leaves floating around. The buds feel dry in my hands when I'm breaking them up, but are actually quite sticky, given the way they gum up my grinder and vaporizer.
The smoke when I vape this is a sickly sweetness I am not fond of. The only other thing I don't like about Barbara Bud is its potency, which is quite low. I have to take a fair bit at a time to get the most pain relief, and that makes it hard to stretch my 0.5g through the whole day. With Rene Mist and Jack Herer, I couldn't manage 0.5g a day because they were too potent.
The high from this indica is pretty pleasant. Still dry eyes, dry mouth, and dizziness, but none as badly as with the JH and RM. Instead of making me jittery, BB relaxes me and makes me feel really mellow. It doesn't help with my nausea, but at least it doesn't make it worse, like the sativa high did. I still get tingly, and feel uplifted. I don't feel sleepy or glued to the couch, but maybe a bit sluggish. Also, most of my senses are dulled.
I get maybe 15% direct pain relief at the amounts I'm taking. However, I am also better able to handle my pain, because of the mellow, uplifted state generated.
The effect on my focus is quite interesting. I can focus in on something until I'm almost absorbed by it. Since I usually have trouble focusing on things, I was happy to discover this effect. However, it makes multi-tasking nearly impossible. If I'm having a conversation with someone, for example, I can't do anything else at the same time, or I might zoom in on that and lose track of what's being said. A nice complement to the focus is a boost in creativity, or at least motivation to do something creative. Between the pain relief, the focus, and the creativity, I can happily spend most of the day working on some project, so long as I keep the high going.
While this is the best pain relief I've had yet from weed, it still isn't as significant relief as morphine or percocet. However, those put me straight to sleep, and have long-term effects I don't care for, so I prefer the Barbara Bud.