Cannabis Q & A

Hello Splimmers! It’s the holiday season, which means we’ve read a lot of articles about how to deal with your family during the holidays, and even a few articles about how silly those articles are. It’s been a fun waste of time.

But we don’t really dread the holidays. Our families aren’t so bad. It’s nice going back home to see old friends, and, if you work in cannabis, everyone has question for you. Splimm has compiled a list of cannabis FAQs that seemed relevant for the month to come. (We’ll get everyone’s favorite out of the way: do you guys just get to try all this amazing weed all the time? Yes, yes we do!)

Q: What’s the best way to consume discreetly?

A: We’re big believers in vaporizing concentrates. There are a lot of different choices on the market these days, and we believe cannabis is best when understood on a personal level, finding your ideal strains and delivery methods. But whatever your choice in concentrate, a little goes a long way. You don’t have to have a bag of stinky weed sticking out of your church suit. A gathering’s worth of cannabis can most likely be stored in a pen or two.

A word of caution though: concentrates are not entirely odorless, so make sure you’re turning your battery off when not in use. You don’t want to accidently pocket vape while trying to pass the turkey.

Q: Do you have a preferred brand of vaporizer?

A: We’ve tried a lot of different kinds of “pens” and other contraptions. There are many good options out there, and each one that we’ve tried and enjoyed came with some drawbacks. Almost none include instructions for actually using the product with cannabis. Worse, we’ve had so many vape pens that barely lasted a month.

The best piece of advice we can give is to find a store you can visit in person and talk to someone there with experience. Find the names of a few different places and call before you go. Even in legal states you sometimes have to be discreet, and not every sales associate at every vaporizer or tobacco store will be well-versed in marijuana accoutrements. We think it’s important to form relationships with local businesses, because it fosters a vibrant and diverse economic community, and it’s easier to return the vape pen when it breaks.

Q: Can I travel with weed?

A: Sure, if you live in a state with legal weed. Otherwise, we wouldn’t really recommend it. We hear all the time about how much airport regulations have relaxed, about how TSA doesn’t care about a little bit of marijuana, but we are suspicious. Until we are told that cannabis can be brought across state lines anyone who does so will be under the jurisdiction of both local and federal authorities, and it’s unpredictable how they’ll chose to proceed. This puts people with a real medical need in a difficult position. Suffer through a vacation without medicine they depend on or risk breaking the law, getting caught, and dealing with years of legal proceedings.

Q: Does that mean no cannabis for the holidays/How do I find some cannabis for the holidays?

A: You can still have cannabis for the holidays! Everyone loves weed and the internet, so use the internet to find some weed. But don’t go on Craigslist. Use this as a chance to reunite with an old friend. Places like Facebook and Instagram make it pretty easy to identify who might be a good resource for the kind of cannabis you’re looking for, but don’t assume your old high school drug dealer is still down to sell you a gram. Most likely she’s moved on from that and runs a prestigious New England boarding school or is the head of an accounting department.

Rather, try to find some people who seem like they share an interest outside of cannabis, and use that to break the ice. Something like: “I saw your family picture of the hike you took on Black Friday.” Then, after a few natural exchanges, you can say, politely, “So, do you know where the weed’s at?”

Q: What’s the best way to give my family cannabis for the holidays? I know it will make their lives better!

A: I’m paraphrasing, but this might be the question we get asked most often, so it’s been repurposed for the holidays. Always a variation on the same theme: I think my mom/dad/grandma/grandpa/aunt/uncle/neighbor’s entire family could really benefits from cannabis, but I’m not sure how to approach them. We suggest starting slow.

Give them topicals! Cannabis salves and balms are a great introduction to the medical benefits of the plant. Many are all natural; they can be an effective treatment for ailments from sore muscles to headaches, something most people can relate to. Plus they won’t get you high (unless you eat a tub of it, which is gross).

We’ve seen this time and again. A topical is such an accessible, non-invasive way to demonstrate the myriad benefits of cannabis. You don’t have to worry about a negative mental reaction – no one is going to freak out – and it’s a form of treatment most people are somewhat familiar with. It’s like Icy-Hot, but it works so much better!

Because we’ve been openly working in cannabis for a combined decade, we get a lot of questions and many of them are private. We’re honored that people would consider us, and we want to make sure we respect that privacy. Splimm also wants to further the cannabis conversation, to let people know that there is nothing wrong with wondering. That they’re not the only ones. For this reason, we rewrite questions to be as vague as possible and only publicly answer the ones we’ve been asked by multiple people.