Dan’s Dispatch 2/6/25
After a spliff of Sour Cheese at HQ Barcelona, one of the most well known cannabis associations in Barcelona, I decided to make my way to Xuba Tacos for a taste of home. While enjoying surprisingly good Al Pastor and fish tacos, I can’t help but notice the influence of the US throughout the world. While cannabis around the world has a long and rich history with countless pioneers, the United States has taken the lead for the last few decades when it comes to genetics, new school hash, exotic flower, and even glass pipes.
For the majority of the last 1,000 years, smoking hash has been the primary form of cannabis consumption. Because of this, there was never a need to consume small amounts of flower on its own. Before the War on Drugs began in 1971, cannabis was primarily being grown outdoors and was abundant. Once the War on Drugs began and penalties for cultivation became incredibly harsh, cannabis cultivation moved inside and in secret. Almost overnight, potency became a critical measure of a flower’s quality, and you had a new wave of high-strength cannabis where only a small amount was necessary to get the desired effects. As a result, glass pipes became an American art movement, embraced, celebrated, and elevated at events like the Chalice Festival and the Pipe Classic.
Glass pipes for flower consumption can now be found around the world, and the next wave of American influence is just beginning to make its mark across the globe.
While many US strains and flavors have been at the top of every stoners list for years, brands like Khalifa Kush, Doja, and Compound Genetics are starting to show up in medical markets across the globe. While Germany has received most of the attention recently, Australia and Israel are starting to introduce US brands that want to have a greater international presence. While it is still in the early stages, US brands and companies have begun working more collaboratively with medical farms across the globe to ensure the highest quality product is achieved.
From olive orchards to wine vineyards, from beautiful rocky mountains to green hills, some of these facilities are set in absolutely stunning locations. People from all walks of life, from pro soccer players to pilots, have been waiting eagerly to start a legally recognized cannabis business. While some people joining the industry have decades of experience, oftentimes this experience was gained in the unregulated market with very different demands on the product. While this is also an ongoing issue in emerging markets in the US, it is not as pervasive as it once was across the industry. Currently there is a huge need for experienced cultivators with commercial experience to help achieve the incredibly high standards of the medical markets.
These requirements around growing cannabis for medical markets are much stricter than any state in the US. Because it is treated as a medical product, there is incredibly restrictive testing on the cleanliness of the flowers, and the total THC on a given strain can not vary more than 10%. As a result, the majority of the flower on the global medical markets is treated, often irradiated, to achieve a ‘clean’ product. Because of the treatment and packaging process, flower can often take 6 months from harvest to reach the consumer. Non-irradiated products are incredibly hard to find, and getting the flower to the patients as quickly as possible remains an ongoing challenge for many groups.
While the primary focus has been on flower, you are just starting to see modern concentrate products available across the globe. In the US, the combination of an abundance of flower, crashing prices, and talented hash makers working collaboratively in markets like CO, Oregon, and CA has led to many innovations in hash production over the last few years. From static and sonic separation to deep freezing, there has been a wave of innovations and technology to produce high THC, terpene rich products in the cleanest smoking form possible. While you can find high quality modern concentrates in the underground throughout Europe, these products are incredibly expensive, and it is not unusual to see a gram of live rosin being sold for 100+ Euros.
In the medical markets, however, concentrate products are made with a more crude form of distillate, something that is becoming increasingly rare in the US. While distillate was once the standard, live and cured resin products have taken its place almost entirely in the US, and rosin is now being produced at a scale that we haven’t seen until recently.
Bridging this gap between American quality and European medical standards is a driving reason why many brands are starting to put their own teams in place at facilities around the globe. While most producers and brands are focused on flower, you will start to see products like live resin and rosin being produced at a high quality through collaborations between medical producers and American hash makers and brands.
While the cannabis industry is still going through ups and downs as it grows, it has never been a better time to be a consumer, no matter where you are in the world.
