Those of you who use cannabis during the day will probably get this…

I’ve found (stumbled upon really) the fact that a huge variety of cannabis strains — hybrids & sativas — rather than diffusing your thinking, fine tune it to a laser-like point of intense focus where a remarkable amount of very good work can get done — and all in the context of everything else that’s going on all around you.

Throw a little caffeine in here and there (going easier as the day goes on — in my case anyway) and it’s German Chocolate Cake with Extra Sprinkles AND a Chocolate-Covered Strawberry.  THC works incredibly well with my brain chemistry.

If I didn’t have THC in my system, the ideas would flow and the work would get done… just not anywhere near as quickly.  If I understand this correctly, what THC does in our brains is cause more synapses to open — therefore making your brain more receptive to more information.  Now — provided the rest of the turpene load leads in one direction — toward alertness and focus — you can actually PROCESS more information than you can normally.  You LITERALLY see more… hear more… understand more… THINK MORE — simply because THC allows more of your brain to process more information.

I can hear it already — no, no, no — cannabanoids act as a kind of ‘dimmer switch’ on thinking and higher functioning.  Yes, that IS true — some cannabanoids — INDICAS — do do that.  And a good thing too.

I use INDICAS to sleep.  Hell, the reason I’m using cannabis now in the first place is because I had a severe sleep issue.  I’d been using ‘bluies’ — OTC sleep aids (Simply Sleep and its various knock-offs).  But those were always hit and miss and even when they ‘hit’ and I got to sleep more than 4 hours, I don’t recall ever waking feeling ‘refreshed’.

Because my brain is so hyper-manic, I stone cold refused to take anything like Ambien.  I dread to think where I might end up in some extended fugue state…

Living in California — and knowing that the one thing I ever got out of marijuana growing up was that it put me almost instantly to sleep — I got myself a prescription and my first little plastic vial of dried Skywalker flower.  And damned if the cannabis didn’t solve a sleep problem that had been plaguing me for a decaade — IN ONE NIGHT.

I may not sleep as much as I need to (I blame Donald J Trump for that — can I get an Amen?) but my sleep is always QUALITY SLEEP when it’s been brought on by cannabis.  There’s no lassitude the next day, NO HANGOVER.  I get up and get my day started…

In MY CASE (and FINALLY I’ve gotten back around to my whole bloody POINT here) — I light up a bowl of GG4.

Every day.  Round about 4:30 a.m.  Worst case — by 5.  And my creative day starts.

Two questions must be answered each day.  One I decided the day before:  “What Am I Writing Today?”  The other I cannot know until the Writing Day itself tells me what it ‘needs’:  “What various strains of WORK DAY CANNABIS will I use to take fullest advantage of how my brain is working that day…

For instance… I find BLUE DREAM a perfect GO-TO after that first hit of GG4 (about a half hour later — part of what I’m after here is a distinct ‘platforming’ effect — platforming one strain’s attributes UPON or ALONGSIDE another’s).

While some people find GG4 too conducive to do nothing, I have the exact opposite experience with it.  A lovely, rising tide of contentment comes over me — and a feeling of mental focus.  The news is always on — in my ear via sat-radio-via-my-phone or on the office TV — and suddenly I HEAR MORE of what everyone is saying.  Their words seem to hold a moment or two longer than they were actually uttered — as if I were frisking them for intent.  Words leap out from blog posts & tweets.  Bullshit grates a little more.

The nice thing about cannabis though — as angry as shit makes you?  Whereas liquor can take you into blind rage (‘ginning it up’), cannabis tends to make you slow down a little (even when it’s got you energized).  And in that extra moment of introspection, better decisions get made.

Blue Dream delivers a lovely Creative High (what I call a Creative High — not ‘airy-fairy’ and diffuse but clear-headed and focused; thoughts flow crisply and with a clear and distinct logic.  But there’s a ‘softness’ to Blue Dream’s cerebral buzz.  A gentleness.

It used to be that once I switched over to Blue Dream I stayed  there.  But then (so many strains so little time) I learned — there are others.  Sooooooooooo many others.

There’s DUTCH TREAT.  DT was the strain that opened my eyes to the fact that cannabis was more than just a sleeping med and a cool-your-goddamned-hyper-manic-jets-down-son strain.  It could actually help you write better.  It could actually help you play tennis better — but that’s a whole other convo…

DT takes the mellow roundness of the Blue Dream buzz and cranks it up a few notches.  There’s a distinct edge to DT’s buzz.  Like a spur urging you to think harder about whatever you’re thinking about…

DURBAN POISON takes THAT edge and pushes it further.  Now we’re into cooking with the heat turned up high.  For me — ideas flow with tremendous rapidity.  I love this stuff.  Fucking love it.

TRAINWRECK is awesome too — with a caveat.  There’s a strange drop-off after Trainwreck’s big surge.  Kinda makes you sleepy for a bit:  Beware… But the surge is like few other strains I’ve experienced.  I’d read (on Leafly, I think) reviews by people who said it made them want to clean their house when they were kickin’ it on Trainwreck — and not just ‘clean’ their house but ‘CLEAN’ their house.  With a toothbrush even.

It’s true.

There’s also WHITE WIDOW — a gorgeous buzz that delivers all the incredible creative rush that Trainwreck delivers but without the dropoff.

And a new favorite Work Strain on my radar:  JACK THE RIPPER.

So — what I do — and the question I’m (finally getting down to) is this — I put together ‘Glide Paths’ — a ‘battle order’ of strains crafted to take the fullest possible advantage of the mental effect (or effects) I’m trying to achieve…

For me, an awesome work day goes something like this:

GG4 – Blue Dream – Durban Poison – White Widow

Then, as the work day winds down, I’d segue to something like this:

GIRL SCOUT COOKIES (GSC) – BRUCE BANNER (another GREAT strain) – FRUIT PUNCH.

By then, you’re still flowing mentally but the focus is toward socializing and talk and family and friends…