Find out why vintage cultivars like Chemdawg thrive in living soil as Lindsay MaHarry takes us to Down Om Farms.
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See the Harvest strains 2025 that are lighting up the year and forecasting the future of cannabis. Find cutting edge cultivars to watch.
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As part of our Local Stories, Legendary Strains series, Lindsay MaHarry visits Sol Spirit Farm in the Emerald Triangle to see their special take on Blue Dream.
The post Blue Dream from Trinity County: See how Sol Spirit Farm uses innovative techniques to bring the legendary strain to life appeared first on Leafly.
Watch as we visit the Luma resin farm to get a close-up look at their perfect cut of Papaya + find Papaya & similar strains near you.
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Pre-rolls are great because they make smoking weed easy. Whether you're a novice who doesn't know how to roll a joint or a seasoned user on the go, pre-rolls take the legwork out of preparing the flower for your smoking experience, a time-consuming ritual that often stands between potential users and getting high.
On the national market stage, as well as the Massachusetts market we'll be discussing here, this accessible method of intake is on the rise. According to data from Headset, pre-rolls account for 12% of the US market, with their popularity growing 13% in the US in 2022, and 28% in Canada. When it comes to Massachusetts specifically, pre-rolls account for 17% of the market.
Despite these glitzy numbers, the pre-roll industry has a dark side that often ends with consumers being tricked into buying really, really bad weed.
The issue lies in that you can't see what is inside a joint, nor do you have any indication of its quality other than the packaging and the brand you're purchasing it from. Because of this, dishonest manufacturers will often fill pre-rolls with trim, stems, and other byproducts of cannabis cultivation that don't get you high, passing it off as ground nugs.
Even honest brands that put top-shelf flower in their pre-rolls still fall victim to the reality that once weed is ground up, the trichomes that hold the terpenes and cannabinoids are ground up, too. Ground weed is immediately rendered less potent, and continues to lose potency faster than whole nugs because it is more susceptible to dryness, light exposure, and other elements that degrade the trichomes housing the terpenes and cannabinoids that get you high.
The issue is so bad that I even had an Instagram show called “The Unrolling Series," where fellow cannabis journalist Jackie Bryant and I unrolled popular pre-rolls and smoked their contents out of a bong to see what was really inside. The results were, to say the least, wildly disappointing.
The point of all this is not to say all pre-rolls are bad, but to elucidate that it's a treacherous space with a lot of hidden land mines.
How should one navigate the Massachusetts pre-roll market, you ask? Never fear, Weedmaps is here with a comprehensive list of the best pre-rolls in Massachusetts in (almost) every category.
Find top-rated pre-rolls near you on the Weedmaps app
I took many factors into consideration when compiling this list.
Personal experience
I've been writing about cannabis for close to a decade, so I'm extremely familiar with what's going on in the pre-roll world.
It's also important to remember that Massachusetts is the most consolidated cannabis market in the US, meaning that most of the weed in Mass is coming from a few companies.
According to Headset, “More than two-thirds of total sales go to the top 10 ranked brands. This is due to the large proportion of sales that are attributed to the 'House Brand.' Massachusetts is one of the most vertically integrated cannabis markets in the US and most retail businesses in the state also have some level of production capability."
Because of the high level of consolidation in the Mass market, a lot of the brands available there are considered MSO (multiple state operators), so there's a good amount of crossover in the CA and MA markets at this point in the game. I've tried a number of the products and brands talked about here. However, I am based in California, not Massachusetts, so I haven't tried all of them, hence the next point.
Expert interviews
To be sure this portrait of the Massachusetts pre-roll market is as accurate and current as possible, I interviewed a number of industry experts, budtenders, dispensary owners, and journalists on their favorite pre-rolls in every category and compiled the results.
Quality and sensory factors
Quality is obviously a major factor when quantifying a term like best, especially in the pre-roll space where you have products running the gamut from $5 trim-filled boof sticks to high-quality, whole-flower joints. We took into account each pre-roll's sensory aspects like flavor, effects, smokability, and dry pull (hitting the joint without it being lit to taste the terpenes).
Brand reputation
In my opinion, great brands don't make bad products. For the purposes of this list, I included only established brands with solid reputations that are loved by consumers and respected by industry insiders.
So, here it is! My top picks for the best pre-rolls in Massachusetts, broken into a few categories, are as follows:
Below are some brands that produce great pre-rolls in Massachusetts. To be clear, they don't just make pre-rolls, but the pre-rolls they do make are damn good.
Cloud Cover
Cloud Cover is a premium brand whose experienced cultivation team specializes in seed-to-sale, small-batch products that are expert-approved across the board. With everything from flower to concentrates and vapes, this is a trusted brand that consistently turns out quality pre-rolls you can trust.
Happy Valley
Happy Valley is the most awarded brand in Massachusetts and has a ton of great offerings that aren't too expensive. They have normal pre-rolls as well as “Moon Rockets," which are pre-rolls infused with bubble hash and kief.
Bountiful Farms
Bountiful Farms was mentioned by almost every expert I spoke to. Bountiful Farms' attention to detail alone is worth a mention in this list. They hand-trim their flower (which is huge), don't use pesticides, and overall have created a trustworthy presence in the industry which is especially important in the pre-roll sphere.
Cheap pre-rolls almost always suck, but here is one that doesn't.
End Game Cookies by Happy Valley
This budget pre-roll was chosen by expert Brit Smith, host of Massachusetts cannabis magazine Different Leaf's podcast. “The best bang for your buck in Massachusetts pre-rolls comes from Happy Valley, which has packs of 7 half-gram pre-rolls for $40," she said. “I've tried lots of HV's flower in eighths, and they always grow smelly, springy, juicy buds, so I figured I could trust their pre-rolls too."
Smith continued, “My favorites so far are the End Game Cookies pre-rolls because they smoke gently and hit quickly with an uplifting giggly effect that's fun for watching movies and enjoying the extreme munchies. These aren't just $40 for a 7-pack of half-grams, they also come with a little matchbox inside, and I just love those extra touches."
Here is a pre-roll to check out that has been infused with various forms of concentrate.
M-80 by Pioneer Valley
I'll be honest, Pioneer Valley raised some red flags for me in terms of flower quality because they specialize in byproducts of flower like extracts, vapes, edibles, and pre-rolls without actually selling any eighths. This sometimes means the flower a brand uses to make those byproducts is not good enough to sell in nug form. However, these kinds of brands also tend to make really potent infused pre-rolls, as they're literally rolling them in distillate.
The new M-80 pre-rolls by Pioneer Valley are recommended by our experts on the merit of potency alone, which is really what most people who are smoking infused pre-rolls are after first and foremost. To create an M-80, they take a gram of flower, add distillate, and “extra terps," which means synthetic terpenes not derived from cannabis, then roll it up, roll it in distillate, and then roll that thing in kief. If you're in the market for potency (and there's nothing wrong with that if you are, to each their own!), then these are the pre-rolls for you.
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Humidity plays a huge role in the quality of cannabis post-harvest, as well as its lifespan once in the jar. Properly cured and stored flower can remain a sensory smoke show of flavor, smell, and effect long after it's sold. However, if moisture levels are off during the curing process or while being stored in the jar, even the highest-grade flower at harvest can fall victim to mold when too wet and harsh and degraded trichomes when too dry.
Like all good things in life, dank weed is ephemeral. But there are things we can do to slow its inevitable roll to the great beyond. Whether you're a home grower with a heap of harvest or a customer looking to make the most out of your dispensary run, it's essential information to know how humidity will affect your cannabis during and after the curing process.
Keep scrolling to learn about the complexities of maintaining humidity, or skip ahead to the best humidity packs for weed.
Storing weed starts with having some. Find flower on the Weedmaps app.
There are two types of humidity to consider when curing and preserving flower. Relative humidity refers to managing the humidity levels of the flower inside an airtight container. Ambient humidity refers to the humidity of the room outside the jar.
The curing process occurs after the drying process. Freshly dried nugs are placed in airtight containers for 2 – 8 weeks, with the ideal relative humidity inside the jar between 55% and 65%, according to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). To learn how to cure cannabis, check out our step-by-step guide.
The purpose of curing is to stop the loss of moisture and develop the buds to their utmost potential. According to Ed Rosenthal, a cannabis legend, “Curing is an art and should be tried with small batches first. The flavor becomes much more complex and refined, gaining in depth as well as in variation of bouquet. Like very good aged wine, there is something unique about a well-cured crop that any aspiring connoisseur should experience at least once."
Since cannabinoid synthesis continues after harvest, the drying and curing processes can be as important as the growing process when it comes to the final product. Not only does a proper cure yield flower with a higher THC percentage, but it also stops the degradation of volatile compounds — like terpenes — that shape your experience with the plant, creating better tasting and smelling flower with a more potent high.
To cure weed, growers loosely pack buds into Mason jars, seal them, and store them in a dark, cool place. Relative humidity should remain around 60%, which can be monitored using a hygrometer. Over the next weeks to months, growers "burp" the jars multiple times daily to release oxygen. Humidity levels are controlled using any number of tactics, from intuitively knowing what the flower should feel like to employing products like weed moisture packs.
Growing weed is an art form subjective to the person who grows it. It's a thing of patience, care, and personal preference. “It's a hundred percent intuitive on our end," said Joey Gothelf of WildLand Cannabis, an award-winning regenerative farm in Mendocino, California. “I usually just monitor moisture by feel."
He added, “The nugs shouldn't be able to crumble easily with two fingers. That's how I test the dryness. If I roll it between two fingers, and it crumbles easily into dust, that's too dry. But if it has a little bit of a chew, a little bit of a squishiness, but not too much, that feels right."
Walt Wood, a master grower and co-founder of Sol Spirit Farm, relies on experience, saying, “To me, curing actually just means evening out the moisture so the flower can undergo a microbial transformation, sort of like yogurt or something like that," he said. To tell how the cure is going, “I just reach in a bin and do a gentle 'touch touch,' and I'll know."
While master growers rely largely on intuition to achieve the perfect cure, humidity packs like Boveda and Boost are tools created to regulate moisture during the cure and preserve the flower after jarring.
The way these packs are engineered allows purified water to be released into the jar when needed, supposedly eliminating the need for burping the jars during curing and providing peace of mind for the grower after they send their flower into the world.
The most popular humidity packs on the market are Boveda and Boost, and both work similarly.
Boveda packs control humidity using a salt and water solution that creates a “monolayer shield of purified water over the trichome," according to the Boveda website. They have a large presence in the sun-grown craft farm community, a group that takes their terps extremely seriously. They are generally regarded as leaders in the humidity pack space.
Boveda packs come in a number of sizes to suit any amount of cannabis. For example, "Size 1" would be appropriate for a single pre-roll tin, while "Size 320" would be appropriate to control humidity on a black and yellow bin during transport for a distribution company. The brand also offers “Home Grow" and other kits that include a number of packs, as well as metal C-Vault storage containers.
Boost brands its packs as “salt-free, two-way humidity control." They use a blend of water and plant-based glycerin to essentially do the same thing as Boveda packs. It's another big name in the space and is regarded as similarly effective.
Boost packs are available at 55% or 62% relative humidity in a number of sizes that clearly dictate how much cannabis they are for, like 8-gram, 4-gram, and 67-gram packs.
Despite the popularity of weed moisture packs, most of the farmers I spoke to were on the fence about their effectiveness, preferring to opt for simple, old-school tricks when it comes to curing.
“The humidity packs might be garbage, but I don't really know," said Wood. “If I want to bring my flower up to humidity because it got a little dry, I just put a couple of drops of water in there, you know, a little bit of moisture. But you have to be careful because putting too much is really easy, then you go swinging the other way."
“If it's dry, nothing beats the tortilla," adds Jen Proccaci, co-founder of WildLand Cannabis. “It's an old-school trick. You put a piece of corn tortilla in the bag. It moistens up the weed, and the tortilla turns hard as a rock."
While the cure is an art form in and of itself, keeping weed fresh mostly comes down to keeping the flower out of conditions that degrade trichomes. The biggest offenders? Heat, light, and humidity.
In the current market chain, growers deal with the issue of their flower degrading during transit or at the dispensary before the customer even has a chance to buy it. For this specific issue, humidity packets come in handy.
“Most of those humidity pack products are good for when you're shipping it out, and you want to make sure that it doesn't dry out when it's going down to LA or something," said Wood. “After it gets to the dispensary, you know that it's going to be sitting on a store shelf out in the sunshine somewhere," he said.
It's good to keep in mind that the flower you buy could have already been through a lot by the time it gets to you. This makes it all the more important to store and care for it correctly once you bring it home.
To make your flower last as long as possible, simply keep it in a cool, dark environment with moderate humidity. Think wine cellar, but weed cellar. Extracts and edibles should be kept in the fridge. Cannabis flower should be kept at around 60% relative humidity and out of any kind of light.
Editor's note: Weedmaps does not get affiliate revenue from the brands recommended in this article. All products are chosen independently by the author. The only influence Weedmaps News is under is weed.
The post The best humidity packs (and hacks) for curing and storing weed, according to farmers appeared first on Weedmaps News.
Trimming cannabis is an extremely important part of the harvesting process. Trichomes — the chemical compounds that dictate smell, taste, and effect — are located on the outside of the leaves and buds, so a bad trim job can render even the best weed vibe-less.
Below, we spoke to small-scale growers to find the best trimming scissors for your own harvest.
Weed trim gone wrong? There's no judgment — and lots of nugs — on the Weedmaps app
Trimming scissors are high-quality gardening shears used by cannabis farmers to trim away unwanted leaves and not damage the bud.
Due to the fragility of cannabis nugs and the importance of keeping the trichomes intact, a good pair of trimming scissors or pruning shears, which are larger shears used to trim branches off the plant while it's growing and during the harvesting process, are a must when it comes to preserving flower.
While normal scissors are blunt on the end, clunky, and uncomfortable in the hand when used for long periods of time, trimming scissors are small, sharp, and have specifically been designed for botanical dexterity.
And to expert growers, hand-trimming is the better option when harvesting. “Every time you put your hands on a nug and you squeeze the bud, you're breaking the trichomes," said Joseph Haggard of Emerald Spirit Botanicals, an Emerald-Cup-winning regenerative farm in Mendocino. "The goal here is to preserve your trichome heads, so touch it as little as you possibly can. Wait until right before you're ready to smoke it and then clean it up a little with some good scissors."
“Trimming can be a good thing if it's done properly," he added, "but the majority of people aren't taking the right amount of time and care, so they're just damaging their flowers."
There are a few key aspects to keep in mind when shopping for a pair of trimming scissors or pruners:
Whether you're an at-home grower or a master in the hills, those buds have to get trimmed somehow. Here are the best trimming scissors on the market, according to the experts.
Felco was founded in Switzerland over 70 years ago, and it makes long-lasting, ergonomic gardening tools to this day, including its F-13 Pruning Shears.
“The Felco F-13s are the best of the best ... all of the parts are interchangeable, meaning you can buy any of the parts if they go bad," said Walt Woods of Sol Spirit Farm, an award-winning regenerative farm out of Trinity County. “They are pruners you could pass down to your kid."
They're currently going for $71 on Amazon.
Chikimasas are Japanese gardening shears that were the first pick of every master grower I interviewed. These scissors are precise, keep an edge with their high-grade stainless steel blade, and ward off sticky resin with a fluorine coating.
And despite not having a spring, the Chickamasa B-500 is still one of the favorites. “They fit nicely in the hands and are easy on the flower," said Haggard. Joey Gothelf of Wildland Cannabis, a regenerative farm in Mendocino, said he's "never [had to] sharpen a pair."
They're currently going for $25 on Amazon.
Fiskars' Micro-Tip Pruning Snips came up a lot in my interviews, but not in a positive light. “I'm a part-time knife maker, so the issue of sharpening and using good steel for the edge is something that I'm familiar with," said Gothelf. “I definitely recognize that the Fisker and some of the random brands need to be sharpened a lot, which tells me that they're just made with crappy steel."
These pruning scissors also have a Teflon coating instead of fluoride to resist resin, which tends to gum up in the blades during the trimming process and could get in the flower itself. Bottom line: They work well enough but aren't great quality.
They're currently going for $12 on Amazon.
While no one mentioned Vivosuns in my interviews, I've trimmed enough weed in my life to know these are often strewn around trim rooms and have been for a very long time. Vivosun's 6.5-inch Gardening Scissors are wildly affordable (usually below $10), mediocre in every way, and considered borderline disposable.
While Chikimasas and Felcos are the type of scissors a trimmer would take care of, Vivosuns are the type of scissors a grow would have lying around for anyone to use. The steel sucks and won't hold an edge, and the blade tip sometimes crosses, but they are budget-friendly and seem to exist in endless quantities.
They're currently going for $7 on Amazon.
Editor's note: Weedmaps does not get affiliate revenue from the brands recommended in this article. All products are chosen independently by the author. The only influence Weedmaps News is under is weed.
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Unlike most cannabis stereotypes, there's truth to the trope of the sleepy stoner and the pot brownie. After the high of an edible has passed its peak, I often find myself pulled into dreamland by an extraordinarily powerful magnet behind my eyes that forces them to close. It's a running joke with my partner who, on numerous occasions over the years, has seen me fall asleep after about ten minutes into a movie at 8:00 p.m. on a Friday.
The heavily relaxing, often sedating effects of traditional edibles make them popular for cannabis products and brands geared towards inducing sleep or enhancing its quality. The edible method of consumption also lends itself to new consumers who want to reap the potentially medicinal, sleep-inducing benefits of cannabis without necessarily having to smoke anything or even experience the resulting high before sleep kicks in.
But do edibles actually help with sleep? And if so, why? The answer to this relies heavily on the edible in question, as the genre has ballooned into a massive industry of its own with a million sub-facets.
Filter edibles by effect on the Weedmaps app
Traditional edibles that use THC bound to an oil or fat are processed through the liver, which transforms THC to 11-hydroxy-THC and yields a heavier, less predictable high than smoking flower or vaping. Edibles that use nano-emulsified THC are reported to avoid this downside. Nano-emulsified THC is a water-soluble form of THC that reportedly hits in 15 minutes and is absorbed directly into the bloodstream through the lining of the stomach and esophagus.
And while “strain-specific" or “indica/sativa" edibles are, for the most part, an inaccurate marketing tactic employed by brands, adding relaxing terpenes, like myrcene or linalool, may help an edible make you feel sleepy. Other drowsy plants and relaxing substances like valerian and melatonin are effective additions to sleep edibles as well.
The cannabinoid CBN is perhaps the most popular trend in the sleep edibles market. Posed as some kind of wondrous sleep molecule, this extremely expensive cannabinoid is actually just old, degraded THC. You know when you leave your weed out in the sun or it gets old and turns brown? That's THC that has turned into CBN.
Research has shown CBN to have similar effects to THC, though it's between four and ten times weaker, and that THC with CBN is no more effective than THC alone. Bottom line: THC is the most active cannabinoid in the sleep cycle. Because CBN is degraded THC, it can still make you feel relaxed and tired, but it's scientifically not as effective as THC — and it's typically way more expensive.
It should also be noted that cannabinoids only help with deep sleep and have been shown to hurt your REM sleep long-term. To foster a healthy night's sleep all the time, look for products that include other sleep-inducing medicinal plants and non-cannabis compounds to counteract this. And, as a general tip, try to avoid over-relying on edibles to help you get to sleep.
I've written about this topic extensively and have tried most of the sleep products on the market in my many years as a reviewer. This list is a good place to start if you're curious about incorporating cannabis into your sleep cycle.
Dreamt is my favorite sleep aid brand on the market. Formulated and founded by scientist Carolina Vazquez Mitchell, Dreamt's gummies (they also make a vape pen and a tincture) feature a blend of THC, CBD, melatonin, GABA, and Valerian root that has worked for every single person I've ever recommended it to.
Rose Delights is an artful and extremely high-quality edibles brand that creates Turkish delights infused with strain-specific rosin from organic fruits, vegetables, and medicinal plants from local farms.
Deep Sleep is its first effect-based product, featuring passionflower, vanilla, and mulberries from Frog Hollow Farm, as well as rosin from Holy Tonic flower cultivated in-house at Rose. They possess the power to melt my anxiety into a dreamscape and are as good a gift for someone else as they are a gift for yourself.
The Camino Midnight Blueberry Sleep Gummies by Kiva are some of the most popular on the market, with countless positive reviews on any platform you check. Again, I try to shy away from CBN on principle, but this blend of 5mg THC and 1mg CBN is effective for me in part because they include chamomile and lavender extracts (which contain potentially relaxing, sleep-inducing terpenes like linalool).
Another selling point of these is that they are available almost everywhere because of Kiva's excellent distribution network, so no matter where you are, sleep is not far behind.
While this chocolate bar isn't specifically geared for sleep, it's one of my favorite products for unwinding after a long day before slipping into sleep. They only feature THC — 5 milligrams per piece, 100 milligrams per package — but something about them is so luxuriously relaxing that they top my list every time.
Definitely worth checking out whether you're looking to unwind or pass TF out.
The Sleep Gummies by New Phase Blends are an all-time favorite of mine. I have relied on these for years now and have recommended them successfully to tons of friends and family.
Something about the patented melatonin/CBD blend in these gummies, and its tincture counterpart, knocks me out within fifteen minutes, regardless of my mental state, and results in long, deep, and restful sleep.
The Low Tide Gummies by Seaweed Naturals is a fantastic new product, and the brand is worth supporting. A new cannabis endeavor by the Costeau family — yes, the ocean-exploring ones — Seaweed Naturals is as focused on creating healing cannabis products as it is on restoring the environment of both land and sea.
SN partners with regenerative cannabis farms and uses its own kelp farms to create omegas for the gummies that pull carbon out of the atmosphere. The blend of THC and melatonin works wonders, and by supporting brands that support planet health, you'll be sleeping like a baby in no time.
Kikoko's Tranquili-Tea is great, especially for new consumers who don't want to get high. I love tea products in general, but I feel it's even more fitting for the sleep genre.
This magical blend is packed with potentially sleep-inducing medicinal plants like valerian root, chamomile, and lavender, as well as 6 milligrams of CBN and 2.6 milligrams of THC per bag. All of these ingredients work together, leaving me feeling buoyant and relaxed as I walk on the brink of dreams.
No one loves an effects-based gummy more than Kahna, and its Tranquility gummies don't disappoint. While the brand relies heavily on CBN marketing-wise, these gummies have a ton of melatonin, CBN, THC, and CBD, as well as added terpenes. They work for me, period.
Editor's note: Weedmaps does not get affiliate revenue from the brands recommended in this article. All products are chosen independently. The only influence Weedmaps News is under is weed.
The post The 8 best edibles for sleep appeared first on Weedmaps News.
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