CANNABIS FOR CONNOISSEURS

Pot Guru Ed Rosenthal Releases The Second Volume
Of His Big Book Of Buds

Ed Rosenthal sounds kind of sleepy over the phone. Which is no big
surprise, considering his career choice. For over 30 years, Rosenthal
has been a dispenser of vital wisdom to marijuana consumers, growers
and cultivators everywhere, with almost 20 titles under his belt and
two decades' worth of experience imparting advice in his High Times
magazine Ask EdT column. Last month he published the follow-up volume
to his 2001 The Big Book of Buds - a guide to "marijuana varieties
from the world's greatest seed breeders."

It's a book rich in visuals - "pot porn," he calls it. Each of the 85
varieties profiled is given its own page, illustration and description
of its parentage. As well, each page has a list of icons describing
the variety's buzz (giggly, alert, sensual, wandering mind, etc.),
taste and smell (caramel, piney, pungent, fruity, etc.), flowering
time, yield, growing methods (indoor, outdoor or both) and strain type
(sativa, indica or both). Due to the dubious legality of selling seed
in countries like the U.S. and England, the book's coverage is limited
to samples donated by seed distributors from South Africa, Australia,
Spain, the Netherlands and Canada. Interspersed among the entries are
articles on cannabis culture, from marches to festivals to the
chemistry of stoner-ness.

High science

"The second volume continues the journey the first one began,"
Rosenthal says from his home in Oakland, California. "Just as there
are literally thousands of strains of roses available commercially,
and thousands of books out there to help people understand roses, this
is the same. It tells you a lot about each variety and what you can
expect."

Rosenthal's background in horticulture and botany frame his approach.
Take, for example, this description of the Canadian Passion Queen
(available at Seedbank.com), a 60/40 indica/sativa mix: "Passion Queen
can be gardened outdoors in warm climates that support a late
finishing time; she can also be kept outdoors in pots. Indoors,
Passion Queen will grow as a multi-branch Christmas tree sativa if
given room, or she will grow as a one-cola indica if crowded in a sea
of green. Either way, Her High-ness needs plenty of light and low
fertilization, preferably with organics, to bring out the layers of
herb and sour citrus in her palate."

The specific terms and descriptions can remind a casual reader of a
wine menu. To Boris St-Maurice, the leader of the federal Marijuana
Party, Rosenthal - whom he calls the "the Led Zeppelin of the weed
world, the granddaddy, the wise elder to whom we all turn" - is doing
more than just providing a valuable guide. "What's interesting about
this book is that he's trying to establish a language everyone can
agree on," he says. "Right now the language is very street level. What
we want is to get a kind of yardstick."

Body and mind

Rosenthal says he hasn't tried every variety listed in the book - "but
I did sample a good number" - but won't say which is his favourite. He
does, however, admit to being more of a sativa person (in the
introduction, he describes the sativa high as "soaring, psychedelic,
thoughtful and spacy"; indica highs are "heavy, body-oriented and
lethargic"). The strain distinction is especially important in medical
marijuana fields. Broadly speaking, the indica strain, because it is
more of a heavy, body stone, is used to treat chronic pain.
Neurological disorders, such as epilepsy or Parkinson's, are better
treated with the more cerebral sativa.

Volume 2 is already in its second print run, having sold out its
initial 11,000 copies. As a writer, Rosenthal will be using the
profits to live, agitate and pay off his lawyers. Last year he was
sentenced to a day in jail (time served) and paid a $1,000 (U.S.) fine
for cultivating pot, even though he was authorized by the City of
Oakland as a medical marijuana distributor. Some of the jurors in the
case later said they wouldn't have found him guilty had they not been
instructed by the judge during the trial to disregard his intent.

St-Maurice, whose Marijuana Foundation Seed Bank at 72 Rachel E. is
selling the book, will be using the proceeds to continue his party's
aim of pushing for full decriminalization of marijuana in Canada. "On
our end, it's a political action," he says. "We see the act of growing
pot as an act of civil disobedience."

The Big Book of Buds, Vol. 2 by Ed Rosenthal, Quick American, pb,
192pp, $29.95