Cannabis Hierarchy

There is so much ego in the weed game, its worst than graffiti. I guess it’s the same for any competitive fields largely dominated by men. Everyone has to participate in the dick measuring contest to see who got the dankest buds, meltiest hash or loudest terps. I get it, you won every cannabis cup on planet earth and you want people to put some respek on that name. I feel you, breh. Some people got clout and for good reason, they earned it. That’s the keyword, earned. Processing someone’s flowers and winning a local cup off the strength of the breeder and the grower as well ass maybe a little bias from the friendly judges, might be an achievement to some. I’m not here to knock on you, I’m here to highlight those who I personally feel deserve the king title within the recreational market, legal or illigal.

For the sake of keeping this somewhat short, we will exclude industry people that don’t actually work with the materiel like the marketing department, security guards and cannabis CEOs who never smoked a joint in their life.

This opinion does not necessarily account for profit as a high priority in the scale of the hierarchy. Meaning, this is based on who I believe deserves true respect, rather than who society chooses to financially benifit due to rules and many other circumstances.

At the bottom of the list are the mids peddlers. Government drug dealers and black-market trappers with fake Jungle Boys eights, boofy carts, and trim ran shatter. I’m not here to hate or to judge or pick sides, I just lay it how I feel is fair. Everyone has their role and a job is a job, but at the bottom are low level, street-level mids runners on both isles.

Moving up the latter are the trimmers. A self-respecting craft garden still gets their prime cuts trimmed by hand. Sure you can easily replace with machines but as good as they are, they are not to the level of a well trained and organized trimmer. The end result does have a difference. It’s like a machine made cheese and handmade cheese, true heads will tell the difference. I’ve worked the trim for a long time and even though you’re just a mope doing light manual labor, you get to learn a lot and oftentimes, if you have the drive and the passion, you can move up the latter down the line. You also get access to finger hash and the excitement of working with large quantities of ganja. Each trim team has its own rules and customs but overall, it’s a good place to earn money, learn and get your foot in the door

Slightly above the trimmers are the garden helpers and grower’s assistants. Sure, they might also be trimmers but they were granted the privilege of working with the plants, de-leafing, transplanting, cleaning up, etc. Usually, the more passionate, harder working and trustworthy trimmers are moved up the latter to become helpers which gives them a huge in with the growers and can be a paid mentorship if you pay attention and plan on starting your own grow down the line. In many ways, budtenders are up on the same level as garden helpers. One works at the farm the other at the store, both are vital and important roles that can bring many oppurtunities. Overall, I feel both the garden helpers and budtenders don’t get enough respect so shout out to all of you from the Dabacana team.

Another slept-on group is the people making craft edibles and other cannabis-infused products. When we get our medicated treats at the club, we often overlook the process that went into making them and the people that made them. Not sure how many of you bad-tripped from edibles that were too strong, but I did and I hated it. This goes both ways when you buy a pack of gummies, eat them all and don’t feel a thing even though the indicated dosage could put a baby elephant to sleep for 48 hours straight. When they are made with love with just the right amount of cannabinoids, the experience is amazing but this takes skills, passion, and know-how,this is why I think these people deserve more love!

Moving up the latter, we got the oil and hash makers. Some call it an art; I see it more like cooking. The processors are the chefs. The building blocks to a remarkable meal start with good produce. Then it’s the execution. Together they create something magical. The quality of the starting material is the most important; this is why I feel like hash makers who process for growers owe more than half of their shine to the breeders and growers. This is also true for the cannabis derived terpenes makers. The processes are not simple but without the good starting materiel you won’t get the high quality terps. This brings me to the next level.

Growers are often seen as kings of the cannabis world but this is not always true. Growing crap is not all that difficult but growing consistent AAAA quality cannabis is a task few manage to pull off. This is why they get so much props and why the product costs significantly more. This is also why growers win cups for exceptionally well-grown high-grade.

Within the growers’ category, those who pheno-hunt definitely get an extra step up the latter. Growing from clones or feminized seeds is not the same as popping reg seeds and choosing the best sisters out of the batch. This takes a lot more time and patience, something most people can’t afford to do. When everyone is puffing on the same cut from the same clone but you have that extra loud funky version because you popped seeds and hunted down the special ones, you get the extra props because you deserve it.

The real kings and superstars of this cannabis game are the breeders. These are the guys that make this whole thing so magical and so special. Diversity is the spice of life and boy do we love our vast variety of cultivars and derived products. All those famous strains like Girls Scout Cookies came from somewhere. That somewhere is the breeders, the ones you solemnly hear about or see in front of the camera. The true weed gods who breed these plants to give us access to a myriad of combinations of terpene and cannabinoid profiles. Think of your favorite strain and tell yourself that someone took years breeding and hunting phenotypes and this was most likely done in the prohibition era when the penalty for some was many years spent behind bars. These people risked their freedom in exchange for something a lot bigger than themselves. Some of these cultivars are so legendary and so much of the game has been built on top of them. Think of the Kushes, Chemdog, Skunks, and Hazes. Some fortunate mistakes along the way, a few famous bag seeds but overall, lots of blood sweat and tears went into breeding some of these flavors we take for granted. Much love and respect to all the breeders out there. Every time someone wins a cup on the strength of one of your strains, in reality, it’s you who actually won the cup!

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