For decades, Canadian cannabis enthusiasts living outside the verdant grow zones of British Columbia coveted one product above all else: BC bud, dealer shorthand for “the good stuff.” What kind of good stuff? Maybe an energizing sativa, maybe a knock-you-on-the-couch-indica or maybe something in between, but you’d have to smoke it first to find out. Even if it did lift you out of the stratosphere the way you’d expect a product from Canada’s premier production zone to do, it just as likely came from a basement grow-op in Oshawa.
But as cannabis prohibitions ease across North America, and Canadians prepare for full-scale legalization, ‘BC bud’ is already an anachronism. Walk into a dispensary today, and the choices are clear – and often clearly labelled. If proponents of cannabis appellations have their way, the distinctions will only become more sophisticated, and unlike today’s dispensary products, they will be overseen by a governing body to protect product quality and label integrity.
Just like the rules that govern premium spirits and cheeses, dictating that only sparkling wine from Champagne be called champagne, and only blue ewe’s milk cheese from the Midi-Pyrenees be called Roquefort, cannabis appellations would help consumers differentiate premium flower from run-of-the-grinder product, and demarcate grow regions, distinguishing Kootenay kush from Vancouver Island skunk. But determining exactly how an appellation system would work is tricky, owing both to cannabis’ inherent genetic complexity, and its varied methods of production.
Reid Parr is an industry consultant with the Cannabis Trade Alliance of Canada (CTAC), and he notes that cannabis appellations would need to consider a plant’s inherent characteristics — its genotype and phenotype, cannabinoid balance and terpene profile – alongside conditions of growth, including methods of production and regional cultures of production.
“You can buy seeds online from many different places in the world, so there’s a lot of mixing of genetics from different regions,” he says. “What has happened over the decades is that a lot of cannabis producers in the northern hemisphere have been buying landrace strains — naturally occurring plants from the world’s original grow regions — and continuously breeding them together. As with other types of agriculture, they are bred specifically for certain characteristics, so different regions in the northern hemisphere have become synonymous with certain characteristics that people are looking for, for instance really high THC or certain other cannabinoid profiles like CBD, CBG and THCV.”
Terpenes, the volatile compounds that determine whether a plant smells like lemon, fruit, or pine, also influence its sensory effects and therapeutic applications. “The nice thing about cannabis,” says Parr, “is that all of these compounds — the cannabinoids and the terpenes — work synergistically together.” Sometimes the therapeutic influence of terpenes is subtle, he says, offering momentary pleasure via a pleasant scent, while other times the terpenes directly contribute to a strain’s anti-anxiety or anti-inflammatory effects.
It is this interaction between plant components that makes Rick Simpson Oil a popular medical treatment. Also known as Phoenix’s Tears, the oil, says Parr, comprises as many plant compounds as possible, in contrast to honey oil or the therapeutic oils sold by licensed producers, which are refined to favour specific cannabinoids, like THC or CBD. Parr says that the popularity of Rick Simpson Oil in British Columbia influences growers to produce strains whose therapeutic effects are best expressed in the extraction – plants with varied cannabinoid and terpene profiles. In regions where consumer demand for recreational honey oil is high, growers may focus on high-THC strains to the exclusion of other qualities.
Consumer demand isn’t the only regional factor — local community networks also influence production culture. “Anyone can go online and order seeds,” says Parr, “but what ends up happening is a lot of people do end up buying clones from a local clone producer. And a lot of their friends in their network and people in their area will buy clones from that same provider, and that’s typically how the different regions have focused more on certain strains.” Even in areas where cannabis is mostly grown indoors, local networks impact the variety and availability of local strains. In illicit markets, it may also contribute to regional expertise, as production methods and materials are traded within secretive networks, influencing whether indoor plants are grown in soil, or in more complicated hydroponic or aeroponic setups.
As the cannabis market expands with legalization and the barriers to entry diminish, Parr expects outdoor crops to become more popular, meaning regional soil composition, water and climate – known in the wine world as terroir – will also become an increasingly influential factor.
In warmer climates like Northern California’s cannabis-rich Emerald Triangle, producers have already begun the push for appellations. Growers in Mendocino County are working with experts in wine appellation and law to begin demarcating micro-regions. Although Californians recently voted to legalize recreational cannabis use, the plant remains illegal under US federal law, and proponents hope an appellations system will bring legitimacy, granting Mendocino County cannabis the same kind of cachet it has given Napa County wine. Many supporters of cannabis appellations – in California, and here in Canada – also believe they will protect small growers against incursions from large agricultural companies.
Rosy Mondin is Executive Director of CTAC, and an advocate for cannabis appellations. She believes they will not only give small, boutique farmers a competitive advantage, but they’ll be a boon to cannabis tourism. Perhaps most importantly of all, appellations will encourage quality control.
“I don’t think you can have the appellations without some sort of trade alliance certification, similar to the VQA designation for the wine industry,” she says. “Although wine and cannabis are vastly different products, through origin verification, lab testing, and label reviews, the certification would assure adherence to cannabis production standards, with label integrity that consumers can trust. And all of that enhances provincial and international appeal.”
However they end up being managed, cannabis appellations promise a more informed experience. But that doesn’t mean all consumers welcome them. Even now, some critics are nostalgic for the underground days, when weed was weed, whatever it was, and a dime bag was never sold on the strength of its terroir.
But as we’ve already seen with wine and cheese, large open markets leave room for a spectrum of users and producers: for every bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape there are ten bottles of plonk, and a thousand orange squares for each triangle of Roquefort blue. Whether you see appellations as a hipster affectation, a connoisseur’s tool, or a clever branding exercise, there will always be a concurrent market for consumers seeking cheap, generic pot. Simply put: we’ll always have BC bud.
– Featured image via thedrinksbusiness.com.
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