You probably hear it all the time from the old man: Weed was far less potent back in his day.
Elder dads have learned the hard way in the last couple of decades that the dry, stemmy stuff they were getting when rock and roll wasn’t yet dead has little in common with the lab-grown cerebral nukes coming out of the pacific northwest and elsewhere in 2021.
Back in the mid-1900s (as the kids call it these days) weed was also far more taboo, and you definitely couldn’t get it by walking into a trendy Los Angeles dispensary at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday morning.
But it wasn’t all bad. There’s an argument that, as with the beer world, cannabis has taken things to the extreme in recent years. We don’t need more ultra sours and triple IPAs in the bud world. The two things your dad’s cannabis had that yours doesn’t? The utilitarian charm of makeshift disguised hiding places, and some fucking restraint.
Enter Dad Grass. These mellow smokes are the answer to the problem of weed being just a little too pretentious in the early 2020s—it’s a CBD pre-roll and flower brand designed to provide the familiar easy-going high of weed from half a century ago, in packages that will make boomers (and the kids that found their stash) nostalgic all over again.
CBD is big business these days, and with growing numbers of reports of cannabis-induced psychosis from high THC strains, sometimes the right answer really is a mellow, non-psychotic strain just to take the edge off, like the last generation would’ve done after a hard day of ruining the economy and environment for their children.
The most charming thing about Dad Grass is its fun, nostalgic limited edition packaging. The Dad Grass special edition packs are designed with a nostalgic eye to home goods Americana.
They’re designed as the very places you’d imagine Norman Rockwell likely hid an eighth: tea and dog biscuit tins, flip-top bandage canisters, butter boxes, cassette cases, and a box that totally won’t remind you of the pack of Sweethearts your elementary school crush gave you (or the excitement you felt before realizing she’d given the same thing to everyone else).
They’ve got the market dialed in for this, with marketing quips preprogrammed to reassure you this is good for the old timers. Lines like “Low dose, full toke, like your parents used to smoke,” get the point across that the potency is dialed back here—a mere .3 percent of THC by dry weight.
The heavy stoners may protest, but there’s something comforting about having a nice, friendly joint in your stash, just in case you want to go easy.
Maybe it’s a morning hangover cure, or a mini-buzz before tolerating a daytime gathering with the in-laws. Maybe it’s just your cocktail hour toke when the day is done. Dad Grass’s formula is dialed in for a comfy, lucid mellowness, with an eye to the fact that maybe you don’t want to eat an entire sleeve of Oreos at 3 p.m. on a Sunday.
Smoking speeds may vary, but we found that modest consumption stretched one pre-roll through the weekend. It’ll pair perfectly with the mid-afternoon lawn mowing, and take a little of the edge off that knee-sock tan.
We know the world is full of fun and exciting strains to try, with face-melting levels of THC and elaborate user reviews talking about lucidity and body highs. But for every Russian Imperial Mango Dark Chocolate Stout, it’s still nice to have a six pack of Coors Banquet in the back of the fridge.
Dad Grass is that brand.
For about $7.50 a joint, the five packs are a great tool to have on hand for the days when you’re not ready to head to space. And as any dad will tell you, you can never have enough tools.
Clay Whittaker is a Contributing Editor at Maxim.com. His work has also appeared in Playboy, Esquire, Forbes, Cigar Aficionado, Town & Country, and elsewhere. His newsletter “Whiskey Beat” collects important news and trends for whiskey nerds every Friday. Subscribe here.