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When do you think marijuana will be removed from pre-employment drug screen tests in states where it’s legal?

—P. Cup

Who knows? California is an “at will” state, so you can be fired for damn near anything, not just cannabis use. There are currently no laws that will protect you. Oregon tried to get a law passed this year, but it died in the Senate. I don’t know if any states protect cannabis users’ employment rights. It’s tricky.

Cannabis is still illegal under federal law, and many insurance companies require employers to have a “drug-free workplace” (whatever that means) before they will insure a business. It’s not like folks don’t go to work zooted up on xannies or oxy, but hey, marijuana is bad, mmmkay?

The problem, of course, is that THC stays in the system even after its effects have worn off. There’s no real way to tell if someone is high at work, other than how they act or maybe how they smell. Heh.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for new legislation to protect you. Either find a new job or borrow some urine from your square cousin if you have to take a test. Good luck.

How scientific is hybridization these days? Is it still fairly random? How do they develop new strains?

—Ekoms Sibannac

Good question, It’s not very random at all these days. Most breeders still do it the old-fashioned way: sprinkling pollen collected from select male plants onto the flowers of select female plants to create hybrid seeds. After these new hybrid seeds have been planted and raised into adulthood, the best and most consistent plants are bred with each other to create a uniform new strain. Creating new strains takes time and patience, but the results can be fantastic. Pretty much every strain you’ve ever smoked, with the exception of the ancient landrace strains like Durban Poison or Oaxacan, is some sort of hybrid.

Of course, this being the 21st century, there is definitely a worry that Big Agriculture (Monsanto and the like) will try to take over the seed production industry and introduce all kinds of “GMO Frankenweed” flavors. We aren’t really at that point yet (the feds would have to legalize before any really big programs could start), but I would start creating an all-natural seed bank, just in case.

This question is to settle a bet: Is it “strain” or “strand”?

—Lord Weedleroy

A nug by any other name would smell as sweet. Who cares? I would say that “strain” is the more common way to refer to a particular cannabis phenotype, but “strand” has seen an uptick in usage, especially on the East Coast. But does it matter? Whether you say strain, strand, flavor, pheno, style, kind, whatever, most people will know what you mean. Context is everything. Words are secondary. So don’t strain yourself over which strand to smoke.