Kush it

Whether you’re into the tropical, sweet-flavored smoke of Bubba or the hard-hitting, relaxing effects from a few puffs of OG, medical-cannabis patients will find the lineage of Kush just as mentally stimulating as ingesting the medicine itself.

What’s more, a budding cult following of this indica-dominant strain is taking root at Florin Wellness Center, where rare phenotypes of OG Kush are luring in patients from both the Bay Area and Southern California.

“OG Kush isn’t just a strain,” explained FWC budtender Eric Solomon. First, there are multiple adaptations. “If you included everything from the Chem Dawg line, we’ll probably have seven or eight [strains]. We get so many new varieties, 15 different varieties all week.”

Solomon, a self-proclaimed connoisseur of Kush, unfolds the ancestry of the popular strain with the investigative intensity of CSI: Las Vegas’ Gil Grissom. He traces the strain back to its great, great grandparents, Skunk No. 1 and Chem Dawg. And he even has a Kush family chart on his laptop, which he’s compiled over years of research.

“Without Chem Dawg, none of this would exist,” he said. “OG wouldn’t exist. The Bubba line wouldn’t have existed. Sour Diesel would have never existed. All of these are prodigies of this one strain.”

Leaning back in a cushioned computer chair, Solomon admits a lot of myths are connected with the history of Kush. So first, some facts: The Hindu Kush mountain range, between Afghanistan and Pakistan, is commonly known within the cannabis subculture as the origin of the Kush name. Solomon also credits military soldiers roaming those ranges with bringing some of the first land-raised seeds back to the United States.

Still, there’s always room for folklore.

“During the early ’90s in Colorado, a bunch of guys at a Grateful Dead show ended up picking up some Colorado Skunk,” he begins. What happened next was that four strains came from the bag: Chem Dawg, which later spread to OG and Bubba Kush lines.

In addition to FWC’s OG Kush selection, the south Sacramento dispensary also carries Mars OG, Madonna OG and Obama OG, and is widely known for their Herojuana OG.

“Herojuana OG is probably the most famous in the history of our store,” Solomon shared. “It has supreme potency, tests up at 21 percent THC, incredibly rich flavor and our patients line up outside the door for it.”

Hayk Seropyan, FWC manager, also is on the bandwagon, christening his club as “Home of the OG Kush.”

“People know about OG Kush here,” he said. The cannabidiol and cannabinol are more like a sinking body high, and for people who are in pain or people who suffer from insomnia, that’s the best way to go.

“I’d say easily about 30 percent of our patients just come for our OG Kush.”

Solomon agrees that any variety of Kush will benefit patients suffering from chronic pain, nausea, cancer, HIV—and one ailment he knows all too personally, Crohn’s disease.

“I just realized that OG did the most for me therapeutically,” Solomon shared. “It did the most for my nausea, [and] I really enjoyed the flavor of it.

“It was long-lasting and I took a love to it.”