But marijuana researchers are amused by such tales. They point
out that resin is present in all plants and that there is no evidence that it is connected to the plant's sex functions. Studies of sinsemilla plants do show that they tend to be more potent than other varieties, but skeptics explain this by the quality of the seeds and the various cultivation techniques that sinsemilla requires.There are several advantages to growing only female plants. The female flowering clusters, the buds, are the most potent part of the marijuana harvest. More important, most of the weight of the sinsemilla plants is in these buds, rather than in leaves, which contain significantly less THC, or in the seeds and stems, which don't contain any. The sinsemilla plants require nine months to reach full maturity, which adds to their mystique; regular plants require only six or seven months. And instead of seeds, which are worthless to the smoker, the plants produce beautiful and large colas (literally, tails), the cone-shaped bundle of flowering tops.
Although the idea of sinsemilla is fairly new to most American smokers, it has been the subject of much attention and folklore over the centuries. According to one account, the Mexican farmers who grow sinsemilla plants do not allow their wives to tend to them, believing that the plants become jealous in the presence of other females. A letter writer to High Times offers what he claims is compelling evidence that this tradition lives on: in five years of living and traveling in Mexico, this is the only instance he has seen where men exclude women from hard labor.
The first large sinsemilla crops were grown in Marin County, north of San Francisco, in 1975; they were smoked by growers and dealers and did not reach the consumer. The following year, according to one report, the best plants were sold as Hawaiian, because nobody in California would believe that domestic growers had produced such a fine variety. But by 1977, sophisticated smokers were prepared to offer high prices for sinsemilla.
Although sinsemilla crops are now grown in other states as well— a specially powerful variety is being produced in the Ozark mountains of Arkansas and Missouri, for example—it remains mostly a California phenomenon, and smokers in that state have greater access to it. Those smokers who pay $200 an ounce and sometimes more for the finest sinsemilla marijuana enjoy it not only for smoking but also for aesthetic reasons. The sinsemilla flowers are often strikingly beautiful, sporting red tendrils, purple strands, and bright greens and golds; there is at least one coffee-table book on the market celebrating the sinsemilla plants in glorious color photographs. Sinsemilla also boasts a spicy, piney fragrance and a mild, sweet taste.[14]
Smokers who prefer sinsemilla speak of it as an elevating high. "It makes your brain tingle and gives you energy without knocking you out," says one devotee. Another user claims "it gets you in the back of the head, and opens up your eyes. Its effect is like that of having your windshield cleaned." A California woman says that sinsemilla puts her "up in space, analyzing the grand scheme of everything and how I fit into it." Repeatedly, sinsemilla is described as "wiring," "airy," and "uplifting."
Growers of sinsemilla earn their high prices by careful vigilance. An entire sinsemilla crop can fail if a single male plant goes undetected, or even if a single male flower appears on an otherwise female plant. One male plant has the capacity to pollinate an entire field of females, and it is said that in some counties of California a farmer who allows a male plant to remain in his field will be persecuted by his neighbors for perpetrating a sin worse than horse stealing. Occasionally, despite precautions, a few seeds will appear in a sinsemilla crop, and these are highly prized by the growers for next year's production.