Hunting for the World’s Most Mythical Cannabis: Big Sur Holy Weed
February 21, 2026 at 12:04AMIn this weed detective story, Lester Black goes on a year-long hunt for the legendary Big Sur Holy Weed. Did a monk named Perry really create the strain in the 1960s? Black clearly wants the myth to be true, but the world of weed is a hazy one. While it seems the Big Sur Holy weed may be more mythic reputation than a reliably preserved strain, in his fascinating search Black does uncover some plausible contenders—now themselves threatened by heavy-handed modern legislation.
If a journalist like me wanted to verify that a farm was really growing gala apples, or a winery was really selling true cabernet sauvignon, I could take those products to a botanist who would be able to verify through genetic testing that they are accurately labeled. Nothing like that exists for cannabis. That kind of standardization is done by institutions like agricultural schools, federal regulators and scientists. Almost none of that is available to cannabis because it is still federally illegal. On top of that, a century of prohibition made it a criminal liability to keep notes on strain types and where you got them.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2026/02/20/hunting-for-the-worlds-most-mythical-cannabis-big-sur-holy-weed/
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