Purple Haze (marijuana)

Contrary to highly popular belief regarding cannabis strains, Purple Haze is simply slang for a number of genetic crossbreeds of a purple strain and original Haze, such as Purple Star x Haze #1, Purple #1 x Haze #1, or Purple Skunk x Haze #1. Purple strains are often misidentified as purple haze due to the high popularity it gained due to the song by Jimi Hendrix. In fact, the term "haze" was not used to identify marijuana until the strain was bred in 1970. Purple Haze does not necessarily mean high quality, and the term is often used by dealers to distinguish their product. In concept, there is no original Purple Haze strain. Purple haze refers to a specific LSD blotter created by Owsley Stanley. In a High Times Magazine article by Bruce Eisner from January 1977, Eisner reports to have actually interviewed Tim Scully, one of the men involved in creating the LSD. According to Scully, Augustus Owsley Stanley III, began to manufacture LSD in Los Angeles in 1965. It was legal then. Owsley's LSD came in 270 microgram tablets of purple (Purple Haze) and white (White Lightning). LSD became illegal in 1966 and Owsley was arrested in 1967. Many speculate that the 1967 song of the same name by Jimi Hendrix was named after this blotter paper or after the cannabis strain, but Jimi claims that the title of the song only had to do not with drugs but with a dream he had in which he was walking under the sea that was inspired partly by the science-fiction novel Night of Light: Day of Dreams by Philip Jose Farmer, which used the term, a "purplish haze." In the dream, he said a purple haze surrounded him, engulfed him and got him lost. It was a traumatic experience, but in his dream his faith in Jesus saved him. While Hendrix claims the song is not drug related, the lyrics seem to vividly portray an intense acid trip.^[1] Purple Haze is also the brand name of a marijuana-flavored lollipop available as a novelty candy at some convenience stores. The lollipop is flavored with hemp oil, which imparts the taste of marijuana without the high, but the candy has still been criticized by anti-drug advocates in the United States.^[2]

References

1. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/jimihendrix/articles/story/6595862/purple_haze
2. ^ Associated Press. "Pot-flavored candy takes a licking", MSNBC.com, June 25, 2005. Retrieved on 2006-05-10.