1965 was a turning point in American culture. Malcolm X was assassinated, the first American troops landed in Vietnam, Bob Dylan published Like a Rolling Stone — and Gale Matson, a chemist working at 3M's St. Paul, Minnesota labs, accidentally invented Scratch and Sniff. Within a few years children would be pressing their noses against the bananas pictured in their books. Until 1982, magazine readers could smell the latest designer fragrance simply by running their finger over an ad. w, scratch and sniff is ready for its next trick: revolutionizing the pharmacy experience for cannabis shoppers.
On December 10th, the Humboldt Seed Company, the largest licensed seller of cannabis seeds in California and a leader in specialty cannabis breeding, releases the first-ever scratch and sniff stickers for weed bags sold in pharmacies.
Daniel Lee
If you live in California, Washington, or a handful of other recreational states with "sealed package" laws, you know that budtenders are not allowed to stick their noses in your bags. You also know the olfactory frustration of stepping up to the counter and admiring a glittering thumb-sized nug, but not being allowed to inhale the merchandise. The ingenious re-imagining of the scratch-and-sniff technology of the '60s gives bud buyers the flavor impact they want without keeping the pharmacy lawyers up at night.
"The regulations are a good thing because they ensure your cannabis is sealed, sterile, and uncontaminated," says Ben Lind, owner and chief science officer of Humboldt Seed Company and a member of the team that dreamed up the new Scratch and Sniff has solution. But when you buy cannabis, the information our brains get from its specific smell is crucial. "Your frontal cortex starts firing and you immediately feel like Trainwreck isn't for you," says Lind. "But then you smell OG Kush and you just know you want it."
Cannabis, he adds, "is such a personal experience - and scratching and sniffing will give people access to the plant in a way that was taken away with legalization."
Daniel Lee
How close is the sticker scent to the real thing?
"It's 100 percent accurate," says Lind, because it comes straight from the plant itself. "We go to the plant at the peak of flowering, when the buds are the size of baseball bats, remove them and place them in an alembic of essential oils, force vapor through them, and then condense that vapor back," he explains.
The scent is then converted into tiny bubbles - microencapsulation, as they call it - and applied to the surface of the sticker, which is then stuck onto individual bags.
Initially, the Humboldt Seed Company will produce about 10,000 sns stickers for three flavors (Orange Creampop, Nutter Budder, and Blueberry Muffin) that will be available at select California dispensaries - including, unsurprisingly, The Woods, which co-owns (also unsurprisingly). ) by Woody Harrelson.
Subscribe to YouTube for access to exclusive gear videos, celebrity interviews and more!
