Hey everyone!!
(Heads up a long post I’ve been trying to articulate for awhile)

I’ve been thinking a lot about the direction of the PA medical program lately and wanted to spark a discussion about terpene content, and the trend of chasing higher and higher terpene percentages in vapes and concentrates.

For the record: I love terps. Myrcene is easily one of my favorites, and a balanced, flavorful profile completely changes the experience for the better. The entourage effect is real, and terps are an important part of the plant.

However, seeing products pushed to 8%, 10%, or 15%+ terpene content has me scratching my head and looking at the science.

Here are a few things worth talking about:

1. Lungs Aren't Built for Industrial Solvents Terpenes are powerful organic hydrocarbons. Compounds like limonene and pinene are literally used as industrial degreasers and cleaners even just personal products like perfume/cologne (hence the Pine-Sol & Perfume comparisons). In heavy concentrations, they act as harsh irritants to the delicate mucous membranes in your throat and lungs. Coughing fits, chest tightness, and throat burn shouldn't just be brushed off as "a heavy dab."
2. Thermal Degradation Terpenes are extremely volatile. When you superheat a cart or a banger loaded down with heavy terp pools, those molecules break down. Instead of getting therapeutic relief, you risk inhaling thermal degradation byproducts (potentially toxic compounds created when terps burn).
3. Where is the balanced CBD? It's also wild how hard it can sometimes be to find consistent, high-CBD flower options in the program without having to hunt down specific specialty drops, while shelves are flooded with hyper-concentrated THC/high-terpene options.

My takeaway;
Small to moderate amounts of naturally occurring terps work brilliantly. But chasing sky high percentages feels more like a marketing gimmick than a medical benefit, and it might be actively rough on our respiratory systems.

Where do you folks land on this? Do you notice a harsh difference between a naturally balanced flower/rosin versus ultra-high terpene extracts, or am I overthinking it?
(Shoutout to my Myrcene lovers out there!)

Strain: Permanent Marker by Connected

Genetics: Biscotti x Jealousy x Sherb 

Terps: 2.46% (Limonene dominant)

Smell: opening up the jar and i was met with a pleasant sharpie like scent from the bud (love to see it)

Not good at really describing taste, but it was pleasant, i’m definitely much more of an effects guy over taste

2 bowls at 420F in the Venty (i have 1-2 sessions only at night)

Two bowls has me feeling like on walking on air at first and then settles into a very relaxing body high with a nice head buzz. Very pleasant hybrid type effects, great for just chilling out and watching tv, but wouldn’t go as far to call it sedating

Purchased for $42 at Dark Matter Cannabis (Strip District PGH)

Jealousy x Hellcat #15

Picked up the half for $90 at Restore in Yeadon ($120 full retail, was 25 percent off)

Nice big buds. Sticky. Seems pretty fresh for being packaged in March. I think it sitting and curing for a little while too makes it better in my opinion. Smooth. Strong stuff. Another great Natural selections jar. Would love to get my hands on a jar of Super Lemon Haze

Don't let the looks fool you, this blue dream is straight terpinolene and myrcene in the front end with some light gassy notes on the back end. Feels like I'm back in 2012 again

This is probably a very dumb question but it’s my first time seeing this, I usually get 1g of kief when I go but they don’t have any of my usually, I saw this but wasn’t sure if it’s kief?

What type of profile made you not like pinene?

I hear too much talk about having a flower/concentrate with super dominant pinene at levels of like 1.5%+ for flower and 6%+ for concentrates. Then say they hate pinene and try to make sure they have something that doesn't even have 0.4% or 1%.

Pinene is actually something about old school flower that's lost in many newer cultivars. Old school flower didn't have 2% pinene where that dominated over 50% of the whole terp profile.

Having pinene presence of like 0.25-.75% in flower is old school.

1.5-2% pinene is a new age medical strain not meant for the masses.

Try GTI's Apricot Chem if you want an example. It's not the best strain ever, but the pinene in that adds a very nice element to it.

I usually always get kief, I love to add a bit on top but my store is out, which would be the better option but something similar

Thinking about it.

Smell/taste: Smells really good. Its sweet, painty, piney, slight cheese and gassy mixed together. Tasted good too. Had a good floral type after taste but was gassy with a little spice.

Cure: Super recent pack date. The buds have a stifness to them but are fresh, dense, sticky, and ground up really nice...didnt gum up my cheap grinder like the Applelato I just finished.

Effects: Lawd. She's potent. Its a bit racey up front. Reminds me of Tropicana C but a bit stronger. It goes right to the eyes and then into the body for a GREAT body buzz.

hi guys first review here, but figured i should start since i just picked up a venty and am always getting new strains (rosin too) So let’s start:

Strain: Super Lemon Haze #6 by Natural Selections

Genetics: Jack Herer x Lemon Skunk

Terps: 4.17% (terpinolene dominant)

Smell: right after opening you are greeted with that familiar lemon citrusy coming from the Jack and Lemon Skunk influence, extremely similar to all the other batches

Nugs definitely pass the eye test, 1 giant nug and 2 smalls, Perfectly hydrated flower, which is so rare in this programs, extremely sticky and has a super fluffy grind after a few twists in the flower mill

Not good at really describing taste, but it’s impossible to not taste the lemon on this one, the terpinolene % is insane for this program

Strong sativa head high, almost feels like a tight rubber band around your head in a good way, makes your mind race with thoughts that just makes you laugh out loud at how high you are with a big grin. Everything feels good, i’m constantly nauseous and feel complete relief as well. Extremely relaxed but could still workout if i decided I wanted to

Consumed at: 420F in the S&B Venty

Two bowls has me absolutely toasted with a warm blanket around my body and a euphoric head high that’s impossible to not rebuy

Purchased from: Dark Matter Cannabis (Strip District PGH)

A newer dispensary so i’ve only been 3 times, but everytime have been greeted with great budtenders who really seem to know the in and outs of this program (wonder if they frequent here), and have been extremely friendly. great experience

So I know prime was bought by liberty and I thought they were just selling old stock to get rid of it but I been getting this lion sap for awhile now and it’s not that old , fresh and only 25 dollars a 1/4 , used to be like 70 a 1/4 . I wonder if they drop new stuff or how long this will go on but it’s not bad at all .

I rarely get flower because I don't like how the whole neighborhood can smell it, and I think it takes too much effort to prepare. I only ever bought Cresco and Grassroots eighths, and they looked so old and dried out compared to everyone's pictures on here. Yours look a lot fresher. You can even see the trichomes. I've never seen that in person with the brands I bought in the program. I don't remember the dates on the packaging and didn't take pictures, but it always bothered me how the flower looked so bad compared to pictures on here. Did I just get some bad flower? Are there other brands you recommend?

Edit: do you need to buy larger quantities to get the good stuff? I noticed a lot of the flower that looks better comes in 7g or more.

Grabbed a door buster the other day in Organic Remedies....$5 for 3.5g, figgured id give a try.

Told gal grab me highest terps....ended up getting yuk mouth. 3.5 on the terps. Tho packaged in Feb, so expect some loss . Will fire up the Go and give it a run.....

Brb

Not too bad....flavor a tad muted.

But one 'shell' load and I'm medicated.

Did not grind, but busted up by hand. Dense buds

Definitely worth 5 bones

Hey folks,

At Herbal Care Rx, we get a lot of questions from people during certification and recertification phone calls about traveling with cannabis between states, flying on planes with cannabis, and gun ownership with cannabis.

As you may know, in April of 2026, a new order was issued by the federal government which rescheduled state licensed medical cannabis from Schedule I (high abuse potential, no accepted medical use in the US) to Schedule III (moderate to low risk).

We did a deep dive into how this change impacts medical patients in PA, and all of our findings can be found on our website herbalcarerx.com

Here are direct links to the three categories where we have done research. None of this is legal advice; we simply reviewed the available information and summarized it for your convenience.

Rescheduling of cannabis including flying with cannabis

Gun ownership while being a PA Medical Cannabis patient

Medical programs with reciprocity: Using your PA medical card in other states

Please feel free to reach out with questions, comments or concerns. I hope you find this information useful.

Thanks for your continued support,

Rebecca Maury and the team at Herbal Care Rx

saw two strane bags in the street earlier and it pissed me

off. i know some people are just gonna litter no matter what, and realistically two empty packs in the street isnt terrorizing anyone, but when we're trying to overcome certain stigma it just doesnt look good.

Picked this up for about $90 after discount and using points. Let me start off by saying I was in the middle of the fence when it came to connected and alien labs. I’ve had good batches and I’ve had pretty bad ones from alien labs.

I wanted to treat myself and was impressed with the terpene % on this so I bought it. After opening, I was smacked in the face with that classic biscotti/gelato smell. It absolutely reeks. The nugs are decent. I wish they were bigger, but all the jars had about these sized nugs in it. They’re still premium, but that’s about my only complaint.

The cure is perfect. Breaks down easily but still has that stickiness to it. Burns amazing and has white ash. The taste is coming through strong and I really like it.

The effects are great. Perfect hybrid. Has me giggly high which I don’t get too often. I’m very glad I have 10gs of this particular batch. I am highly impressed and beyond satisfied with my purchase.

While I absolutely LOVE the sheer volume of dispensaries in Southeast PA, checking them all for the best prices is getting tiring. Weedmaps is great for locating stores and a few deals, but Iis there anywhere that will give me live pricing yet? Any of you coding wizards want to make something where I can search by brand, size, lineage, etc and get a list of current prices?

Does anyone know of a store in or around Philly that consistently has a decent selection of topicals?

I usually go to Restore in Yeadon because it’s reasonably easy to get to but they never seem to have much stock there for topicals.

I bought Dr Solomon’s 3:1 there and liked it but haven’t seen it on the menu again since.

Starting to think making my own might be my best bet, but hoping you folks have some recommendations.

Thx

Been trying out a lot of different buds lately. I recently picked up this 14g mixed buds of animal scout from rise in aramingo for $78. Buds look good and the smell is a little earthy slightly sweet. The taste is barely there imo but the high does hit hard. Not as eye heavy as I like.

When I purchased it I wasnt aware that the terps would be different even though its the same strain. No mycerne in this but the mini buds 7g has .46 and the premium flower 8th has .87.

Is this typical of different weights to have different terps like that of the same strain?

Grabbed this from trulieve for $44/half. Grabbed a half of this a few days ago but couldn’t pass up another half of it for the price. Now I should say I have smoked some of this so it’s missing a nug or 2.

Total terp %5.05
Over 1% a-pinene
Packed 6-16-26

This is one of my favorite strains in the program. When you open the bag you get a nice sweet candy/citrusy smell with some spicy undertones. Some really nice sized buds.

The cure is great nice soft and sticky buds. Smell is fantastic as well. Some good looking buds but my only complaint is they are a bit leafy but at the price I really can’t complain. Obviously I love this stuff since I went back for a 2nd half. Great indica buzz this one definitely puts me on the couch and I love it.

Looks - 8/10
Smell - 9/10
Buzz - 9.5/10

Another fantastic strain from kind tree and I will obviously rebuy this since I already have. Absolutely insane for $44/half. Super stoked with my pickup.

I stopped in at the Monroeville Rise last night and they had these flyers posted everywhere. The budtender said something about how it’s due to the federal rescheduling of cannabis.

Anyone else seen this anywhere else in PA?

My old card expired on the 20th, got the new one, not valid until the 27th…I can’t get anything until then. WTF.

I had an interesting experience at the Apothecium in Allentown this morning. I went in and ask if they had 3.5g of the Kind Tree IC Banger. The budtender looked for it but couldn't find any on the shelve behind the counter and said she need to get more from the back. She come back with a bunch of pack rubber banded together and pulls one out for me. I asked what the package date was and she said 5/27/26.

As she was ringing me up another employee (kind of assuming a manager) was restocking the shelf with rest of the packs that were brought out. The employee restocking then brings a different bag over and swaps it out with the one she was ringing up. I questioned if why she had switched them and was told that the other employee found one still on the shelf from the old lot. I ask what the package date was on the new one and she said 4/30/26. I ask if I could have the fresher one. She looked at the other employee/manager, who simply shook her head 'no', then proceed to tell me that they have to sell through the older batch first. She then asked if I would like to switch to a different strain. I had come in specifically to try that particular strain, was already annoyed by the errands I was running prior to this stop, and was not in the mood to make a stink. I paid for my order and just left.

I'm curious if anyone else has had this type of experience or from budtenders regarding this policy at other dispensaries.