Why This Musician Only Smokes Mid-Grade Weed

You'd expect a touring musician with a real career to smoke the loudest flower money can buy. This one doesn't. When a reader shared his story with us, he was matter-of-fact about it: "I'm only smoking Reggie these days. It has to be mid, or I'm going to freak the f--- out."

He's not broke, and he's not being cheap — or at least, not only. He's choosing the low-potency stuff on purpose, and his reasons are more interesting than "the good stuff is too expensive."

Why mids, on purpose

His relationship with weed changed after a run of intense psychedelic experiences. He used to chase the best gas he could find — "straight sativa," he said, the strongest thing on the shelf. Now, if he smokes anything too potent, it throws him off for a week. "It'll throw me off my balance for a week 'cause I'll go into like some weird skitso s---," he told us, referencing a panic-level response he'd rather not trigger.

So he buys the calm stuff. "It has to be some s--- that's just like calm and clean." The mids aren't a compromise for him — they're the point. He knows exactly what he's doing when he asks for the cheaper flower, and he'd rather smoke every day without spiraling than smoke top-shelf once and pay for it for seven days.

It's not a bad thing to smoke mids

Here's where his story hits something real: for years, smoking mids carried a stigma. "A few years ago if you were smoking that, you're getting clowned," he said. "Like, bro, you're broke as hell." The pressure to smoke the strongest, most expensive flower was real, and it pushed a lot of people toward potent weed they didn't actually want.

That's starting to flip. "Now it's like, oh, you're chill as f---," he said. "You're saving your money." There's a quiet shift happening among experienced smokers: potency isn't the whole story, and the person who knows their tolerance well enough to buy mids might be the one who's actually in control.

The honest check

His approach isn't medical advice — it's a personal call shaped by his own history, including some genuinely bad psychedelic experiences. Not everyone needs to avoid potent weed, and plenty of people love high-THC flower with no problems at all. But his reasoning isn't irrational either. For people prone to anxiety or panic, high-potency cannabis can genuinely make things worse, and knowing that about yourself is a form of harm reduction.

He also said something that should land with anyone who's ever overdone it: "People don't appreciate smoking, man." He means it — he's not glorifying getting wrecked. He's describing a relationship with weed where he stays in control of it, instead of the other way around.

What you can take from this

• Potency isn't the only measure of quality. A well-grown mid can be a better experience than a badly grown 30% flower.
• Know your tolerance. If high-THC weed makes you anxious or sends you into a spiral, you're allowed to buy something gentler. You don't owe anyone the strongest thing on the shelf.
• You can ask for what you want. Dispensary budtenders are used to people asking for mids or lower-THC options. It's a normal request.
• Mids are often a better value. The difference between a $10 and a $20 eighth isn't always potency — and if you're smoking daily, the savings add up.

His story is a reminder that the best weed isn't the strongest weed — it's the weed that works for you, at your price, at your pace. And if someone clowns you for buying mids? He'd tell you they're the ones missing the point.