The following review can also be found at freeculturemag.com:

Memphis Belle

A hybrid of the famed HKS and Maui strains, Memphis Belle is hands down one of the best medicines we’ve sampled all year. Its aesthetic beauty–bright neon-green and orange-haired buds, frosty with resin–is matched only by the strength of its highly unusual stone. Santa Ana’s Coastal Collective has managed to come up with that Holy Grail of medical-cannabis strains: A variety that wipes away pain and stress without putting you to sleep, that enhances sensory input while keeping you alert and energized. If you’re looking for a weed that boasts the best qualities of sativa and indica, this is the one for you.

Coastal Collective describes Memphis Belle as “a fine Southern lady.” We couldn’t agree more. Polished and sweet, with a floral finish like gardenias in summer, Memphis Belle is everything you can hope for in medical marijuana, and more. Keep it on hand for just about every condition for which cannabis is beneficial, from MS to PMS to chronic migraines.

OG Afgani

Here’s an amazing indica-dominant phenotype that you won’t find anywhere else but at San Gabriel Valley Compassionate Care (SGVCC) in South El Monte. Born of an elder variety of OG Kush and the collective’s own unique strain of Afgani Kush, OG Afgani is far too original to be viewed as just another kush. Hearty and bold, with fluffy nugs so dark as to be almost purple, it produces a rich, saffron-flavored burn that fills the air with blue smoke like old Virginia tobacco.

Clearly, a lot of hard work went into OG Afgani–even the cut and cure of the buds shows the growers and bud tenders were on top of their game. A good alternative name for the strain would be “Happy Afgani”–it produces a euphoric, all-over buzz that lasts for hours. Along with its qualities as a pain reliever, OG Afgani is a great medicine for nausea due to chemotherapy, neuropathy and other serious afflictions.

Royal OG Kush

The fine folks at Inland Empire Patients Group in Bloomington say Royal OG Kush is their most popular indica, and it’s easy to see why. So sticky with trichomes that it glistens in the sun, so skunky in aroma that it crosses the line from sour to sweet, it’s fine-quality herb for the serious connoisseur. If OG Kush strains are the Tudors of cannabis strains, Royal OG Kush is the Queen Elizabeth I of the family.

You could try rolling Royal OG into a joint, but it’s so rich in resin that you’ll find yourself constantly having to relight it. More properly, it should be smoked with a water pipe or vaporizer, through which it yields an expansive, powerfully herbal smoke with citrus notes. However you consume it, you won’t need much–this is “two-hitter-quitter medicine.” It’s ideal for patients with chronic pain such as neuropathy.

Super Skunk

Just keeping it real: This heavy-on-the-indica hybrid from Rite Greens in Santa Ana stinks. Like, PepÃ© Le Pew stinks. But it’s also one startlingly potent hybrid that’s taking the medical cannabis world by storm, so we like to think the stink is all part of its charm. The result of a mad scientist-like cross between Afghani and Skunk strains, this is a fearsome Frankenstein’s monster of a phenotype with dark-forest-green and amber buds that are remarkably fluffy for a blend that packs such a wallop.

Super Skunk is one of the stickier strains we’ve come across–press two buds together with your fingertips and they stay stuck together. That’s all THC-loaded resin just begging to be released. The stone is positively dizzying, a deep-in-the-bones high that’s as elevating as it is stress-free. Reach for Super Skunk when your arthritis is flaring up or when insomnia is getting you down or when you feel the onset of an anxiety attack.

Rock Piles Chocolate Chip Cookies

We’ve all heard the story of the unsuspecting roommate who happens upon a tray of brownies in the refrigerator and eats them, not realizing they’re loaded with pot. While such accidents do happen and are nothing to laugh about, it’s hard to imagine any adult consuming a Rock Piles Chocolate Chip Cookie without knowing exactly what’s in them. The cookies’ cannabis-green tinge should be a dead giveaway. You can smell the pot in them from three feet away. And if that’s not enough to clue you in, they taste like chocolate chip-flavored cannabis.

Rock Piles cookies are made from all natural, organic ingredients–brown eggs, chocolate chips, real butter, raw sugar, etc. But let’s face it: All that is just a wholesome delivery system for a whole lot of THC. Make no mistake: This is serious medicine, with a single cookie packing a punch that’s, frankly, annihilating. We strongly suggest you start off by eating a quarter to half a cookie and waiting an hour to gauge its effects before diving all the way in. This is an outstanding medicine for patients with chronic pain, HIV/AIDS or cancer.

Nature’s Top Shelf Chocolate Cake

This slice of heaven lends a whole new meaning to the saying, “You’ll take your medicine and like it, too!” Actually, “slice” isn’t the word–Nature’s Top Shelf Chocolate Cakes come perfectly round in individually sized tins. Each is almost, but not quite, too much for a single person to handle–not that it matters, because once you start eating one it’s a safe bet you won’t be able to stop until you find yourself staring at an empty tin.

In other words, Nature’s Top Shelf Medicinals in Long Beach have come up with a mighty fine edible–so moist and delicious as to stand up to the finest non-medicated packaged chocolate cakes on the market. That it’s made with fresh, 100-percent natural ingredients is just the . . . well, icing on the cake. Be warned: Though you hardly taste it, these babies are loaded with a formidable amount of high-grade indica, so don’t overdo it. First and foremost, this is strong medicine, excellent for treating migraines, anxiety and muscle spasms.