By James Bridges
I was done chasing MAC 1.
At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.
I’d found my sweet spot with it years ago, and I’ve kept that as a perfect mental snapshot. The signature creamy citrus punch, the way it hits smooth and steady, never too heavy, never too racy. It was my go-to a few years ago. Reliable. Like my old hoodie I would grab without thinking.
Then life did that thing it does. A buddy slid me some MAC-1 from LitUp Premium Cannabis. It was Dale Graham. He owns and operates Graham Slam Extracts. Turns out, he’s the brains behind LitUp Premium Cannabis as well. Honestly, I expected just another bag to add to the rotation.
I remember the moment I popped the sack open on the back porch.
It didn’t scream at me. No aggressive blast of terps hitting the face like some strains do. Instead, the smell just… hung there. Soft. Layered. Like it was waiting for me to lean in. I stood there longer than I normally would just breathing it in. “Huh,” I thought. “That’s… different. In a good way.”
I broke it apart by hand. Yeah, for some reason I found myself not looking for the grinder at all. I just wanted to feel it. The aroma got even deeper, still that classic MAC citrus, but rounder, more patient, like it had nothing to prove.
I loaded the weaponry, lit up, and took that first slow pull. No instant fireworks. Just a gentle creep. I was sitting outside, morning coffee already going cold on the little table next to me, mind drifting between half-finished emails and the birds doing their thing in the trees. The dog gave me a look of curiosity. As if he wanted to know my thoughts on the smoke.
Somewhere around the second or third hit, it hit me, I wasn’t thinking about the smoke anymore. I wasn’t analyzing the high. I was just… there. Shoulders finally unclenched. Breathing got deep without me forcing it. The usual background static of the day? It didn’t vanish, it just backed up a few steps. Gave me room.
Music coming through my phone speaker sounded richer. A random conversation with a friend and colleague felt smoother, funnier even. Time didn’t stretch or compress, it just flowed like it was supposed to.
This wasn’t the MAC-1 I’d grown so comfortable with. This was MAC 1 with actual patience behind it. Grown slow, cured right, handled with care. It didn’t try to wow me or floor me. It just quietly raised the ceiling I didn’t even know I’d settled under.
I thought I knew this strain inside out. Turns out I’d been chilling comfortably a whole floor below its real potential.
This one didn’t have to convince me. It just showed up and showed me when I least expected it. Funny how that works.
MAC 1
LIT UP
PREMIUM CANNABIS