I wanted to suggest that it seems like there is some conflation of whether material is 'natural smelling' which is taken to indicate that this is
natural and therefore
safe to consume.
I have experienced a number of samples of cannabis that have had very 'unnatural' smells but that I can verify from seed to material were not adulterated and were properly flushed without additives (small-scale personal use connoisseur cultivators). We should not be surprised to learn this though. After all, there are varieties of cannabis that can smell like diesel and such!
It may be possible that the material in question is being adulterated to change the flavor, but I do not know of any specific examples where this has taken place in the past. Is this a regulated dispensary? Do they provide test results for their material? Any unusually high concentrations of terpenes commonly derived from other cheaper sources may be a dead giveaway of terpene adulteration to add flavor. Still, I don't know of any actual cases where this is being done in a dishonest way.
Looking at the cannabis flowers under a 60x magnification should allow you to see the resin heads too. Are the trichome stalks and glands intact and looking as they should?
Look under magnification for slender stalks with a little ball on the end, this ball is the resin gland - there are other kinds of trichomes of course but these are the most common. The stalks tend to be clear. The glands can be clear, cloudy, yellow, gold, amber all the way to dark brown depending on maturity and environmental factors.
When you look, if the heads/glands seem partially/fully dissolved, this may indicate that a spray on terpene solution was used.
Of course, to tell whether solution of the heads within a terpene adulterant has taken place, you need to have a good idea of the spectrum of what normal, quality resin heads can look like. If you can get pics, I'm happy to assist
This is still not conclusive, just one possible indicator that additives have been used.
We should all also remember that cannabis varieties are not internally homogeneous in phenotype (the physical expression of a given plants genetics) or chemotype (the chemical profile of a given plant).
In plain English, what I mean is that not every sample of nugs from different or even the same 'Grape Ape' plant (nor any other variety) is gonna smell the same. Both within-plant and between-plant variation in smell/chemotype will be related to factors such as environmental influences (where relevant light placement, temp, humidity and almost infinitely many other factors) as well as the genetic crapshoot involved in cannabis plant reproduction (obviously use of clones changes the situation). Someone could have something that has the same 'strain name' as your material but smells, tastes and/or looks quite different. Consider especially those varieties that can have unusual purple phenotypes, when usually the same variety would be a more traditional green/earthy tone.
Aside from this, I should note that the taste of flowers can be altered drastically due to flushing additives used at the end of cultivation as mentioned above, as well as if the cultivator didn't flush properly/at all (this can lead to some really nasty flavors indeed!). Foreign contamination is also possible.
I would personally not want to consume anything that was not fully flushed or given a flavor additive type flushing medium (whether 'natural' or not). As a medical extract consumer, I don't want foreign shit being put into a flowering plant just prior to harvest regardless of the intended effect. Many additives that people do not notice a difference from when using flowers can have a profound effect on the resin for those extracting it.
We also hardly fully understand the makeup and safety of boiled cannabis flower aerosols (complex mixtures of a great many compounds already as they are!) from the cleanest and most unadulterated of grows yet, let alone when we add other stuff that has never been studied for this purpose to the mix (even stuff that would be fine to drink directly, like mango juice for example). Still, you guys make your own decision on this stuff, I'm not here to try and persuade you, just sayin' my position
On a related note; even other seemingly-salubrious treatments like neem oil can require painstaking work to remove from concentrates for the discerning extract artist!
Wow, this became a super long and tangential post. I hope it is helpful just the same!
and although there are clearly different flavour profiles, overt fruit flavours seem artificial. I have had Strawberry Cough, Strawberry Haze, Raspberry Cough, and none of these were really reminiscent of their name sake.
