Pkg date: 04/22/2025

Purchase date: 05/14/2025

5x 0.5 g infused pre-rolled joints, $45

They warned me about the potency of these Firecrackers: the taste lingered as long as the effects.

Firecrackers are five-packs of “half gram” infused pre-rolls in a neat little metal case decorated with bright artwork and the words, “CAUTION: POTENT.” Every time I opened the case, my nose was assaulted by the perfume of peach candy. According to their label, these contain natural cannabis that’s been fortified with additional THC.

They burned a little sluggishly, and the taste was exactly like Trolli Peach Rings, with undertones of combusted cellulosic material. Occasionally, a puff had just a hint of that mothball flavor from distillate. I could definitely feel the effects of the fortification.

The first time I smoked one of these, it was too close to bedtime. I was so buzzed up on THC I couldn’t get to sleep! I feel that consuming a high dose of THC hits me differently than smoking flower with a very high THCA concentration. Maybe having so much decarboxylated THC in the joint leads to different side products of combustion than from natural flower. Maybe the balance of minor cannabinoids is off, so the THC hits with a more buzzy, gripping high. Whatever the reason, these kept me feeling high for hours.

These joints contained spray-coated plant matter of indefinite composition. There was enough resin coating this matrix that each joint actually contained about 0.7 g of material, but it was less sticky than I expected and didn’t bleed into the paper.

I used the LightLab3 HS from Orange Photonics to measure the cannabinoids in these Firecrackers. I tried out the “THCA flower/sprayed flower” mode, which uses an alternative sample concentration and chromatographic condition (I presume) to augment the list of cannabinoids measured by adding a handful of the “synthetic deltas:” Delta-10-THC, HHC, isomers of THCOAc, etc.

My test results were quite consistent with the values on the label; I got what I paid for, I suppose. The one exception is that the package label lists no CBD or CBDA, yet I measured substantial quantities of each (0.67% and 0.49%). It makes more sense that detectable CBD would be present, rather than not, and a total CBD% of about 1% fits with a total THC of 30%.

Note that I didn’t find any evidence of synthetic cannabinoids. I measured substantial quantities of both acid cannabinoids (ending in “A”) and their decarboxylated cousins, which suggests to me that natural THC-type (Type I, “marihuana”) flower was treated with naturally-derived THC distillate to produce these. That’s just a guess, not a confident assignment.

Were I to compare these with an alcoholic beverage, I would say these are like the Four-Loko of weed: 1. the package art borrows from the same scheme of color and language (“Sit Back. Light Fuse. Rocket away!”), 2. They are loaded with fruit flavor to overpower the taste of their fortification, and 3. They leave me with a headache and regret.

Consumers who like fruity weed vapes and have friends with whom to share might enjoy the Peach Rings Firecracker Prerolls. The rest should make like me and stay away.