What Are Weed Mids? Difference Between Mids and Regs

A few years ago, the widespread prediction was that weed prices would drop considerably as more and more states legalized marijuana.

Generally speaking, that hasn’t happened. Supply/demand issues and high taxes have combined to keep cannabis prices high. In fact, one NPR report looked at the California market and compared the average price of an ounce in 2017 with the average price four years later. In 2017, it was $250; in 2021, it was $260.

So the cost of getting high isn’t getting any lower. What’s a poor bud smoker to do? One alternative is to consider buying mids.

What are weed mids?

There’s no exact definition that stoners, casual users, dealers, and the cannabis industry can all agree on. But if you think about top-shelf dank weed – and then think about the worst schwag you’ve ever tried – you’ll understand that there’s a decent middle ground between the two.

And that middle ground is where you’ll find weed mids. “Mids” is simply short for “middle.”

What Determines The Quality Of Marijuana?

A number of factors come into play in growing high-quality weed. The strain’s genetics, and the care that a grower takes to ensure proper nutrition, hydration, temperature, humidity, and light, are major determinants of whether bud will turn out to be a high-end flower or nasty crap. The ways the plants have been dried and cured, and the way the final product has been stored, play big roles as well.

When everything’s been said and done, you’ll ideally end up with primo bud. If things have gone terribly wrong, you’ve got schwag that’s only suitable for use at a huge party with people you barely know, for cooking (if you’re not too picky) – or for smoking when you’re totally broke.

Everything else can best be described as mids. It’s a weed that isn’t amazing but certainly isn’t awful.

The cannabis world has its own vocabulary, of course, and some of it takes a while to pick up. Grades of weed typically have their own terminology; “mids” is one of the terms that only make sense in the weed world, along with “dank.” And “regs” or “reggies” are often used as synonyms for schwag.

There’s no bright red line that divides dank weed from mids (or divides mids from regs) since quality is in the eye of the beholder. What a connoisseur considers mids may be primo bud to a poor college student.

But experts say there are ways to tell the difference.

How To Distinguish Weed Mids

Mids usually won’t have huge, dense buds; they’re more likely to have smaller ones often called “popcorn buds.” That means they’ll probably burn more quickly than a top-shelf flower. Weed mids won’t be dry, wet, or rock hard; they will be somewhat spongy and somewhat sticky. Speaking of which…

You should see some frosty trichomes on weed mids. If no trichomes are obvious, you’re dealing with ditch weed (another synonym for schwag) and it should be avoided. You should also see buds with attractive green color, with at least a few other visible shades evident. Dank weed will be vibrant with a wide array of colors, and regs will be mostly or completely brown. Mids will be, as you know by now, in the middle of that spectrum.

But perhaps the best way to identify mids is by their smell. Medium-quality weed retains most of its trichomes, meaning that it will be almost as pungent as the really high-end stuff. Obviously, you don’t want to go near a bud that smells moldy or funky, but having virtually no “weed odor” at all is almost as bad.

Here’s how you can’t distinguish mids from dank weed: THC level. Cannabis of all qualities can have high – or relatively low – THC levels. Some people use a rule of thumb that says anything above 16% THC is dank, anything below that level is mids. That’s not literally the case. You’ll sometimes find primo weed with less THC, and mids with a good deal more.

There’s a very positive related note. Weed has increased in both potency and overall quality over the years, so today’s weed mids are far superior to the ones you would have found ten or twenty years ago. In fact, most mids you’ll find now would be considered dank by older standards.

You may be wondering what difference it makes whether you can distinguish a high-end weed from mids. It all comes down to one word. Price.

The Pros And Cons Of Buying Weed Mids

If money is no object, the major drawback of buying mids is obvious. They’re not the best bud you can find.

If you’re on a budget like most of us, though, there’s a huge advantage to buying weed mids. Once upon a time, “mids” was “synonymous” with “low-quality.” That’s not the case anymore. If you shop wisely, buying mids lets you have a flower that’s almost as good as the dankest stuff in the dispensary, at a much lower price.

How much lower? Mids are generally about half the price of comparable top-shelf weed, sometimes even lower than that. The website Leafly recently wrote about the mids they saw on sale at a cannabis fair in Northern California, and the offerings included eighths of Chemdawg and Blue Dream for $35 apiece. Eighths of dank weed at the same event were selling for $75 and $80.

That doesn’t mean, however, that you can walk into a dispensary and see a shelf that has dank GG4 and GG4 mids sitting next to each other, the same way you’d see boxes of store-brand tissues on a shelf right next to boxes of full-priced Kleenex. In fact, you’re unlikely to find most of the best-known strains sold as weed mids.

But many dispensaries will have an area where they have mids on sale, and you’ll probably recognize at least some of the strains you’ll see available.

Why Buy Weed Mids?

There are a number of possibilities.

• You can’t afford the top-shelf stuff.
• You’re having a get-together and you’re supplying all of the weed.
• You want to try a new strain without spending a fortune.
• You’re making edibles.

And many people who’ve switched to buying mids have realized that they can have a terrific experience – and get just as high – at half the price they’d been paying for dank weed.

What Are Weed Mids? FAQ

Q: Are there people who shouldn’t consider buying weed mids?
A: First and foremost, medical patients. When you’re buying cannabis to deal with pain or another serious condition, it makes no sense to cut corners and take a chance. And of course, those who can’t afford top-shelf weed can do just fine purchasing mids.

Q: So the major factor in evaluating mids is the aroma?
A: It’s one of the big ones since the terpenes that give marijuana its smell also contribute to its taste and the effectiveness of its THC content. Don’t even think about the aroma, though, until you make sure the flower isn’t brown, crumbly, or devoid of trichomes.

Q: It sounds like there’s not a whole lot of difference between dank weed and mids?
A: No, there’s definitely a difference; retailers wouldn’t be able to get $80, $100, or more for an eighth if their top-shelf weed wasn’t something special. The point is that mids still provide an excellent experience, at a much lower price.