New Budularo sativa strains debut at Berkeley Patients Group Feb. 26, 2026
By David Downs
David Downs is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author based in San Francisco. He’s the former Senior Editor of Leafly.com and Cannabis Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Quick facts
What: Rare Budularo sativa drop at Berkeley Patients Group (BPG)
When: Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026
Where: San Pablo Ave & Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA
Strains landing: Big Sur Holy Weed (SAGE), Sour Diesel, Band Aid Haze #7 x Durban, African Haze #11
Price: ~$45 out the door (tax included, limited supply)
How to buy: In-store + delivery (where available) + pre-order form (below)
What’s dropping at Berkeley Patients Group on Feb. 26
Old-school sativa lovers and modern psychonauts: Berkeley Patients Group is dropping a small, rare batch of long-flowering “real deal” sativas on Thursday, Feb. 26—the kind you almost never see on today’s cookie-heavy menus.
Headlining the release is the mythical Big Sur Holy Weed (Budularo’s SAGE-based take), alongside Sour Diesel, Band Aid Haze #7 x Durban, and African Haze #11. Quantities are tight, prices are expected to land around $45 out the door, and pre-orders are open now for anyone who wants to lock in a jar before the shelves get picked over.
How to reserve and when you’ll be notified
You can pre-order and reserve your sizzling sativas by filling out this form. We’ll email you when the stock hits shelves, and invite you to an in-store meet and greet with Budularo this Thursday, Feb. 26.
Budularo’s rare sativas: why this drop matters
Sativas have become a rarity in the modern legal cannabis marketplace. California has at least 4 million regular cannabis consumers who have up until now been limited in their sativa options to a couple strains like Jack Herer and Super Lemon Haze.
Time is money, and sativas can take twice as long to grow. As prices have crashed, the time it takes to grow sativas have made them less economical for farmers. Thus the center of gravity in the market is over indica-dominant hybrids often based off of Girl Scout cookies, such as Lemon Cherry Gelato.
But medical patients with ADHD, ADD and depression have said they require sativas for their daily use. Sativas pack an entirely different type of high that’s more energetic and daytime-focused than the bulk of the product on the market. Old-school heads will instantly be transported back to weed from the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
Who’s behind Budularo (Ukiah, CA) and the mission to bring sativas back
Growing in a Ukiah greenhouse, the two-person Budularo brand has taken on the idealistic task of growing, and re-popularizing sativas in the modern cannabis market. Some of them can take almost twice as long to finish as a more profitable strain.
But 45-year-old Budularo co-operator Dave Perkins is obsessed with the looks and flavors and effects of these classic strains and has willed his way onto a few dispensary shelves around California, starting in 2025.
Old school cannabis and hash heads from the ’60s and ‘70s will recognize these rangy, green, wild strains and for the first time be able to access them in the recreational market. Budularo is named for Dave’s father-in-law who has the the actual nickname ‘Budularo.’’
“We got the whole concept from me sitting on his couch and smoking his herb, which was different from the Sour and everything else that I just finished harvesting,” said Perkins. “I came to the realization that the herb that he had was drastically different than what I had.”
Strain-by-strain notes from the Feb. 26 release
Big Sur Holy Weed (SAGE): terpinolene-forward with depth
What “Big Sur Holy Weed” means historically (and why the name matters)
The first Budularo strain at Berkeley Patients Group Wednesday includes Big Sur Holy Weed, featured in a sprawling feature on the free news website SFGate last week.
The investigation concluded that “Big Sur Holy Weed” is to grass what Kleenex is to bathroom tissue. The strain name became a stand-in for many types of mythic-grade dope emanating out of the Monterey County region over the decades.
Aroma/flavor notes and what to expect from the high
Budularo’s ‘Big Sur Holy Weed’ traces its roots to this sativa hybrid called “SAGE” from breeder Moe ‘Mojave’ Richmond, friends with preeminent cannabis author Robert Clarke. Mojave Richmond has co-signed Budularo’s ‘Big Sur Holy Weed’ as his SAGE work. It smells terpinolene-dominent, like a Jack Herer, but not sweet like so-called ‘Candy Jack’. Instead it has this complex, Ovaltine-like bottom note, that’s more wheaty, or doughy, or carby than a thin Jack.
“It’s almost got some of those cake dough terps that you find in some of the hype stuff,” said Perkins. “Upon first sniff it’s terpinolene, but if you have an ounce that you smoke, you’ll realize that it’s got depth to it, which is nice.”
Budularo and Mojave Richmond have met a few times, and Richmond has visited Budularo’s greenhouse.
“Big Sur Holy Weed is kind of like this mythical thing that nobody really knows what the real thing is, but I think Mojave Richmond has the best take on it, so that’s what I’m running with,” said Perkins.
A global hybrid, Budularo’s ‘Big Sur Holy Weed’ (aka SAGE) goes great with locking into some Saturday morning chores while avoiding The Fear of some sativas. It’s balanced, social and delightful.
More Strain notes
Sour Diesel: a vintage staple in the lineup
Leafly Strain of the Year 2025 Sour Diesel is coming to Berkeley, for all those folks who think it’s gone. Perkins said he’s had a cut of it for 23 years.
Budularo’s Bandaid Haze #7 x Durban
This mix of Haze and Durban includes a Bandaid Haze bred by the Greatest Breeder of 2025, Bodhi, as voted in our Fire Follower poll. Durban is a South African classic that Oakland author Ed Rosenthal has stated that he brought Durban over from Amsterdam.
Budularo’s African Haze #11
Perkins describes his African Haze as tropical, rotting, fruity, with so much energy that it can get the best of even him.
“I definitely have numerous times where I feel like I’m too high; like, all the time with African haze, with the Band Aid,” Perkins said.
These are all 2025 greenhouse buds, and the African is actually from their 2024 run, but “I get people messaging me every week telling me how much they like it. And it is literally gonna be two years old in July.”
Perkins said part of Budularo’s fanbase has nostalgia for vintage sativas, “but I think it’s also people that are really just looking for something different.”
“It’s just the effect—the opportunity to have something that makes you feel different regardless of age. I think that’s really what people are after, because we get a lot of younger people too.”
Budularo Dave noted that a lot of these strains’ highs are creepers with a longer onset, but a longer effect as well. Thus, a sativa might be more economical from a cost-per-minutes-stoned standpoint.
Who sativas are for (and who should go slow)
Breeders like Mass Medical Seeds refuse to breed anything with Girl Scout Cookies in it, saying it makes them depressed and is ‘downer weed.’ Budularo’s Perkins echoes the sentiment.
He said of indicas and indica-hybrids: “You feel a little groggy, but you definitely don’t feel fantastic. It’s definitely not herb that uplifts you and makes things bright.”
Perkins suspects that indicas—which are from Pakistan’s harsh, wintry mountains—were selected by people hibernating for six months out of the year.
By contrast, “the sativas are more equatorial grown where it’s open and the weather’s nice and you want to be outside.”
Modern American smokers might be “a population that’s meant to be up and doing things, and they’re taking this product that essentially knocks them down. I just don’t think enough people have had the experience of a real true Sativa multiple times to be like, ‘Okay!’”
Not for everyone: anxiety, “The Fear,” and riding the lightning
The flip side is sativas are not right for everyone. Some folks with anxiety report sativas and sativa hybrids can make their anxiety worse. Sativas can be racy, and heart-pounding, with an intense euphoria. Budularo said you have to learn to ride the lightning.
“My father-in-law said there’s these hoops of fire that you gotta jump through. … If you know how to work through it, you can deal with it,” Perkins said.
For example, it’s a great workout weed.
Perkins said, “If you’re just smoking some Band Aid and you’re gonna sit on a couch, you are probably not going to like that. But if you can get outside of that and go do something and channel that desire to get up and do stuff, that raciness—go run, go exercise, go play basketball, clean your house; I think it’s set and setting.”
Perkins said mindfulness practice can help channel The Fear from a face-ripping sativa.
“You gotta be able to recognize [the anxiety], and that—for fifteen, twenty minutes—you might be uncomfortable,” Perkins said.
Sativa may reveal stressors, but they also provide the focus to address stress’ root causes, he said.
“Saying to yourself, ‘I don’t like this worry I have, but I have the energy and the clarity to change it right now.’”
For example, the top negative effect for the sativa Durban Poison on Leafly is ‘anxiety.’ Still, some folks use Durban Poison for anxiety, due to varying brain and body chemistry.
“It’s helped me more than any pill or psychiatrist has in the 46 years I’ve been on this Earth,” reported one anxiety sufferer on Leafly.
Same with sativa Super Lemon Haze on Leafly: Top negative affect—anxiety. Yet a social anxiety sufferer reported: “It’s honestly one of the only strains where I can socialize without overthinking every word, feel motivated enough to clean the house or run errands, and still not get lost in my head. It clears the fog, boosts my mood, and gives me just the right kick of creativity without any of that buzzy nervous energy.”
Bob Marley reportedly said. “When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself.” And Marley was likely on some equatorial sativas like Lamb’s Breath in Jamaica. Budularo grows Lamb’s Breath.
What’s next at BPG: Pearls, Sweet Sisters, menu direction
Up next will be some rare Budularo “Pearls” that are unlike pretty much anything seen in the contemporary cannabis market. Small pearl-shaped buds with unique effects, instead of rock-hard indoor Runtz.
BPG will soon add an in-store appearance by the year-old, Ukiah, California-based brand Budularo, as well as an option to join Budularo’s new ‘sativa of the month club’ and lock in regular deliveries of the medicine.
And next up this winter at the oldest continuously operating dispensary in the country—Berkeley Patients Group— the revitalized menu adds a release from the Mendo Cup winning Sweet Sisters Family Farm; a mom and pop outdoor operation from Mendocino County.
Berkeley Patients Group’s new co-owner David Spradlin of the Goldenhour dispensaries in Weed, California and Ukiah, California said it’s all about the bud. Berkeley Patients Group has become a 2026 SF Space Walk sponsor.
Goldenhour has become one of the fastest-growing independent cannabis retailers in the state by curating a menu of local, legacy, and family-owned farms.
“We want to bring BPG back to what it was—a hub for the culture and medicine; back to providing products on the menu focused on quality versus hype and promotions.”
FAQ
What new sativas are coming to Berkeley Patients Group?
Big Sur Holy Weed (Budularo’s SAGE-based take), Sour Diesel, Band Aid Haze #7 x Durban, and African Haze #11
When is the Budularo drop at BPG?
Thursday, February 26, 2026
Is Big Sur Holy Weed the same as SAGE?
In this case it is. The strain name Big Sur Holy Weed refers to not one single cultivar from the Monterey region.
What does “terpinolene-dominant” mean for effects and flavor?
It’s sweet, spicy, and woody, and generally uplifting and focusing.
Do sativas cause anxiety for some people?
Yes. However some anxiety sufferers use sativas to treat anxiety. Each person’s chemistry is different. Mindset, expectations, and the setting in which you consume it can also play a role.
What’s the difference between sativa, hybrid, and indica-dominant strains?
The difference started out as morphological and geographical—long, thin-leafed, long-flowering strains from the tropics, versus short, fat-leafed, fast-flowering varieties from the slopes of the Himalayas. Hybridization has mixed traits from both.
How can I reserve Budularo sativas at BPG?
Provide your name and contact info in our form and we’ll contact you to come pick them up.