The Official Cannabis Independent strain guides
Durban Poison No 59 Shop
The Official Cannabis collection · sheet 59No 59 · Durban Poisonvs Sour Diesel

Comparison

Durban Poison vs Sour Diesel

Both rate as mostly energizing on Leafly, but Sour Diesel is a Chemdawg × Super Skunk hybrid from the early 1990s that tastes of diesel, while Durban Poison is a pure sativa whose flavors Leafly lists as pine, earthy and sage.1,2 Sour Diesel tests higher in state labs: 21.68% median THC against 19.45% for Durban Poison.3 In our terpene data, Durban Poison leads with terpinolene and Sour Diesel with β-caryophyllene.3

Side by side

Durban PoisonSour Diesel
TypePure sativa2Hybrid1
LineageA selected line of a South African landrace4,5Chemdawg × Super Skunk1
Median THC (state lab tests)19.45% (528 tests)21.68% (1,071 tests)
Middle half of THC results17.33%–21.99%19.00%–25.30%
Top terpenes (median)Terpinolene, β-Myrcene, β-Caryophyllene (235 tests)β-Caryophyllene, Limonene, β-Myrcene (167 tests)
Leafly’s top effectsFocused, energetic, uplifted2Energetic, uplifted, talkative1
Flavor (Leafly)Pine, earthy, sage2Diesel, chemical, skunk1
Known sinceIn the US since the 1970s4,5Early 1990s1

Lab rows come from the same state lab dataset and matching rules for both strains.3

Lab-tested THC: Durban Poison vs Sour Diesel

16% 18% 20% 22% 24% 26% Sour Diesel Sour Diesel: median 21.68%, middle half 19.00%–25.30%, 1,071 tests 21.7% n=1,071 Durban Poison Durban Poison: median 19.45%, middle half 17.33%–21.99%, 528 tests 19.4% n=528 Median total THC (dot) and middle half of tests (bar)
Median and middle half of total THC in state lab tests.3

Different genetic groups

In the 2018 study of dispensary samples, the Durban Poison and Sour Diesel samples averaged 86% and 14% assignment to the same genotype group, so most of them fell into different groups.6

Which is easier to find

In Weedmaps snapshots from Oct 4, 2026 (Durban Poison) and Oct 3, 2026 (Sour Diesel), 174 stores within 50 miles of Los Angeles listed Durban Poison flower on Weedmaps, against 156 stores for Sour Diesel; around New York the counts were 79 and 125.7

Its own site

Sour Diesel has its own guide in the Official Cannabis network at sourdiesel.com.

More comparisons

Sources

  1. Leafly, Sour Diesel strain information. Accessed Oct 4, 2026.
  2. Leafly, Durban Poison strain information. Accessed Oct 4, 2026.
  3. Cannlytics (CC BY 4.0), cannabis_results: public state lab results (filtered and aggregated by Official Cannabis). Accessed Oct 4, 2026.
  4. AllBud, Durban Poison marijuana strain information and reviews. Accessed Oct 4, 2026.
  5. Weedmaps, Durban Poison strain page. Accessed Oct 4, 2026.
  6. bioRxiv, Genetic tools weed out misconceptions of strain reliability in Cannabis sativa (Schwabe & McGlaughlin) (2018). Accessed Oct 4, 2026.
  7. Weedmaps listings, compiled by Official Cannabis, Weedmaps flower menu snapshot, 27 US markets, Oct 4, 2026. Accessed Oct 4, 2026.