I'm kinda high right now, so this may be pretty out there, but I'm thinking the Mexican connection may not be as farfetched as people might think. First off, skunk weed was everywhere in the US. Not just one state or a few states. It was also around long before any seedbanks were selling Sk1. When you look at the early history of cannabis use in the US, it does seem to be a plausible theory. Aside from all the imported brickweed and ready-to-smoke buds that were being smuggled in from Mexico, weed was also definitively being grown and smoked within the US as early as the 1930s, most of which was brought in by Mexican immigrants. I'm pretty sure that's also where the term "marijuana" comes from. It's also been speculated that a lot of the weed the Mexicans had was from multigenerational offspring of strains that were initially brought over to keep slaves calm, mainly originating from Central Asian genetics-- meaning, if it were an expression of say an Afghan or Indian, it could have been bottlenecked through decades of grows in Mexico and later the US. There really is a possibility that those heirloom seeds are the source of the skunk weed. Emphasis on possibility. Another thing is that the farmers in places like Afghanistan really aren't as selective as people want to believe. They kind of just throw seeds out and harvest the plants, then repeat. That might be why all these landrace companies aren't able to produce consistently uniform plants. You might get a meaty strain here and there in everything from Iran to Pakistan to Afghanistan, but you'll also get a bunch of fruity-tootie shit in all three areas as well. I've been going through everything I can get from that region, and haven't found one thing that I'd call exceptionally skunky. The Maruf Reds of ILE can exhibit subtle gasoline and leather scents, but are also riddled with dark fruit smelling plants. Plums, currants, grapes... that kind of thing. The Pakis seem to be mostly the same, but with sweet lemon and flowers added in, and instead of gasoline, more meat. The Iranians, (East Iran to be specific), are actually proving to be the most non-sweet, but again, not really skunk. Lots of old-school dank and meat, some pine, but not the skunk. I'm not saying it's not there, but I am certain it's very rare if it is. So my point with all this is that if everyone in the US had some form of skunk weed, it couldn't be some rare pheno. People weren't passing clones around at that time, and they weren't doing extensive selecting all over back then. But it could have been from a small batch of seeds that were brought over to Central America long ago for slave labor, then grown out for years and years and eventually dispersed throughout the US. That could also help explain why nobody can find it now... because it was from a very limited, very fluky line that has gradually been erased with time. I'm not saying that's what it is, just that it could be. I'm sure there's many other theories to be explored, or rather, more to it all that simply saying, "it's an Afghan", that could better piece it all together. Keep an open mind friends.