Cannabis dispensaries sell all manner of different strains, each one with a funny name and a unique smell. The smell comes from Terpenes. Terpenes are molecules that the plant makes along side of the cannabinoids. These molecules are usually much smaller than THC or CBD, and they go into the air with the smallest disturbance. The ritual of selecting cannabis typically includes sniffing different strains to find one the customer likes.
In 2009, I had the good fortune to get a job analyzing cannabis for a local chain of dispensaries. A robotic arm would place a vial underneath a syringe, and the syringe would suck up a precise amount of liquid and then inject it. Inside the machine, the liquid vaporized, and gas pushed the vapor into an very thin glass tube. As the sample traveled, the different chemicals separate from one another. At the end of the glass tube, a filament detected the different compounds. The THC came out as a sharp spike, and other spikes appearing as other cannabinoids came out.
I received numerous strains with colorful and amusing names. The industry sells all these different strains with claims that different stains have different effects. Some varieties are good for concerts, others for relaxing on a couch, still others for sleep, and maybe others for conversation and laughing. The strains might have streaks of purple or exhibit bright red hairs. As for the fragrance, each one provided a unique pungent experience.
For all their wonderful aromas, the analytical machine would only show the terpenes as the tiniest bumps on the output. Indeed, these molecules were present at concentrations hundreds of times less than the THC. How, then, do the different strains provide the different highs touted by the shops? How indeed? How does aromatherapy work? Does it work?
Aromatherapy is a gigantic business, but studies don’t support the effects claimed by retailers. In the same way, dispensaries sell different cannabis strains with nothing more that anecdotal stories as a basis. The terpene amounts in cannabis smoke are far too low to have the claimed effects. With so much money at stake, advocates hotly contest this issue. So-called experts propose unknown mechanisms to account for these actions. To-date, actual science has not resolved this issue.
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