Blueberry Kush? Diesel Haze? One strain is supposed to be energizing and another causes relaxation. What’s a consumer to think? Can a person really get different effects from different strains?
First off, those working in the cannabis industry may prefer the term ‘cultivar’ to the word ‘strain’, but language is what people use. While people should use the correct term, the word ‘strain’ is what people understand.
Sellers of cannabis give strains colorful names and may take great care to keep those strains consistent. People expend enormous efforts to market different strains and to assign particular effects to these strains. The strains do look and smell different from each other. Are they?
Experts identified Indica as a shorter-growing plant compared to Sativa. Indica was said to have CBD while Sativa contained THC. Analysis of numerous Indica strains showed that essentially all of them contained THC and only small amounts of CBD.
Dispensaries distinguish various strains based on types and quantities of terpenes present. The industry describes this terpene fingerprint as being a terpene profile.
Different sativa strains have different terpene profiles. However, the total amount of terpenes in cannabis is less than 10% of the amount of THC, and cannabis contains THC in small quantities. So how do terpenes have such strong effects? Do the terpenes in cannabis affect behavior as strongly as the marketers claim?
This question is harder to answer than one might expect. People are easily influenced by suggestion and some of the terpene smells may evoke memories which then direct behavior. Also, people will enact behaviors they’ve been told they should expect, a phenomenon known as the placebo effect.
A huge amount of money is riding on the answer of whether strains differ because of their terpenes.
And the answer is…
The quantities of terpenes present in cannabis (as compared to THC) are too low to enter one’s body and affect the brain the way THC does. So, is the entire industry of strains based on myth?
Mostly, yes.
Mostly, yes? What is the mostly?
To answer that, the reader needs to know more about what terpenes are. Terpenes are small molecules made of carbon and hydrogen, and some with oxygen atoms. Many terpenes have the formula C10H16. Terpenes are made from two or more isoprene molecules with formula C5H8. THC and CBD both have the formula C21H30-O2, so they are much larger and thus much less volatile.
The industry describes terpenes as fragrances, and the whole aromatherapy industry uses terpenes. Again, they market particular fragrances as having particular physical effects. And again, aromatherapy has little in the way of scientific research to prove those claims.
Only in the last few years has research surfaced to suggest how terpenes work. One clue came from catnip, where the terpene, nepetalactone, can readily be seen to induce the intoxication of cats. The research reveals that the terpene only makes it as far as the cat’s olfactory system where it triggers the release of endorphins. The nervous system uses endorphins as a hormone and neurotransmitter to reduce pain. Endorphins are mimicked by morphine, hence the name, endo-inside, orphin-morphine-like. The cat smells the catnip and its nose releases endorphins that make the cat giddy.
Experiments with terpene, linalool, demonstrate a lessening of anxiety. Again, the research suggests the effects don’t come from the linalool directly, but via a hormone or neurotransmitter released in response to the terpene. Linalool provides much of the scent in lavender. Thus, people may well report a relaxing sensation from smelling lavender, but the scent molecules don’t directly affect the brain as with THC.
If anything, the issue of terpenes highlights how our noses serve as a sensory processing organ that both conveys smells through the nervous system. However, our noses also affect the nervous system with the release of various hormones.
The nose contains olfactory receptors, also known as odorant receptors. The olfactory receptor neuron cell membranes express these receptors. The scent molecule binds to the receptor. Activated olfactory receptors trigger nerve impulses that transmit signals about the odor to the brain. It is likely that the receptors trigger an electrical depolarization of the membrane, and this stimulation releases hormones or neurotransmitters. These processes give rise to the sense of smell. However, more complex feelings may also be triggered that are then assigned to cannabis strains (or aromatherapies).
Thus, while certain cannabis strains might have somewhat specific effects for some people, most people are guided by their own psychology and conditioning from past experiences. Cannabis fragrances can cause particular responses, but these strains do not produce reliable effects other than those normally caused by THC. ///
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