Anyone that has consumed cannabis has heard the words “Sativa, Hybrid, and Indica”. The story goes that sativa provides an energetic, head high, while indica might as well be called “in-da-couch” due to its sedating effects. Most people would agree with that notion, but unfortunately this concept is largely misunderstood, much like the cannabis plant itself. This article will dive into the history of the cannabis plant and demonstrate why physical traits are not an indication of psychological effects.
Cannabis and human history are significantly intertwined. The first known use of cannabis for its psychological effects can be found in the high THC residue of a 2500 year old “smoking pipe” discovered in China.1 There may even be references to cannabis in the Bible.2 Cannabis was first classified in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus when he identified a tall stringy plant with thin leaves covered in a sticky resin as a unique species and named it Cannabis Sativa L. A few decades later, French biologist JB Lamarck received a cannabis sample, a thick sturdy plant with wide leaves covered in a sticky resin. Lamarck named it Cannabis Indica and dubbed it a distinct species. The idea that there were two (or more) species of cannabis was contested at the time and one of the few studies conducted on cannabis seems to show that C. Indica is a subspecies or a varietal of C. Sativa that adapted to a new environment over time when ice sheets separated two populations of C. Sativa. The original varietal of C. Sativa was a plant that produced a THC dominant resin while thousands of years in a new environment gave the other population unique physiological and chemical traits: thick stalks with wide leaves and resin rich with CBD.3 Genetic sequencing of a random set of cannabis samples shows that plants that tested high in THC were genetically most similar to C. Sativa and plants that tested high in CBD had traits most in common with C. Indica. This data set shows that every plant included in the study had markers of both C. Sativa and C. Indica which suggests every plant we see today is a hybrid of the original C. Sativa and its subspecies C. Indica.4 This study implies that there are no “pure” sativas or indicas and that every strain is a hybrid. Hybridization of cannabis is one-part natural selection and one-part human intervention; when combined with genetic variation, the resulting plants look, feel, and smell very different from each other.
Over the last 25,000 years humans have spread cannabis to almost every continent, which led to its cultivation in a wide variety of environments. Some strains thrived in these new environments, so they were replanted, while others struggled and were disposed of. Over thousands of years, these human selected “winning lineages” adapted to their new environments, which made them look and smell very different from lineages that had adapted to other environments. This is called genetic variation and these winning lineages we now identify as “Landrace Strains”. Landrace strains like Durban Poison (East Africa), Thai Stick (SE Asia), Acapulco Gold (Central America), Nepali (Tibetan Plateau), Afghani (Afghanistan) and a number of others, are the lineages that best adapted to their environments and are considered to be the original strains of cannabis as we know them.5 The landrace strains all produced cannabinoids and terpenes in different ratios which gave each of them a distinct aroma and unique psychological effects.
As early as the 1960’s, cannabis enthusiasts began breeding landrace strains to create new strains that had more desirable traits like higher THC content, or a rare aroma, or greater yields. Aside from the landraces, every strain in existence is the result of this intentional hybridization.6 For example, the lineage of Sour Diesel is shown below:
Lineage of Sour Diesel
The result of mass hybridization is evident today in the immense variety of strains available on the market. Each of those strains has a unique ratio of cannabinoids and terpenes and for that reason each strain has unique effects. The difference we feel in the psychological effect of a given strain when compared to another strain primarily comes down to the varying ratios of cannabinoids and terpenes. Whether the effect is energetic or drowsy, cerebral or body-numbing, cannabinoids and terpenes are most responsible for providing the psychological effects even if a set of strains share certain physiological traits. The only way to know the cannabinoid and terpene profile of a strain is to test it at a licensed lab that specializes in cannabis testing. These facts dismiss the popularly held notion that the tall skinny plant definitively translates to an energetic high and a short and squatty plant is guaranteed to make you tired. Every plant will make you feel a little bit different regardless of what it looks like. With this knowledge, the best way to approach consuming cannabis is to try as many strains as possible and if you really like the effects of a certain strain, keep buying or growing it! If you are not sure where to begin, just remember: if you like the smell of a certain strain, you might like the effect. Part 2 will jump into the importance of terpenes!
Carl Allen
Co-Founder, Highland Provisions
1. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/earliest-evidence-cannabis-marijuana-smoking-china-tombs
2. https://merryjane.com/culture/bible-moses-israelites-cannabis
3. https://www.analyticalcannabis.com/articles/cannabis-sativa-vs-indica-is-there-a-difference-311780
4. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0133292
5. https://www.leafly.com/news/strains-products/what-is-marijuana-landrace-strain
6. https://en.seedfinder.eu/