Scientifically, all the above terms refer to the same thing, the cannabis plant. The government defines hemp as a cannabis sativa plant with less than .3% delta 9 THC. Marijuana, pot, weed, ganja, reefer, etc. are slang terms for cannabis.
We make Better Than Nine’s products using hemp extracts. The 2018 U.S. Farm Bill made Hemp and hemp extracts containing less than .3% delta 9 THC Federally legal to sell in all 50 States. Several states have attempted to pass laws criminalizing delta 8 THC, but all these laws are nullified when challenged in court because Federal laws supersede state laws. I’ve written several blog posts discussing this, so check out our blog if you’d like to read about this in more detail.
Cannabinoids (phytocannabinoids in this instance) are naturally occurring compounds produced by the cannabis plant. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are the two that everyone’s heard of, but there are lots more. Many people don’t know this, but the natural state of cannabinoids is in the form of a cannabinoid acid. For instance, cannabis produces tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCa), not THC. Cannabinoid acids are converted to their respective cannabinoid through a process called decarboxylation. It’s called decarboxylation because it removes a carboxylic acid, so you’re literally de-carboxylating it. Get it? Decarboxylation is heating the cannabinoid acid to a temperature that ‘burns off’ the carboxyl group (COOH).
Fun Fact: THCa is not psychoactive because the carboxylic acid prevents the compound from crossing the blood-brain barrier. This means that if you ate cannabis buds, you would not get high. However, when cannabis is smoked or baked into food, the heat decarbs it and activates its psychoactive properties.
Cannabidiol (CBD)
- Non-psychoactive
- Anti-inflammatory
- Reduces anxiety in some circumstances
- Antioxidant
- Slight immunosuppressant
- Balances several important body systems
Cannabigerol (CBG)
- Non-psychoactive
- Anti-inflammatory (especially for GI stuff)
- Anti-bacterial
- Has lowered eye pressure in animal studies
- Neuroprotective properties in animal studies
Cannabichromene (CBC)
- Non-psychoactive
- Anti-inflammatory
- Has shown to inhibit tumor growth in in vitro studies
- Has shown neuro-protectant properties in animal studies
Delta-8 Tetrahydrocannabinol (D8 THC)
- Psychoactive
- Will cause a positive result for marijuana drug tests
- Anti-inflammatory
- Can increase appetite
- May cause relaxation
- Less psychoactive than Delta 9 THC
- More like an ‘indica D9’
Delta-9 Tetrahydrocannabinol (D9-THC)
- Most dissociative psychoactive THC
- Will cause positive result on marijuana drug tests
- Anti-inflammatory
- Probably will increase appetite
- Correct dose causes relaxation, wrong dose is not fun
- This is the ‘real thing’
Delta-10 Tetrahydrocannabinol (D10-THC)
- Psychoactive
- Will cause positive result on marijuana drug tests
- Anti-inflammatory
- Can increase appetite
- Less psychoactive than D9 THC
- More like a ‘sativa D9’
Tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV)
- Slightly Psychoactive
- Will cause positive result on marijuana drug test
- Can suppress appetite
- Good for the brain
- Anti-inflammatory
Cannabidivarin (CBDV)
- Non-psychoactive
- Anti-inflammatory
- Antioxidant
- Mood stabilizer
A few notes about the cannabinoids.
- You’ll notice that they all say anti-inflammatory. This is true, however, they all target different types of inflammation. Inflammation is the body’s way of telling the immune system there is a problem and the body’s response to fixing a problem. When you cut your finger and it gets red and hot, that’s your immune system sending lymphocytes to come kill bad things and begin the healing process. When you get a flu and have a fever, that’s your immune system kicking in. When your immune system is functioning properly, inflammation is good because it comes, your immune system fixes the problem, and the inflammation goes away. Unfortunately, sometimes our immune system gets tricked or malfunction and this causes us to have chronic inflammation. Low levels of chronic inflammation may not even be noticeable. High levels of inflammation reveal themselves in horrible ways like MS or Lupus. Either way, chronic inflammation can be connected to everything that makes being a human bad – from aging to cancer – inflammation plays a role. I must tread lightly here because there is so much exciting information that I’m afraid to publish on a site that sells products. The key take away from this is that there are many types of inflammation, so many types of anti-inflammatory compounds are good to have.
- Cannabinoids have a synergistic effect when combined. This means that their sum is greater than their parts. Our “Super Full Spectrum” line of products are designed to maximize this ‘entourage effect’ and act like a cannabinoid multi-vitamin.