Indica or Sativa. That is the Question.

Indica or sativa? There is a huge difference in the effects of indica dominant cannabis strains and sativa dominant strains. This is something that really puzzles patients new to using cannabis as medicine, so I hope to give a little more information in this post for those people.

First and foremost I need to say that it isn’t quite as simple as indica, sativa, and this is because practically all strains of medical cannabis on the market now are hybrids created over the decades by breeders who were chasing the perfect THC high, the most potent plants (THC content), plants that will grow smaller indoors and larger outdoors and the reasons go on and on. The result is that damn near every cannabis plant out there is a hybrid. Very few original land race plants exist anymore, and that is why people like the Strain Hunters have scanned the globe in search of these original land race genetics. They are very hard to find and often exist in very remote areas not easily accessed. This is probably just another wicked result of the world-wide War on Drugs.

Some will argue that cannabis sativa and cannabis indica are separate species of cannabis, but more recently botanists seem to believe they are all the same plant species, and that what part of the world they came from makes the difference, because different regions, soils and conditions, will produce plants with different properties and constituents. Palaeobotanists believe the origins of the cannabis plant is likely to be somewhere north of India in Central Asia, and that from there it’s incredible range of uses caused it to spread from this region to the Middle East, Europe, Africa and China through the prevalent ancient trade routes. South, Central and North America were latecomers to the cannabis diaspora because of the ocean crossing required to reach the “new lands”, but travel it did, and as cannabis spread around the world it adjusted to the different climates for survival and this is where we we get the land races. In the wild, sativas hailed from the tropic zones, closer to the equator with lots of heat, sun and long growing seasons, making sativas generally very tall and lanky. Indicas hail from earth’s temperate zones and will be shorter and stockier, have a much shorter growing season, and are more tolerant of temperature changes.

A third type of cannabis found on the steppes of Russia is called ruderalis, and it’s totally different from sativa or indica. Cannabis Ruderalis has a contrary genetic anomaly in that it doesn’t harbor many cannabinoids and it doesn’t require any schedule of light and dark hours to trigger flowering, but rather it relies on its own internal clock that forces it to flower in a certain number of weeks no matter what the light conditions are. This may have been a result of the harsh climate it lives in and the need for the plant to survive and propagate no matter what Mother Nature threw at it. It’s unlikely that ruderalis was ever grown as a crop for any use, be it medical or industrial, and that’s why it remains a roadside weed. Ruderalis plants are short, scrubby looking plants that have very little value to anyone except seed breeders who want to carry over genetic traits such as the auto-flowering.

So if cannabis sativa and cannabis indica are basically the same plant, what makes them different in their effects? It’s a group of other things present in the plant, called terpenes. Terpenes exist in most all flora and depending on the plant, can be found in bark, roots, sap, flowers, stalks and more. Think peppermint, root beer, frankincense, pine forests, roses, lemons – and you have had experience with terpenes all your life. Terpenes are also responsible for the flavor and aroma of cannabis. Each terpene, (and there are hundreds that have been discovered), has their own medicinal quality, and in some cases, many medicinal qualities. Many of the medicinal qualities of plant terpenes have been known and understood for hundreds of years , and some are used in modern pharmaceuticals too. (Remember, the first medicines came from plants, not a test tube.) While the exact science of cannabis terpenes is still being revealed, we do know they work in synergy with each other as well as cannabinoids to create different results.

The type of terpenes, quantity, and the different terpene synergies in a cannabis plant is what directs the effects of a given cannabis strain. Typically, indica strains are more sedative, relaxing, and have a more pronounced effect on the body. Certain combinations of terpenes are responsible for these effects and are also responsible for other medicinal effects, such as taming night terrors, relieving pain, calming neuropathy, reducing anxiety and reducing tremors, to name just a few. Sativa strains have a combination of terpenes that will work with cannabinoids to create a more cerebral effect that is uplifting, energizing, gives the patient more focus and motivation, and also reduces pain, stress and much more. Heavy sativa dominant strains may also induce anxiety and increase heart rate in some people, and if you are prone to those things you may want to avoid these strains. Conversely, heavy indica strains may put you right to sleep or lock you on the couch for hours. Each has their big benefits though…and then came the hybrid strains.

Besides the growing needs mentioned above, hybrids are now mainly developed to try and combine different effects from sativa and indica, or to combine these different strains to enhance their effects and to expand cannabinoid and terpenoid content. Cannabis breeders are trying to breed back certain cannabinoids and terpenes that had been lost in the quest for the highest THC content, like high CBD, (cannabidiol). For many patients, myself included, hybrids are the most beneficial medical strains because they can contain the best of both worlds. There are indica dominant hybrids that have enough sativa in them to counteract the couch lock but still give you all the medicinal benefits of an indica, and sativa dominant hybrids that will have enough indica in their genetics that it will counteract the anxiety and paranoia that sativa can bring to some people.

It’s all about the terpenes, and until everyone that sells medical cannabis actually tests it for terpene content, the only tool we have is our noses. When you find a strain that works well for you, be sure to become very familiar with its aroma, because strains with a similar terpene profile will be more likely to give you a similar effect and all that aroma is the terpenes. The nose knows.

Also see:
Medicinal Value of Terpenes.
Terpenes as Additives in Cannabis Products.
Terpenes – the big new, old word in weed.