How would you classify the variations of cannabis?

[sweetheart]

It really irks me to read the whole lot of "weeds" lumped together as
one drug. Have you not come upon some weeds that have less hangover
lethargy?

As i understand it, cannabis has basically 2 varietys. One is a tropical
plant sattiva, that has a lucid high, and grows tall and is sensitive
to cold. For growing practicality, many northern growers mix this with
a second sort of cannabis that i think comes from afganistan. This
second sort grows a short plant that is much better with frost.

The high of the second plant is much more "sleepy" and "druggy" and
frankly, i don't care for it at all, and were cannabis legal, would only
be getting the sattiva.

Studies that claim all cannabis is similar, and this is just crap.

As well, as the drug is a mind-altering substance, it matters very
much the way it was treated, dried and transported, as all of these
factors affect the vibe of the plant. I swear that a lot of the
paranoia of weed, is the vibes of the drugs-transport and marketing
industry, and not a quality of weed grown with loving hands and
prepared as a sacred sacriment.

When people ask how "weed" will affect them, i really can't say, as
i've no idea what they're smoking. Is it thai stick (very afgani,
and sometimes laced with opium)?, or is it hawaiian volcano bud? The
difference is really huge, and yet, because it is illegal, we are
unable to trace or know these actual drugs and their differences in
application, except through heresay.

And to add insult on injury, many persons smoke hash mixed with
tobacco, and yet are classified as cannabis smokers!! This is not
the same chemical mix either... and really the whole thing begs more
study.

How would you classify the weed?

[LiberalVoice]

1. Sativa and Indica are the two main strains.

To try and lump all kinds of pot into one "drug" category is beyond idiocy...You can get all different kinds of high from all different kinds of bud...Bud comes in all the colors of the rainbow. Mixtures of colors from black to red to purple to green to orange etc.

Edit: Their are literally thousands of different kinds of grass.

[sweetheart]

3. How do YOU describe the high of the 2 primary strains?

I see on this group, a lot of persons who are curious about cannabis and
who may not have the depth of exposure to realize that there are
varieties, as much as "red" and "white" wine, with variations
between sweet white dessert wine and dry 'mushroomy' burgundy.

Cannabis has the high, the short term after effect and the long term
effects. Most of the medical studies are attempts to study the long
term effects without knowing what the persons have been smoking, and it
is pretty much a bunnch of "bush science" as in science made up out of
bullshit to support politics.

The high of a sattiva is giggly, happy and brilliant, this can be fun
with sex, music, dancing, throwing a frisbee or sitting in nature...
I would recommend a sattiva to a person worried about the psychosis
effects of weed, as my theory is that it is less likely to produce those
effects.

A strong indica can knock you out... no shit. You smoke it, and feel a
buzz and then wake up later... some of them are THAT strong. A little
indica can work miracles as a sleep-aid.

Most commercial cannabis's are bred from the 2 strains, as indica
grows shorter (more useful with lights), and so that growers try to
cross the good high of the sattiva with a shorter plant, more frost
immune, that grows faster, and can be made to bud more.

The leaves are useless to smoke, as they are much lower strength than
the flower buds... but they can be used for cooking and tea (boiled
with the milk). The buds can too... and an "eating" high will come on
more slowly, and be less lucid than a smoke high... generally ending
in a nice long nap. Pot brownies are perfect for long airline flights.

I've smoked weeds that i call "creeper weeds", where you smoke a
coupla hits, look at your buddy and say, "Gosh, i don't feel anything."
Then about 5 minutes pass, and WHAM!!! you're high as a kite.

I also think people credit too much to the weed, without respecting
the guidelines for altering their consciousness... which are the
realization that your mind is very sensitive, and by focusing on
bright happy things.. (the light), you're much more likely to have
brilliant stoned experiences.... and the more you focus on the
creepy wierd states of mind, you're more likely to explore the less
brilliant parts of the human experience.

Sorry if this meanders... just i was hoping to capture, for the
curious and inexperienced, some awareness that "weed" is not 1 drug,
and that, like wine, people often have a taste that best works with
them.... most old stoners know their taste and have found out how
to get the right weed... and this experience is endemic to the
community and not a scienfific study.

[stellanoir]

2. consider dumbing it down slightly

Two types. . ."psychoactive" and "nonpsychoactive."

Nonpsychoactive cannabis (aka Hemp) could potentially ameliorate our economy by redeeming a lot of family farms by providing a low maintenance weed to grow that would provide copious amounts of fiber for clothing, textiles, paper, and rope at very low cost. It could save us from the annual sacrifice of many trees that are ages old.

Of course, this would be in the best interests of small farmers and consumers and not of the big nasty and greedy multinational corporations who most of our representatives serve, so it's highly unlikely that this will transpire at all. At least under those who are serving currently.

If you disagree then you can just put that in Thomas Jefferson's pipe and smoke it. Okay?

Yet both forms should ultimately be legalized and we should stop putting sometimes creative and more often lethargic non violent hippie pot smokers in jail indefinitely only to enrich the privatized prison industries coffers, thereby trashing the lives of innocents and their families. . .to say nothing of all those lovely and magestic trees.

end/rant

disclaimer: written whilst extremely sleep deprived and intended for flashback entertainment purposes only. yes I'm outing myself as a former tree hugger.

[sweetheart]

4. Ok, then we're discussing "psychoactive"

"hemp", is what you're calling "nonpsychoactive", and i frankly was
not talking about that... it would be a 3rd category.

Indica is very psychoactive as well, just "heavier".

[stellanoir]

5. okay

distinction noted. But having witnessed the absolutely flabberghasting impasse we've reached in this national discussion for decades, I humbly feel that hemp is a good and reasonable place to start.

The bogus reasons for the illegality of this substance is beyond absurd.

The rest is a much dicier battle.

Especially when the use of the psychoactive stuff helps so many with terminal conditions, and the pharmaceutical and insurance companies have us in an insufferable and seemingly eternal stranglehold.

Arghhhhhh

[sweetheart]

6. And meanwhile, my children and grandchildren

will continue to get the bullshit crap they call "drugs education"
and not realize that cannabis comes in varieties, some more and less
likely to cause systemtic problems associated with drugs abuse.

And that economics push growers to grow indica plants as they are better
for the climate... WHEN it is legallized, sattiva will take over the
market, but until then, because it is taller, more consipucuous and
other factors, it will be cross bred and the market offerings will
favour the cold weather, shorter plants.

THe law does not matter. My kids and grandkids will all smoke grass
during their lifetimes, and they will not have any benefits from the
law, only the same stupid crap that i've had to cut through... lies
and deception, bullshit so thick that ya need waders. ;-)

I agree that industrial hemp is a big deal, but i think it reallly
should be an entirely separate debate, as you can't really smoke it..
and its more an industrial thing about sources of fibre for paper
and saving the forests... not really a drugs policy thing.

[shanti]

15. hemp LOOKS like cannabis

apparently that's enough to outlaw it.:-(

[High Plains]

17. Not to the trained eye...

Hemp is tall and stalky, pot plants are shorter and bushier.

Hemp is legal in Canada, Australia, and Western Europe, among other places. The cops in those countries seem to be able to tell the difference. Cops use that as an excuse, but it's pretty lame and easily debunked with a few pictures.

[Asgaya Dihi]

7. Tough question

The problem is that it's a complex issue. True we have the Sativa and Indica types that have strong tendencies, but even within those we have variation due to differing levels of thc, thcv, breakdown or maturation related products such as cbd or cbn, and so on. They all have their own effects, and even things like harvesting early or late can matter as far as effect.

Sativas for instance tend to be all in the head, but what's that mean? With one type it could just be a happy float, but with another there's an edge of paranoia. Depends on the chemical balance as well as personal physiology.

That's where we started, but the drug war complicated that because these days they are mostly mixed. When the growers moved indoors they found that Sativa simply grew too tall and took too long to mature, so they crossbred. Most of what you see on the streets these days is a mix of both in one degree or another.

[sweetheart]

8. Very interesting point

we have variation due to differing levels of thc, thcv, breakdown
or maturation related products such as cbd or cbn, and so on. They all
have their own effects, and even things like harvesting early or late
can matter as far as effect.

Can you explain more about this? What does the difference between
early and late harvest make? Does the drying have anything to do with
this as well?

What are Thcv, cbd and cbn and how do they affect the high? You've hit
on the issue i was hoping we would be discussing in this thread, that
there are significant variants that the WAr on drugs has repressed
knowledge of, or even repressed development of safer variants in favour
of ones that are more esily produced in indoor growing using such
as the sea-of-green growth thinking and the 99 plants rule.

Over 99 plants, under some american law, is a much worse crime, so that
breeders have focused on maximum output from 99 or less plants resulting
in variants like AK-47 and AK-48 meaning 2 kilos output in 47 days, which
are mostly indica mix.

Sea of green growing, takes a "sea" of small plants and, using 12
hour darkness, simulates the fall causing the plants to bud and flower
prematurely. This specifically under lights, so the lights are not
dealing with being raised and lowered for tall plants, and so that
the most buds for the time in incubation.

Its funny, how much of what they are studying are some of the
unhealthy byproducts of the economics of the drugs war, and not really
the effects of cannabis at all.

:-) Welcome to DU, Asgaya Dihi. :toast:

[Asgaya Dihi]

9. Sure

thcv is a variation of thc that shows up in some varieties. Those tend to be more the "one hit" types, but it's a fairly short lasting effect. Exactly how to define it is debatable, but the fact that it's related and has an effect isn't.

Early and late harvest affect it like this if I remember right... thc doesn't "flow" in a plant, it forms in glands called Trichomes on the surfaces of some leafs especially around the buds and most heavily on the buds themselves. When first formed they won't do a thing, grab a pretty plant too soon and you'll get little from it. As it matures thc develops, and as it ages the thc starts to break down into other products that offer more of a body hit rather than the cleaner head hit of an early harvest. Those can be good or bad depending on tastes and intended use, for medicinal use aged is often better.

Rather than go into the details on them past that I'll direct you to a page where some of the info is already listed, then see where we stand from there. Keep in mind that I don't claim to be an "expert" on anything, I'm not even sure there is such a thing given that it's more or less an underground type of research. Just a fairly well read amateur who has had these debates for a few years so run across a few things :)

http://www.overgrow.com/growfaq/1529

[Zhade]

10. Uh, I'm pretty sure sativa is the "downer", indica the "upper".

NT!

[Asgaya Dihi]

11. Nope

This taken from the seed retailer run by Marc Emery, the same info can be found in the grow guide for Overgrow and any number of other sources.

http://www.emeryseeds.com/choose.html

Sativas are just about the opposite of indicas. They are tall, thin plants, with much narrower leaves and grow a lighter green in color. They grow very quickly and can reach heights of 20 feet in a single season. They originally come from Colombia, Mexico, Thailand and Southeast Asia. Once flowering has begun, they can take anywhere from 10 to 16 weeks to fully mature. Flavors range from earthy to sweet and fruity. The stone of a Sativa is cerebral, up and energetic.

Indicas originally come from the hash producing countries of the world like Afghanistan, Morocco, and Tibet. They are short dense plants, with broad leaves and often grow a darker green. After flowering starts they will be mature in 6 to 8 weeks. The buds will be thick and dense, with flavors and aromas ranging from pungent skunk to sweet and fruity. The smoke from an Indica is generally a body type stone, relaxing and laid back.

Combining different indicas, different sativas or a combination thereof creates hybrids. The resulting hybrid strains will grow, mature and smoke in relationship to the indica/sativa percentages they end up containing.

[Zhade]

12. Weird, I've been wrong for years.

Must be all the fine crossbreeds... :smoke:

[Asgaya Dihi]

13. :)

I can see how that could happen :)

I've been debating this stuff for years and still tended to do that till recently, the people who have put up so many web pages over the last few years have done great work collecting info for us. It wasn't so easy to be sure in the past unless you had a good book collection or something.

[Zhade]

14. Agreed, Overgrow.com for example is a great site.

NT!

[Dez]

16. I heard it's the government's site,

so I don't go there. careful when you go there.