The Beginners Guide to Marijuana Strains

Cannabis is ever evolving, especially over the recent years and can be confusing navigating all of the various options. You’ve got to start somewhere. Don’t worry cannabis noobs, we got you, we were there once, and we can tell you all that you need to know! Therefore, read below for our beginners guide to marijuana strains.

Beginners guide to marijuana strains

What is Cannabis?

Firstly, cannabis is a psychoactive drug that originates from the Cannabis plant. Read up on the basics of cannabis in our helpful article here.

We want to reiterate some important information about marijuana strains.

Secondly, there are three kinds of Cannabis plants: Cannabis sativa, cannabis indica, and cannabis ruderalis. The part of the plant with the good stuff you like to take home is the flower portion of the plant.

Specifically, most cannabinoids (the real real good stuff) are found in the trichome portion of the flower. The cannabis flowers of these plants are harvested, dried, and packaged just for you.

Interestingly, cannabis and marijuana are often used interchangeably, but they don’t mean the same thing. This beginner's guide to marijuana strains will help clarify.

Cannabis refers to all products derived from the Cannabis sativa plant. The cannabis plant contains over 540 chemical substances. Wow, that’s a lot! Marijuana refers to parts of or products of the Cannabis sativa plant that contains high amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). That’s where the famous psychoactive properties of marijuana come from, THC.

Woah, woah, too fast? You might be asking yourself what THC is. THC is a cannabinoid. Cannabinoids are the chemical substances found in cannabis plants, and the two main ones are THC and cannabidiol (CBD). This leads us to our next topic, how Cannabis works.

How does marijuana work?

Cannabinoids are the workhorse of cannabis. Cannabinoids work by interacting with the endocannabinoid system (ECS). The ECS helps regulate health functions such as mood, anxiety, stress, sleep, inflammation, and pain. Futhermore, when the ECS is out of wack we can experience an increase in these health functions leading to well, discomfort. It’s worth mentioning that each person’s ECS is different, so sensitivities to cannabis may vary.

What are the benefits of Cannabis?

First off, the use of cannabis has been shown to ease those suffering from mood disorders, insomnia, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, seizures, and pain. Many of those are side effects of cancer treatments. In fact, Cannabis has also been shown that it can slow the growth of cancer cells.

What are the negative side effects of Cannabis?

With the good, comes the bad. Some of the negative side effects of Cannabis use include changes in mood, feelings of anxiety, dizziness, and impaired coordination. Please, we beg you, don’t get high and drive, or try anything involving machinery. Stay safe friend.

Are marijuana strains FDA approved?

Not yet, but hopefully! Marijuana has not been approved by the FDA for medical use but there are some drugs on the market that contain cannabinoids such as Epidiolex (for seizures) and Marinol (for nausea and vomiting.

Recreational legalization of weed is sweeping the United States, in fact, Washington and Colorado were the first states to fully legalize it.

How to consume cannabis

Cannabis can be enjoyed in many different forms. Most commonly it is smoked or vaped but there you can also use it via oils, tinctures, sprays, edibles, and beverages. We suggest checking out some of our products on Flower Market to see which one speaks to you!

A beginner's guide to choosing marijuana strains

The options seem endless, and honestly, they kind of are, there are so many new marijuana strains and products coming out it’s hard to keep up! This beginners guide to marijuana strains will help.

Let’s break it down to Sativa, Indica, and hybrid forms. Sativa strains mostly are the stimulating strain of cannabis, or some say the daytime strain.

Indica strains are typically described as more of a sedative strain, in-di-ca aka "in-da-couch".

Between stimulating and sedative strains, is the hybrid. Hybrids are bred for all manner of effects from deeply therapeutic to a straight-up hype man. When picking your strain, the most important thing is to pay attention to the amount of THC and CBD.

This will give you a better idea of how it might affect you. Ask yourself this question “What do I want out of my high?” Do you want to feel more relaxed and get better sleep? You might want to consider more CBD. Need to get creative and finish that paper you’ve been procrastinating on? You might want more THC.

Just a heads up, everyone responds differently to cannabis because everyone’s ECS is a little unique. Our advice, do your research, go slow, and figure out what you like/don’t like from your cannabis use.

What’s that smell?

Terpenes. Different cannabis strains have different scents and aromas. Some you’ll find to be fruity, piney, or skunky. Fun fact, cannabis plants developed a strong smell as a defense mechanism (bye bye predators) and to lure pollinators (hey there…). There are over 100 different terpenes, so when considering your strains think about what you might like in a terpene.

To conclude your Cannabis 101 Lesson

How was that for some cannabis basic? Do you have more questions? Check out our other blog articles, don’t be overwhelmed, there’s a lot out there. Remember, go slow, and you’ll learn to love.