I don’t really have a great understanding of the terms and how they are different. Marijuana in my state is illegal, yet I see various products in the gas station that claim to mimic it. Help?
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There’s a plant species called Cannabis sativa, originating somewhere in central Asia. The flower buds of the plant have chemicals in them that affect animal brains, probably to deter insects from eating them, the stems have long fibers running along them, and the seeds are edible.
People domesticated Cannabis sativa and bred it to do different things.
– Some varieties have been bred to grow really tall stems with good quality fibers running the whole length so the fibers can be extracted and used to make fabric. Others have been bred to make a lot of seeds for food. These C. sativa varieties are called hemp.
– other C. sativa varieties have been bred to make a lot of brain affecting chemicals in the flowerbuds, because people like having their brain chemistry altered. Those varieties are often called marijuana or weed, and also get all kinds of goofy names like “kush” and “purple haze.”
THC and CBD are two of the more famous brain affecting chemicals found in C. sativa flower buds. THC (which is really a few similar chemicals) causes all the “high on weed” effects you’re familiar with, like increased appetite, happiness, confusion, and paranoia. CBD decreases the intensity of anxiety and psychosis and doesn’t generally make people high.
In 2018, Congress passed a law allowing farmers to grow and sell hemp so long as it doesn’t have too much of the most common type of THC (“delta 9”). Other types of THC (like “delta 8”) and other brain-affecting chemicals from C. sativa flower buds were suddenly legalized. Those are what’s probably in the gas station products you’re seeing.
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