The labels on commercial marijuana are not an accurate reflection of the chemical composition of the weed inside.
Legal sellers of marijuana typically label their products with fanciful-sounding strain names (Blue Dream, Pineapple Express), as well as a classification based on their purported effects: “indica” is said to be relaxing, “sativa” energizing, and “hybrid” a balance of the two. Indica strains are said to come from Cannabis indica plants, which are darker and bushier than the closely related Cannabis sativa. But a new chemical analysis of U.S. commercial cannabis finds little to no relation between these labels and the underlying chemistry of the marijuana sold under them.
“The [legal] industry has basically inherited the legacy classification system of the illicit cannabis market,” says Nick Jikomes, the director of science and innovation at the e-commerce platform Leafly, who conducted the study in collaboration with researchers at the Univ. of Colorado Boulder.
▲ When it comes to legally-sold marijuana products, there is no oversight or regulation on labels declaring a particular product indica, sativa, or hybrid.
There is no oversight or regulation on...
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