The"Sativa vs Indica”Myth
The Sativa vs Indica Myth
This is going to be a shock - but the way we currently use the terms "indica" and "sativa" are just marketing jargon.
Historically, the terms have been used to describe the morphology, meaning the shape and size, of (what were debated to be) two separate species of cannabis plants - Cannabis Indica and Cannabis Sativa. The cannabis indica plant was observed to be short and bushy with wide/broad leaves, while the cannabis sativa plant was observed to be tall with narrow leaves. Although the veracity of the two-species separation is still under debate, the consensus among botanists is that just one species exists, Cannabis sativa, and all the differences in phenotype/morphology are just variations that don't reach the level of constituting a distinct and separate species.
The sativa vs. indica classification system mainly gets attributed to Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a French biologist who lived in the 1700s. He first identified that there was a morphological difference between the cannabis plants that he observed growing in parts of Europe and those growing in India. The Indian cannabis plants were noted as being intoxicating to humans, while the European cannabis crops, which turned out to be very low in THC (i.e. hemp), were not. Because of the differences between European hemp crops and the cannabis plant Lamarck discovered in India, he named the Indian plant Cannabis Indica to distinguish it from the numerous varieties of European hemp that he came across, which he labeled as cannabis sativa. ("Sativa" comes from the latin botanical adjective "sativum," meaning "cultivated." Lamarck chose that label to indicate the cultivated nature of the European hemp that he observed.)
The colloquial way that the terms "sativa" and "indica" are currently used, is to describe the predicted effects of the plant in a human consumer (i.e. "sativa strains cause an energizing and uplifting experience, while indica strains lead to relaxation, sedation, and so-called "couch-lock" "). This is patently un-scientific and unfounded. There is no evidence to suggest that the morphology of a plant can be used to predict a certain effect in the user. As world-renowned cannabis researcher Dr. Ethan Russo puts it, "There are biochemically distinct strains of Cannabis, but the sativa/indica distinction as commonly applied in the lay literature is total nonsense and an exercise in futility. One cannot in any way currently guess the biochemical content of a given Cannabis plant based on its height, branching, or leaf morphology. The degree of interbreeding/hybridization is such that only a biochemical assay tells a potential consumer or scientist what is really in the plant."
How can we predict the medicinal and physiologic effect of a cannabis variety in the user? By looking at the plant’s specific cannabinoid and terpene profiles.