Indica & Sativa. What Do These Labels Mean?

Photo taken by Charity Grace Photography.

Honestly, these labels don’t mean much anymore.

Yet, almost very cannabis user tends to have a favorite: indica or sativa. Some people like the sedative and calming effects that are said to be associated with indica strains, while others prefer the uplifting and cerebral effects said about sativas.

However, the reality is that people have been crossing different strains of weed for 100+ years, and so finding purely sativa or indica genetics are extremely rare. Nowadays, almost all strains are hybrids due to selective breeding resulting in the many varieties of strains we see today. This means that, almost any strain you consume will have effects of both indica and sativa “characteristics”.

A study published in Nature Plants by researchers at Dalhousie University in Canada found that indica and sativa labels are largely meaningless and that strains labelled indica were just as closely related to strains labelled sativa as they were to other sativa labelled indica. An example of this inconsistency is how a cannabis strain named “AK 47” won the Sativa Cup in the Cannabis Cup in 1999, and then went on to win the Indica Cup in the same competition four years later.

To put it in simpler terms, breeding cannabis plant genetics create siblings more so than identical twins. The uniqueness of each individual strain come from the terpene profile of the plant’s genetics which can differ even within the same strain. For example, the same study found that two strains both named OG Kush were more similar to other strains with different names than they were to one another. This proves a different point that strain names are not reliable indicators of a plant’s genetic identity due to the breeding process of cannabis strains.

Don’t get us wrong, there are certainly will be cannabis that gives you more of a cerebral effects than a body high, but consistently you will feel both effects in almost every strain to a certain degree. A more appropriate terminology would be to classify them as either sativa-dominant or indica-dominant hybrids.

At one point in time, indica and sativa may have been used to describe two distinct species of cannabis. However, over time the two species likely hybridized to the extent that most of the cannabis grown and consumed today is a mashup of the two ancestral lineages. However, the use of these labels has persisted despite the vast differences in each strain. From a medical standpoint, improper labelling could lead to negative or undesirable health outcomes.

Cannabis is an incredibly diverse crop that produces over one hundred aromatic and psychoactive compounds with distinct aromas and effects. Reducing cannabis to two categories does little to capture this incredible versatility and potential. Learning more about the terpene profile from your local dispensary, or our amazing team of budtenders at The Green Lady, is one way ensure a smart cannabis shopping experience. Embracing hybrids and trying an array of strains is the best way to find what is best for you, rather than relying on the conventional labels of indica and sativa.

Find your new favorite strain by shopping The Green Lady Dispensary menu, here.