April Pride: This podcast discusses cannabis and is intended for audiences 21 and over.

Cambria Benson Noecker: Do you want to be happy? Do you want to be active? Is this the strain that gives you high energy? Is this a relaxation strain?

April Pride: Welcome back to Saturday Strains, an audio series from How to Do the Pot. I’m April Pride, and I’ll be your guide every Saturday. If you like How to Do the Pot, please share it with someone, and rate and review us on Apple Podcast. It helps more people find the show.

April Pride: Hope you enjoyed the first two Saturday Strains Explained episodes. We cover what a strain is, why terroir is important, and what cannabis genetics mean, all this to prepare you to listen to our first episode of Saturday Strains and the many more to follow every week. You just heard Cambria Benson Noecker, the founder of Serra cannabis dispensaries in Oregon and California, talk about how you want to feel, the effect that cannabis will have on you. To wrap up the Strains Explained series, we’re going to take a further look at the plant’s chemistry, specifically cannabinoids, chemical compounds in the plant that interact with receptors in our bodies to produce specific effects, and terpenes, which give weed its smell and taste.

April Pride: First, cannabinoids. You’re likely very familiar with the two most popular and well-researched cannabinoids: THC and CBD. THC is the main compound involved in producing feelings of euphoria, or the high most commonly associated with weed. In addition to providing the elevated feeling sought after by cannabis enthusiasts, THC produces a multitude of medicinal effects, such as pain relief, sedation, appetite stimulation, and it’s been shown to help with a variety of conditions. CBD is one of the many non-intoxicating cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant. In addition to not producing any feelings of being high, CBD also mitigates the psychoactive effects produced by THC. So if you get too high with THC, have some CBD handy, like in a tincture form, put it onto your tongue, wait about 30 minutes, and you’ll chill out. CBD has strong anti-inflammatory properties and can help with the variety of conditions. Did you know that humans have an endocannabinoid system?

April Pride: Dr. Jessica Knox, a Harvard trained physician and a founder of the American cannabinoid clinics, shares more.

Dr. Jessica Knox: I graduated from medical school in 2012. The endocannabinoid system, the primary components, had been discovered by the early 1990s. 20 years later, I was not learning this in medical school. So most people know about the cardiovascular system, our heart. They know about the neurological system, the respiratory system. These are the systems we all learned about in health class in high school, right? But nobody learned about the endocannabinoid system, really important system that’s sort of modulating all of these other systems in our body to maintain what we call homeostasis, or balance.

April Pride: Cannabinoids like THC and CBD work alongside other compounds in the plant, including terpenes, to provide the human body with a variety of therapeutic effects. There is so much exciting research to be done because there are well over a hundred different active cannabinoids. Cannabis researcher Dr. Jeffrey Raber describes how these elements work together as an ensemble effect. They work in concert to produce the effects that make you feel high. Often this is referred to as the entourage effect.

April Pride: Now let’s talk about terpenes. In all flowering plants, such as grapes, hops, lavender, et cetera, you’ll find or smell the terpenes. These naturally occurring compounds trigger connection through smell. We reached out to Jewel Zimmer, the founder and formulator of Juna, a California based company with CBD and THC wellness products to optimize mind, body, mood, and sleep for a little help.

Jewel Zimmer: As a former chef and sommelier, I have a love story with terpenes.

Terpenes are basically the foundation of any essential oil. They’re found in all plants, even some fruits, and they are the flavor, aroma, and experience molecules.

April Pride: We connect with everything through our senses, so anything we typically ingest, we smell first to give our systems a chance to tap into a basic defense mechanism, our sense of smell, and determine if, essentially, we vibe with this bud. Let me put it this way. When I smell vodka, I smell rubbing alcohol and do not under any circumstances think that it is a good idea for me to ingest. I also have plenty of bad nights and next mornings to prove this point. When I smell tequila, I feel like it may be the secret ingredient to eternal happiness, and I’m literally a bottomless vessel for this elixir, rarely getting drunk and never hungover. I have plenty of friends who feel exactly opposite. Chances are we may prefer different weed as well. Celebrity chef Livvie Smalls of Netflix’s Cooked With Cannabis agrees.

Livvie Smalls: Just like what you like, and use your nose, and smell things out. So I want people to gauge things more by their body’s reaction and their nose.

April Pride: So when you live in a state like my own, Washington, where regulations demand all weed be sold sealed in packaging with no option for smelling bud in store before purchase, this puts us, as consumers, at a disadvantage to find our right high. We’ve barely scratched the surface with terpenes. With the exception of Connecticut, which is a medical state, terpenes are not required to be listed on the label, so it’s really hard to find information about them on the cannabis you buy. For now, just know that they play a role in how cannabis makes you feel.

April Pride: We’ll share more in a future episode. And now you’re ready to learn about our first Saturday Strain to start building your stash. We can’t wait to share our top cannabis strains for women. Best homework ever. Go do the pot.

April Pride: Thank you for listening to Saturday Strains. And a special thanks to Jeffrey Raber PhD, and Colin Montgomery of The Workshop, as well as Nick Jikomes, PhD of Leafly. Let us know what you think. Follow us on Instagram @dothepot, or you can follow me @aprilpride, and for lots more information about cannabis and women, visit dothepot.com. Thanks to my co-founder Ellen Scanlon, Madi Fair, our marketing manager, and our producer, Nick Patri. I’m April Pride, and we’ll be back soon with more of How to Do the Pot.