Walk into any dispensary around the US and you’ll almost surely be given a list that splits your options into one of two categories: indica or sativa. If you go with a sativa, you’re choosing a more uplifting experience, and when you opt for an indica, a calmer, more sedative one.
But what if I were to tell you that this sativa vs indica distinction is rooted in inaccurate science?
That’s right; what many marijuana aficionados have been using as a guide for many years isn’t what they think it is.
In this article, we are going to pull the veil off marijuana strain classifications, separating fact from fiction. We’ll end with the best way to categorize marijuana that is both scientifically valid and extremely helpful when it comes to knowing what to expect from any strain of cannabis.
Way back in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the biologist Jean Baptiste Lamarck was busy at work proposing interesting theories that were destined to be proven wrong.
One of these was the Lamarckian theory of evolution, where he proposed that animals evolved new traits within their lifetimes. In this theory, a giraffe would slowly stretch out its neck during its lifetime when tasty treats were too high up in a tree, resulting in an elongated neck. Later in the 19th century, Charles Darwin came along and put Lamarck’s theory to rest when he published his theory of evolution in the Origin of Species, explaining that these changes happen slowly over a span of multiple generations.
Another theory of Lamarck’s, however, has stuck with us all the way to the present day: his marijuana theory.
According to Lamarck, cannabis is broken into two species: Cannabis indica and Cannabis sativa. By evolving in isolated locations, C. indica and C. sativa adopted distinct characteristics in how they look and how they feel when ingested. These ideas have carried over through generations and are now reflected in popular weed culture today with the sativa vs indica categorizations.
Read more at analyticalcannabis.com