I've been very interested in Cannabis for a long time, but when it became recreationally legal in some American states was very interesting to me on many levels. I mainly noticed that testing the cannabis for both THC and CBD was necessary. What I also noticed was that almost all the strains of flower were generally between 15-30% THC and .01-.5%CBD. You can check on a weed store app like leafly. Some stores will have the percentages of the Cannabis on their leafly page and some won't. Some don't even take the time to list all the strains or prices. But you'll notice on the ones that do, almost all the weed is high thc and low cbd. Most stores I can do research on generally carry a few strains of high CBD as well. What I wanted to figure out though was what was the original percentages of THC and CBD from when cannabis was growing in its natural habitat and did it matter?
Well, from everything I've gathered it seems that not only did cannabis not have such a high THC level, but also that the CBD level has been pushed down as well through selective breeding. Does that matter? Yes, a lot if you're concerned about your long term health I believe.
Early research is showing that not only is a higher CBD percentage necessary for optimum health, but also that the THC percentage needs to come down and be similar to that of CBD. Something I think you find echoed in the earliest tests for cannabis's cannabinoid ratios. Some interesting points are also being made on how cannabis that has been breed for high THC (which makes sense since CBD seems to 'limit' the high experienced somewhat and illegal growers would naturally want stronger weed that gets the user higher) may be harmful.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/11/health/gupta-marijuana-entourage/index.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4611354/
Why is this?
There seems to be an entourage effect and THC and CBD seem to work synergistically. The other Cannabinoids may also potentially have beneficial effects as well. My big picture overly simplified guess is something that has to do with prooxidants and antioxidants and how our understanding of them may evolve soon. THC being the prooxidant and CBD being the antioxidant. I could be wrong.
http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Research/Antioxidants-and-Pro-oxidants-Two-Sides-of-the-Same-Sword
But regardless of the exact science, these substances seem to be working for some people. So I started experimenting on myself and have found them to be life savers.
See, I had been prescribed a bunch of antibiotics in college which ruined my stomach and messed with me a bunch of ways. This was the straw that broke the camel's back after 18+ years of poor nutrition. So the last few years I've been learning all I can to restore my health once I can establish a decent income that isn't tied to a day job or me working long hours since that impedes my ability to do healthful things like constantly prepare fresh food and juice, make fermented foods, sunbathe daily, etc. Of course those corners I've been cutting in order to stay fully productive at my job have also meant my health has not gotten better, even though at this point I think I know almost everything I need to do to make myself completely better. So as of now high CBD cannabis has seemingly started reversing some of my health issues, and until I can afford the luxury of executing on all my ideal lifestyle goals it will have to suffice as the main pillar of my recovery rather than just one piece of a solid foundation.
Overall, all of this has been interesting to me as I learned it and even though it's still in it's early stages of being understood I figured I might as well share it with everyone here and hopefully help someone out.
If you have any related articles or info please share them in the comments. Thanks.