Cannabis Pharmacology 101

It’s hard for me to overstate the impact Ethan Russo’s review paper Taming THC had on me. Like a first kiss? Like the first time hearing that perfect album? Like that divine bite of ice cream? Yes but more, it struck an intellectual chord but it also, for the first time, explained something that I knew deeply in my heart; not all cannabis medicine is created equal and it’s the smell, the FREAKING SMELL, that gives all of it’s nuance in effect.

Of course we all already knew that; the first and only criteria I still use when selecting cannabis is it’s aroma - I’ve always gravitated to the chem funk/gas/rotting garlic/gym socks side of things. Watching people browse jars, I bet they could be blindfolded and still walk out happy.

I have to admit when I first started reading this paper, I understood maybe 25% of the abstract. I literally kept reading and re-reading until I understood just a little bit more. For me, this paper was a starting point; a succinct review article that put the larger research in context and provided links to that research.

I can say with 110% surety if it wasn’t for this paper I would not be making the products I am today. Drop mic, end of story. I’ve provided a link to the full text article below as a well as a (fantastic) lecture from Ethan Russo covering many of the same topics. I also find it helps to watch the lecture first so you have a bit of background and pronunciation before you jump into the nitty gritty.

Any questions, comments or suggested future topics can be added below.

-Jon

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3165946/pdf/bph0163-1344.pdf