Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: Cannabis sativa, C. indica, and C. ruderalis. Alternatively, C. ruderalis may be included within C. sativa, all three may be treated as subspecies of C. sativa, or C. sativa may be accepted as a single undivided species. The genus is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from Asia.
Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana (MMJ), is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restrictions, resulting in limited clinical research to define the safety and efficacy of using cannabis to treat diseases.
Cannabis sativa is an annual herbaceous flowering plant. The species was first classified by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. The specific epithet sativa means 'cultivated'. Indigenous to Eastern Asia, the plant is now of cosmopolitan distribution due to widespread cultivation. It has been cultivated throughout recorded history and used as a source of industrial fiber, seed oil, food, and medicine. It is also used as a recreation drug and for religious and spiritual purposes.
Cultivation of cannabis is the production of cannabis infructescences. Cultivation techniques for other purposes differ.
Cannabis indica is an annual plant species in the family Cannabaceae indigenous to the Hindu Kush mountains of Southern Asia. The plant produces large amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV) with levels up to 53.7% of total cannabinoid. It is now widely grown in China, India, Nepal, Thailand, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, as well as southern and western Africa, and is cultivated for purposes including hashish in India. The high concentrations of THC or THCV provide euphoric effects making it popular for use both as a recreational drug, alternative medicine, and a clinical research drug.
Cannabis ruderalis is a variety, subspecies, or species of Cannabis native to Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. It contains a relatively low quantity of psychoactive compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Some scholars accept C. ruderalis as its own species due to its unique traits and phenotypes which distinguish it from C. indica and C. sativa; others debate whether ruderalis is a subdivision under C. sativa.
The High TimesCannabis Cup is a cannabis festival sponsored by High Times magazine. The event features judges from around the world who sample and vote for their favorite marijuana varieties, with cups (trophies) being awarded to the overall winner in the cannabis variety competition. Since 1997, the Cannabis Cup festival has hosted induction ceremonies for the Counterculture Hall of Fame.
Kush generally refers to a pure or hybrid Cannabis indica strain. Pure C. indica strains include Afghan Kush, Hindu Kush, Green Kush, and Purple Kush. Hybrid strains of C. indica include Blueberry Kush and Golden Jamaican Kush. The term "kush" is now also used as a slang word for cannabis.
Cannabis strains are either pure or hybrid varieties of the plant genus Cannabis, which encompasses the species C. sativa, C. indica, and C. ruderalis.
The High TimesMedical Cannabis Cup is an annual event celebrating medical marijuana. The first Medical Cannabis Cup took place in San Francisco, California, on June 19–20, 2010.
Leafly is a website focused on cannabis use and education. The company says it has more than 120 million annual visitors and over 10 million monthly active users. Leafly provides a wide range of information on cannabis, including 1.5 million consumer product reviews, more than 9,000 cannabis articles and resources, and over 5,000 verified strains in its database. Leafly additionally provides 4,500+ retailers and 8,000+ cannabis brands with e-commerce tools such as digital storefronts, embedded menus, point-of-sale integrations, targeted advertising, and more. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and from 2012 to 2019 was owned by Privateer Holdings, a private equity firm focused on the emerging legal cannabis industry. Leafly is now a publicly traded company with 160 employees.
Nevil Martin Schoenmakers was an Australian-born cannabis breeder known for founding the first cannabis seedbank, which was called "The Seed Bank of Holland", in the early 1980s in the Netherlands. This was also the first seed company to advertise directly to the public in High Times magazine.
Autoflowering cannabis or day neutral cannabis varieties automatically switch from vegetative growth to the flowering stage based on age, as opposed to the ratio of light to dark hours required with photoperiod dependent/short-day strains. Many autoflowering varieties are ready to harvest in less than 10 weeks from seed. Dwarf varieties can have short stature while still giving decent harvests.
The entourage effect is a hypothesis that cannabis compounds other than tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) act synergistically with it to modulate the overall psychoactive effects of the plant.
Christian Hageseth is an entrepreneur, author, marijuana rights advocate and business owner. He was born in Pensacola, Florida, and grew up in Fort Collins, Colorado. He graduated from Arizona State University in 1992 with a degree in Political Science. He is the founder of Green Man Cannabis, an award-winning marijuana cultivation and dispensary business in Denver, Colorado. He is also the founder of American Cannabis Partners (ACP), a cannabis business development firm, which is developing the Colorado Cannabis Ranch. Hageseth is the author of Big Weed: An Entrepreneur's High Stakes Adventures in the Budding Legal Marijuana Business, published in 2015 by Macmillan.
Terms related to cannabis include:
Super Lemon Haze is a sativa-dominant cannabis strain in the haze family of strains. It was originally bred by Franco Loja from the Netherlands-based Green House Seed Co. as a cross between two other strains: Lemon Skunk and Super Silver Haze.
Scott Blakey aka Shantibaba is a cannabis breeder who currently operates from Switzerland and is known for creating the cannabis strains White Widow, Super Silver Haze, White Rhino, Critical Mass and El Nino. Cannabis companies that Blakey has owned include Mr. Nice Seedbank, Greenhouse Seed Co. and CBD Crew and Sciva Corporation.
AK-47, also known simply as AK, is a cannabis strain with high THC content. It is a hybrid strain of cannabis that is sativa-dominant; it mixes Colombian, Mexican, Thai, and Afghan strains. A strong and popular strain, it has won multiple cannabis industry awards. The plant genetics of AK-47 have been studied scientifically.
