Study: For Some Symptoms, Medical Marijuana With THC Is Better Than CBD – Cannabis Business Executive

The cannabis plant has hundreds of “active ingredients,” but the two most prominent—and the only two most people have heard of—are THC and CBD.

Despite “medical marijuana” laws specifically allowing people to access cannabis products containing THC, over the past few years, one line of conventional wisdom goes something like this: THC is the molecule that gets you high; CBD is non-psychoactive and promotes healing.

Since federal law allows CBD but still bans more than a minute amount of THC, in some circles, the dichotomy has devolved further to some version of “THC is for fun; CBD is for medicine.” (Certain CBD companies take this too far and make all kinds of outrageous product claims, prompting warnings from the Food and Drug Administration.)

But as a recent study highlighted, this understanding is wrong. THC is also medicinal—and in fact, cannabis users seeking prompt, effective relief from nausea want more THC, and less CBD.

In what’s been described as “the largest study of its kind,” researchers at the University of New Mexico have been tracking via an app cannabis users’ habits: symptoms, cannabis product selections, and subsequent experience of relief (or not). [Read more at Forbes]