Medical Marijuana is ….one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.

Francis Young,
Administrative Law Judge
Drug Enforcement Agency - 1989

Cannabinoids are a group of 21 carbon compounds present in Cannabis sativa L. Their carboxylic acids, analogs, and transformation products are the active ingredients found in hashish and marijuana.

Cannabis sharpens the mind, softens the skin, and gives an “upper’’ to one’s sight and hearing. As no other drug it stimulates color sensitivity and sexual arousal. Cannabis affects cognition and memory, euphoria, sedation and pain (analgesic antinociception).

(-)-trans –Ä1(delta) Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the major psycho pharmacologically active component of cannabis, followed by Cannabidiol (CBD) which exhibits an antagonistic effect on THC1 and acts physiologically as a (smooth) muscle relaxator. CBD exhibit strong anticonvulsant activity for 3 out of 4 major types of epilepsy. CBN and CBC even appear to have therapeutic effects (see below).

THC: Ä-1 (= Ä-9) Tetrahydrocannabinol derives from Cannabigerol (CBG) and is responsible for the analgesic and psychotropic effect of marihuana. It sharpens the mind, softens the skin and gives an “upper’’ to one’s sight and hearing. As no other drug it stimulates color sensitivity and sexual arousal. Cannabis affects cognition and memory, euphoria, sedation and pain (analgesic antinociception).

HC:  Ä-6  (=Ä-8) Tetrahydrocanabinol is 25 % less potent as Ä-9 THC.

CBN: Cannabinol is a breakdown product of THC. During storage (aging) CBN will slowly increase, while the THC spot will decrease in a stoichiometric manner. It will appear as a violet colored spot right under yellow CBD. Oxygen will be the most important decomposing factor.

Effects: mild psychoactive; sedative; analgesic (3 times stronger than aspirin). CBN is a non narcotic type analgesic like aspirin.

THCV:  THCV resembles THC in all effects but the effects are of lower strength due to a shorter carbon side chain of 3 carbon (propyl side chain) atoms instead of 5 carbon atoms (pentyl side chain) in THC.

Effects: See THC.

THV: is found in very potent marijuana from Southeast and Central Asia.

All panels are in favor of cannabis varieties containing THV! (reinforce the effect of THV by penetrating more into the CB receptors?)

CBG: Cannabigerol is the first cannabinoid produced in the plant. It is the biogenetic precursor of all the other cannabinoids.

Effects: sedative effects and antimicrobial properties, lowering intra-ocular pression.  It will induce drowsiness and makes one sleepy (in a dosage related manner).
 
CBD: Cannabidiol is formed from cannabigerol. It is produced mainly in branch and stem like structures of the plant. It will appear as a bright orange spot on the TLC-plate of your kit, always above THC. Cannabielson (cannabielsoin) is a breakdown product of CBD and will even so appear as violet-red colored small spots, yet with lower Rf-values than its precursor CBD. CBD has not been found in all marihuana samples so far tested in our laboratory. You will always find CBD in a hashish sample. According to some publications CBG is not excreted in the oil drop (resin) on the (stalked) glandular trichome (see fig 1). However results from our laboratory definitely revealed exceptionally large amounts of CBD in two different marihuana samples, so called hash plants! CBD displays itself on a TLC-plate as a bright orange spot right above the wine red THC spot.

Effects: CBD is a THC antagonist: although it reduces the psychoactive effect of THC it prolonges it’s effect. CBD increases the THC level in the brain 3 times! CBD balancing of THC’s psychoactive effect may be one reason why many patients prefer marihuana to Marinol®. CBD acts like THC as an neuroprotective antioxidant.

It has recently been demonstrated that CBD also stimulates vanilloid VR1 pain receptors, inhibits uptake of the anandamide, and weakly inhibits its breakdown. These new findings have important implications in elucidating the pain relieving, anti-inflammatory, and immunodulatory effects of CBD. CBD. It explains also why THC combined with CBD tends to postpone the beginning of the high and makes the high last much longer.

CBD: reduces muscle spasm, it induces strong muscle relaxation and has a sedative effect.

CBC: Cannabichromene is present in all samples tests. In our laboratory on the International Highlife Hemp Fair in Utrecht (The Netherlands) no sample was found without a CBC spot.
The purple colored CBC spot will appear on top of the plate. There are no active groups on the molecule, and therefore it is the most soluble one in the developing fluid.

Effects: promotes the effect of THC; potentiate THC and has sedative and analgesic effects.

Note: THC as a molecule will be changed by liver enzymes (cytochrome P450 system) into 11-OH-THC (a THC with a alcohol group or hydroxyl group attached to carbon # 11 of the THC molecule. This compound is presumed to be more active than THC. A person with strong working cyt.P450 enzymes will feel this immediately.

Exploring the many therapeutic Fingerprint Effect Relationships of well defined different chemotypes with defined cannabinoid ratios for many different patient-groups, it is imperative to pertain and sustain the existing varieties and explore their genetic potential.
Today state of the art cultivation processes are available to ensure harvesting high quality plant material highly consistent in their well defined cannabinoid ratios (less than 3.5% S.D.).

Therefore:
All different effects of the fingerprint effect relationships due to the presence of individual cannabinoids (and their complicated combinatorial interactions) in a range of well defined varieties or chemotypes must be documented first before a pharmaceutical company will develop a cannabinoid based medicine.