Sativa vs Indica? Is there a difference?

[Doctor Trevor]

I saw this article from The Paper (a website from New Mexico), stating there's no real difference between the two.

The Truth About Sativa v. Indica - The Paper

Most cannabis connoisseurs will tell you that “sativa” cannabis plants are tall, produce narrow leaves and give users a speedy rush of creative energy while “indica” plants are short with …

abq.news

Any thoughts?

 

[Doctor Trevor]

here's another one:

Indica and sativa labels are largely meaningless when it comes to cannabis complexities

Cannabis labelling is often misleading. Labelling cannabis products with quantities of key compounds will help consumers make informed decisions, writes Sophie Watts.

www.dal.ca

 

[CaptainLucky]

I saw this article from The Paper (a website from New Mexico), stating there's no real difference between the two.

The Truth About Sativa v. Indica - The Paper

Most cannabis connoisseurs will tell you that “sativa” cannabis plants are tall, produce narrow leaves and give users a speedy rush of creative energy while “indica” plants are short with …

abq.news

Any thoughts?

I’m of the opinion that we all have the receptors in are brain but if you have A.D.D. you can take Adderol and not get an amphetamine effect. Now if I took it I would be speeding like a banshee. It’s how my brain works and with weed it’s the same. Imho CL Edit: I think I it also depends on the amount you use for example I grew some Tangie last year and I gave it away because I didn’t like the effect. But I found out that if I had smoked less it might not have affected me in a sedative way.

 

[Porky82]

Cannabis has been so inbred that there really isn't a way to tell with most modern strains!
If you get a decent sativa and a decent indica you can definitely tell the difference.
So I would disagree with the statement in the article!

 

[Doctor Trevor]

When I read the articles, I thought back to when I bought mmj from a dispensary.

I wasn't told what strain I was buying but, rather, where it stood in regards to levels of thc and cbd. And the levels were listed 1 (all thc) to 5 (all cbd).

 

[CaptainLucky]

When I read the articles, I thought back to when I bought mmj from a dispensary.

I wasn't told what strain I was buying but, rather, where it stood in regards to levels of thc and cbd. And the levels were listed 1 (all thc) to 5 (all cbd).

So what was your thoughts about the article? Do you agree or disagree? I think I explained my thoughts on it. CL

 

[Emilya Green]

So what was your thoughts about the article? Do you agree or disagree? I think I explained my thoughts on it. CL

I think it is total malarky. I can easily walk into a grow room and tell you just by looks whether we are dealing with a mostly sativa or mostly indica, or a hybrid somewhere between. When the buds are maturing there is also a distinct difference, in that sativa will wrap buds around a branch in a spiral whereas indicas tend to have large wide buds. The high is completely different too, and given a sample of a heady energetic sativa, I can easily tell it from a medicinal couchlock indica.

I get the impression from reading the article that this "Ganja Gardener" is not at all what her name implies. She wouldn't know one plant from another if she saw them, smelt them or held them in her arms. If you gave her a lineup and asked her to identify the one White Widow among 5 pure sativas, she would fail, not having a clue what to look for.

 

[Carcass]

I always thought there was no real difference- until I smoked a "real" sativa- huge difference- I found I prefer the indica buzz though.

Sativa is cool, but it makes me a bit nervous/anxious- so, given a choice, I'll go with indica every time..
a few hits of indica with a cup of coffee is as close as I get to sativa anymore..

 

[CaptainLucky]

I think it is total makarky. I can easily walk into a grow room and tell you just by looks whether we are dealing with a mostly sativa or mostly indica, or a hybrid somewhere between. When the buds are maturing there is also a distinct difference, in that sativa will wrap buds around a branch in a spiral whereas indicas tend to have large wide buds. The high is completely different too, and given a sample of a heady energetic sativa, I can easily tell it from a medicinal couchlock indica.

I get the impression from reading the article that this "Ganja Gardener" is not at all what her name implies. She wouldn't know one plant from another if she saw them, smelt them or held them in her arms. If you gave her a lineup and asked her to identify the one White Widow among 5 pure sativas, she would fail, not having a clue what to look for.

100% totally agree with you Em, she prolly never got high in her life! CL

 

[CaptainLucky]

I always thought there was no real difference- until I smoked a "real" sativa- huge difference- I found I prefer the indica buzz though.

Sativa is cool, but it makes me a bit nervous/anxious- so, given a choice, I'll go with indica every time..
a few hits of indica with a cup of coffee is as close as I get to sativa anymore..

Hey I prefer Sativa and don’t like feeling traquilized but that’s OK. And if you prefer a Indica that’s completely cool too. The best thing is we can grow our preferences better than buying anything from a dispensary. CL

 

[Graytail]

They're basically one plant. It started being cultivated as sativa, which grows long and tall and is great for fiber and rope, especially for boats and ships. So it got cultivated along the coastlines of southeast asia and over to the east cost of africa. Out of every batch of seeds, some will be standout THC producers as well as fiber plants. So you learn to save those for a special patch.

But they're usually sub-tropical plants. If you bring them north they won't bloom before frost. Over time, you can find cultivars that will survive long enough to seed, but they're short and not good for rope and cloth. What they are good at is being fast and stinky/sticky. Over time they become hashish plants. Their path is the Silk Road, made into compact hash and ridden through the deserts and mountains. These are the indicas.

Same plant, different purposes.

 

[Doctor Trevor]

So what was your thoughts about the article? Do you agree or disagree? I think I explained my thoughts on it. CL

While I'm not an expert in cannabis, I thought the author wasn't one either.

And, I don't think the mmj dispensaries would give out false information on their product. It's just looking for trouble.

 

[bluter]

They're basically one plant. It started being cultivated as sativa, which grows long and tall and is great for fiber and rope, especially for boats and ships. So it got cultivated along the coastlines of southeast asia and over to the east cost of africa. Out of every batch of seeds, some will be standout THC producers as well as fiber plant. So you learn to save those for a special patch.

But they're usually sub-tropical plants. If you bring them north they won't bloom before frost. Over time, you can find cultivars that will survive long enough to seed, but they're short and not good for rope and cloth. What they are good at is being fast and stinky/sticky. Over time they become hashish plants. Their path is the Silk Road, made into compact hash and ridden through the deserts and mountains. These are the indicas.

Same plant, different purposes.

it was recorded in the first pharmacopeia, which was in china a few centuries ahead of christ, and long before anyone was sailing ships to africa or anywhere using hemp. it looks to have been in use since long before recorded history, and was likely one of the first crops purposely human cultivated.

when tracked by dna it seems to have come from western china over the steppes into what is now russia, spread through eurasia and africa, then to the rest of us.

 

[Sueet]

I'm convinced there is a difference, although I still feel like there is a pretty fluffy layer of b.s. being poured on in the marketing. I find I prefer indica or indica leaning at least, just mostly because for some reason the sativa effect fades from me super fast. It's nice while I have it, but I'm lazy and don't like to have to work that hard for my medicine effects. That said, I've not grown a sativa yet, so it might be different with my own. I just have no clue which one to pick so I haven't.

 

[Graytail]

The History – The History of Cannabis Museum | 202.751.0846.

"The Cannabis (Hemp) plant evolved from Northern China at the dawn of civilization, and is believed to be the first cultivated fiber plant. The earliest archaeological record of the use of fiber from Cannabis was in China twelve thousand-years ago."

History of cannabis and the endocannabinoid system


"Paleobotanical studies attest that cannabis was already present about 11 700 years ago in Central Asia near the Altai Mountains. South-East Asia has also been proposed as an alternative region for the primary domestication of cannabis. Cannabis provided fibers for ropes and nets, food, and seeds for oil. Our ancestors would have chanced upon the euphoriant properties of heated cannabis and would have easily identified the resin produced by the distinctive female plants. In this plausible scenario, humans moved from gathering to cultivating cannabis and then started selecting strains either for fibers or for THC content. Some 12 000 years ago, after the last glacial period, cannabis seeds followed the migration of nomadic peoples and commercial exchanges. This joint migration is an example of a mutually beneficial symbiosis, in which humans and a plant contributed to each other’s propagation over the planet. We established a similar evolutionary symbiosis with an animal species, the canids, which also helped us to colonize the planet.

The dispersal of cannabis over Eurasia from a central point is reflected by the fact that the plant is designated by related words in most languages of this huge landmass. English hemp and German Hanf are etymologically cognate with Greek κάνναβις , Latin cannăbis , Italian canapa , and Russian konoplja . Even non-Indo-European languages use related words, eg, qunnab (بﱠﻧُ ﻗ ) in Arabic, a Semitic language, kendir in Turkish, and kanap’is (კანაფის) in Georgian, a Caucasian language"

 

[Emilya Green]

Hey I prefer Sativa and don’t like feeling traquilized but that’s OK. And if you prefer a Indica that’s completely cool too. The best thing is we can grow our preferences better than buying anything from a dispensary. CL

I am surprised how many here agree with the article. I know there is a difference between the two. I like the energetic cerebral high associated with a sativa during the day and when I want to be creative, and to help relax at night or deal with pain, there is nothing quite as good as a good strong late harvested indica. The difference between the two types of smoke are like night and day.

As different landrace varieties began to move and propagate around the globe, they did mutate and change according to the nutrients, daylight patterns and climates they found themselves in, and they did essentially become unique varieties of pot because of where they were. We can look to studies that tell us that they all come from a common Hemp origin, but why does that matter today, a million years later? Different soils and climactic zones created their own distinct varieties of pot, such as in Panama and in Hawaii. No matter how varieties got to be the way they are today, we definitely see different unique varieties that formed because of nature as well as hybridization. Afghani pot is not Columbian pot... they are distinctly different. Long running sativas tend to come from hot and dry climates and indicas seem to prefer cooler and wetter conditions. And then there are the hybrids, trying to climatize tropical varieties to be able to grow up in the northern latitudes, and this introduces 1000s of new unique varieties. White Widow for example is a 60/40 hybrid, and has become a standard genetic line for today's cultivator. It is its own unique variety, easily held apart from other strains and valued because of its uniqueness. To say that this strain is the same as all others is an affront to our own senses... we know it is special. All pot clearly is not the same.

 

[Graytail]

Indicas are sedative and stoney. Sativas are energetic and spacey.

And that's because they were cultivated for different reasons. The Pakis and the Afghanis were bred for flavor and potency, to be sold in the markets westward after months of travel through deserts, etc. The THC effect after all that would be sedative. (I know this because I smoked a LOT of Mexican brickweed - who knows when it was chopped a thousand miles away.) Lotsa CBN. So the market expected an opium (which also comes from the same cultivation area - NE Iran, Aghan and Paki mountains) sort of effect. Indicas got more sedative as they were bred for potency.

Sativas were grown for hemp and also selected for potency, but that would have been locally, so there wasn't any need to process it and ship it a thousand miles. If you wanted some to smoke, you'd just browse through a local patch of your own hemp. It grew wild in the field edges when I was growing up around here. The government planted a lot of hemp for rope during the wars, and birds pass those seeds far and wide. And there were always some plants that reeked.

I grew back in the 80s and there weren't any indica plants to be found - so no seeds. It was Mexican or Colombian, both pure sativas from the Spanish invasions (from the seas - for rope). It started to be interbred in the 70s on the west coast (histories of Nevil and the others).

Indica is bred for hash, sativa is bred for rope. Same genetics, but different terpenes and flavinoids. You can find buzzy indicas and couchy sativas, but that's unusual. I have an old pure Paki Kush from the 90s and it feels like a hybrid, and a genuine Paki Citral Kush or Lebanese is usually fairly bright. Panama isn't actually very energetic or racey - again, more like a hybrid.

It's just what it was cultivated for, over as many years as it takes to get its own character. Indians made charras by rubbing the trichs off between their palms - same as hashish, only from buzzy sativas. The hashish market wanted a couchy stone, so indicas are sedative.

 

[CaptainLucky]

I am surprised how many here agree with the article. I know there is a difference between the two. I like the energetic cerebral high associated with a sativa during the day and when I want to be creative, and to help relax at night or deal with pain, there is nothing quite as good as a good strong late harvested indica. The difference between the two types of smoke are like night and day.

As different landrace varieties began to move and propagate around the globe, they did mutate and change according to the nutrients, daylight patterns and climates they found themselves in, and they did essentially become unique varieties of pot because of where they were. We can look to studies that tell us that they all come from a common Hemp origin, but why does that matter today, a million years later? Different soils and climactic zones created their own distinct varieties of pot, such as in Panama and in Hawaii. No matter how varieties got to be the way they are today, we definitely see different unique varieties that formed because of nature as well as hybridization. Afghani pot is not Columbian pot... they are distinctly different. Long running sativas tend to come from hot and dry climates and indicas seem to prefer cooler and wetter conditions. And then there are the hybrids, trying to climatize tropical varieties to be able to grow up in the northern latitudes, and this introduces 1000s of new unique varieties. White Widow for example is a 60/40 hybrid, and has become a standard genetic line for today's cultivator. It is its own unique variety, easily held apart from other strains and valued because of its uniqueness. To say that this strain is the same as all others is an affront to our own senses... we know it is special. All pot clearly is not the same.

I’m not gonna debate with anyone else when I know from my own experiences what I like and don’t like. I’m sure that it originated in one place but just like Darwin said it’s survival of the species because you can’t grow a Indica from a cooler climate in a jungle. And so on like there’s penguins that evolved to live in a warmer climate and it’s the same with weed. Some people you just can’t convince Em. But I agree with everything you said. CL

 

[bluter]

we ran a lot of hybrids in the 80's.

afghan indica was everywhere because of the russian invasion, it was being smuggled and sold by what became the taliban. there were a number of indicas around as it was a natural for bc growers, but all the best stuff was sativa heavy hybrids like skunk, or northern lights. afghan indica is at the root of those hybrids.

 

[Fenderbender]

I recently posted asking around it as well.

as I also read that, there's just Cannabis Sativa L.

But depending on growing environment they've experienced for ages you have some different expressions in plant structure.. but when it comes to all the compounds & terpenes they can produce they overlap more than they differ and you also get different expression on how and where it's grown take the same strain and grow it out in two different locations or environments with very different techniques they probably end up tasting quite a bit different.

Also suggestion works a long way.. might do an experiment... hey this bud will put you to sleep... or hey this bud will get you through the night but well it's all the same bud.
Although I would agree with that depending on the terpene content & ratios the high gets skewed in certain directions.