Did you mean to say “high THC” in that last phrase?
I get what you’re saying and totally agree that passing off low quality material for high quality material is bogus. I guess what I’m getting at is the sooner that we as an industry can just call it all Cannabis the better. Saying “I’d rather use cannabis terps than hemp terps” is just confusing for everyone (the consumer and the industry) I think. Saying “I use terps derived from high quality flower” or something to that effect might be a better avenue for us to walk down.
The quality of genetics of CBD strains isn’t where the THC strains are yet but due to the shear number of growers and capital involved I think they will catch up sooner than later and we can have high quality hemp terps that might outdo the THC varieties. Plus should THC ever get green lighted you bet your ass that they are going to be extracting it from shitty fiber genetics as well as high quality flower.
Not trying to nickel and dime you I just see it as a stumbling block of communication both within the industry and when talking to customers.
As long as everyone is clear about lineage on packaging, the consumer will win. I think the first priority is introducing customers to hemp essential oils from the plants that are producing high CBD distillate.
US “hemp” is derived from High-T cannabis strains, and is not industrial hemp as most of the world still knows it and cultivates it. Does this matter? I don’t really know. I don’t have enough first-hand experience with what most of the world is growing. However I do interact with quite a few international producers in Prague and Ukraine and Israel, and it seems like they frustratingly work with true industrial hemp genetics, do these terpenes smell as good as some of the US “hemp”? are they equivalent products (all things being equal)?
When you’re speaking high thc, how high are you talking? They are still required to be below 0.3% thc to my understanding which was the standard set by the USA and adopted by the rest of the world, also to my understanding
I mean that the majority of US “hemp” being grown was not bred from industrial hemp strains.
Meaning folks took classic highT strains bred enough of them and found the chemovars that have the allele flipped so instead of having the genetics that code for the enzymatic machinery to turn CBGa into THCa (THC synthase), the plants have the enzymatic machinery that turn CBGa into CBDa (CBD synthase). And now finally have bred plants that have neither, so that the CBGa builds up with no synthase to convert it to either, leaving you with plants with 18%+ CBG(a) as the majority cannabinoid.
…and because US “hemp” has this heritage, it means that the ancestors of modern US “hemp” were bred not only for increased cannabinoid levels (THC/CBD) but also for their olfactory and flavor profiles.
Industrial hemp has a very long history of being exclusively bred for fiber and seed/seed oil content with no regard for olfactory or flavor profile.
So I guess what I am pondering, is whether or not terpene(oid) fractions separated from industrial hemp would even be comparable to US “hemp” derived terpene(oid) fractions.
I highly doubt it. Not now, maybe in the near future.
@peasandlovage Also its good for us all to remember that 0.3% is a very arbitrary line to draw. “hemp” is a legal definition and has no scientific meaning. “high quality” cannabis was referred to as Indian Hemp, but those plants would not qualify as “hemp” by todays 0.3%THC standard.
And lets all remember that that number was simply thrown out by a respected scientist at a conference and was definitely not arrived at by scientific means. It does not take into account that modern US “hemp” was bred from HighT cannabis (as described above) and that it’s very very difficult to have a plant with 18%-20% CBD without THC drifting above 0.3% by harvest. ie it doesn’t take into account modern highC (15-20% CBD) US “hemp” chemovars.
see:
Small, Ernest, Cronquist, Arthur, 1976, “A Practical and Natural Taxonomy for Cannabis”, Taxon , 25(4) pgs. 405-435. for a reference to the 0.3% THC “hemp” definition
What about super dry steam from a boiler? Bring the vapor temp up to 121° C… has anyone tried this? I really want to make cannabis essential oils and start slangin’ kush cologne.
