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What’s in a strain?

Studies show that many aren’t unique

By Tracy Damon

EVERCANNABIS CORRESPONDENT

Remember the days when you had to hit up that neighborhood college student for pot? You took your chances taking whatever he had on hand: maybe good, maybe bad, maybe some really dry stuff on occasion.

Today, in the days of legal commerce, there are so many choices that retailers have actual menus so you know what is available and how they are different.

Well, turns out those menus might not be needed, and you may just have to take whatever you can get at the pot shop.

Researchers in Nevada recently released results from a study of medical marijuana samples. The study looked at approximately 2,600 samples of flower gathered in 2016 and 2017 that represented almost 400 strains.

When all the samples were analyzed, researchers discovered something surprising: despite all the clever and creative names to distinguish one strain from another, there were only about three distinct chemical varieties of cannabis.

Most of the cannabis available in the U.S. today is defined as hybrid due to factors like psychoactive and medicinal effects, plant type (combination of indica or sativa), appearance, taste and odor.

These varieties are commonly referred to as “strains.” In scientific vernacular though, strains are known as “chemovars” because the science community uses “strain” in relation to bacteria or viruses, not to describe plants.

For this study, published in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research in October 2020, researchers used a third-party testing laboratory to analyze both the terpene (natural

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