Episode 67 - Can Terpenes Get You High?
If you want to know the secrets of the plant, talk to a plant scientist (or a shaman). This interview with phytochemist James Curran will make you reevaluate everything you thought you knew about cannabis – and appreciate how much more there is to learn.
I’ve found that cannabis, like many plant medicines, seems to select certain people at a very young age and cast a spell over them. That may sound woo-woo to you, but in the cannabis world, there are people who somehow, perhaps by divine intervention, make the plant their calling. They may not have a PhD from Harvard, or work in a research facility, but they are self taught experts and apply a great deal of science and erudition to their study of the plant. James Curran is one of those special people.
Curran is a phytochemist who has been investigating cannabis for the last decade, both personally and professionally. I originally called him because I wanted some some help cutting through the veil of hype surrounding so many new products and technologies on the market. How much more effective really are the new “water soluble” beverages at the moment? Does “nano-emulsification” truly deliver cannabinoids into the bloodstream more quickly? Can manufacturers buy terpenes off the shelf and simply add them into products to increase their efficacy, as so many are claiming? And what on earth is the difference between Delta 8 THC and Delta 9 THC (and where can I get some)?
James had the answers to these and other questions. But this interview gets really buzzy when he revealed that he has an extraction method that allows him to harvest fresh terpenes from fresh cannabis. Being a scientist who uses his own body as a laboratory, he has ingested just 1mg of these fresh terps and reports that just a small amount of Alpha-pinene produced “25 minutes of a near psychedelic experience.” Until now, I believed that terps help direct the high -- but his report, and that of others indicates that THC isn’t the full story, that terps act collaboratively to cause the high. Listen in to learn more.
If you want to contact James to talk about these and other issues, including remediation for “hot hemp” find him at Jamespacurran@gmail.com.