THC & Terps
THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the principal psychoactive compound found in cannabis. Prohibitive cannabis laws define the plant based on THC levels, and in the United States, cannabis with less than 0.3% THC on a dry weight basis is non-psychoactive and therefore considered hemp.Until recent years, consumers at the dispensary counter were primarily only concerned about jockeying for the cannabis and concentrates with the maximum amount of THC. Today, they’re smartening up and asking more about terpene and other cannabinoid content. THC, however, remains the most crucial compound overall in terms of the plant’s psychoactive high.There are multiple reasons for seeking high-THC levels in products beyond shooting for the most potent effect. One benefit of high-THC products for medical patients, for instance, is that high-THC products can provide relief while limiting the amount of smoke and thus reducing harm.
The Chemistry of Higher THC Products
SC (Science of Cannabis) Labs opened in 2010 in Capitola, California. Co-founded by Jeff Gray, Josh Wurzer, Alec Dixon, and Ian Rice, the company helped develop some of the industry’s first testing standards.“Early on, we emphasized testing cannabinoids and specifically THC,” SC Labs President and Co-Founder Josh Wurzer says. “The THC content became very associated with the perception of quality in cannabis. That was the only quantitative metric you had to describe the cannabis—the percentage of cannabinoids.”Examining high THC levels is one of Wurzer’s focuses, as he applied for several cannabis-related patents, some related to the improvement of the extraction of cannabis.Today, many people still equate higher THC concentrations with better quality.“That’s just not the case,” Wurzer says. “When we look at these different events—High Times Cannabis Cups and The Emerald Cup—the winners usually don’t have any higher THC percentage. They almost always have a greater average terpene concentration. What consumers should be looking for is the terpene concentration of the products they’re buying.”The over-emphasis on THC is partly due to chemistry and the way THC is quickly depleted. THC is, in fact, surprisingly quite delicate once the smoking process begins.“The THC percentage isn’t really that important in an inhalable product,” Wurzer continues. “You’re exhaling the vast majority of the THC you’re inhaling. Really, you could just hold the hit in longer, but the THC concentration doesn’t even necessarily get you higher. What makes [cannabis] taste better and makes the effects more pronounced is the terpene concentration, and that’s where consumers should be looking.”While it’s the most powerful psychoactive compound in cannabis, THC is best experienced the natural way, combined with other compounds.
The Highest THC Concentrates
Just how high in THC percentage can concentrates get? Some approach pure THC.“I’ve seen people make 99% concentrate distillate—purified THC—but I wouldn’t want to smoke it,” SC Labs Director of Client Relations and Co-founder Alec Dixon says. “I wouldn’t want to consume it. It would taste bad. It would be harsh. The higher concentration concentrates are generally not the most desirable.”If the taste matters, a better metric for determining the quality of concentrates would be quite a lower amount of THC, he says. The way terps are preserved in live resin is one of the ways concentrates have improved over the past decade or so.“Good live resin concentrate should be anywhere from 60 to 80% [THC], and that’s going to be the most flavorful,” Dixon says. “I’ve seen the best effects on live resin, and it’s generally considered to be a much more premium product than, say, like a distillate that’s in the 90s and that has artificial terpenes added to it.”
Dixon says that on the cultural side of things, it’s always been known to farmers that terpene content is way more of a predictive indicator of quality, evident when you open up a jar and bomb the whole neighborhood with the smell of great pot.“Smell and aroma directly coordinate toward effect,” Dixon says. “In their absence, it’s quite a bland THC effect. Unfortunately, the market is so focused on THC. It’s bound to be terp-less and, [therefore] soulless. Part of what we do with the Emerald Cup and California State Fair is to sort everything by terpene. It comes down to personal preference. To me, my favorite profiles are gas and Haze, that terpinolene Jack Herer strain.”SC Labs is among many labs that test for THC content, and variance depends on where the samples are taken.“When it comes to potency, the top versus the middle versus the bottom bud, they can test very differently depending on how the farmer prunes their plant,” Dixon says. “The more leaves on the plants in the crucial parts of development, the bigger the variance is going to be from top to bottom.”He says that most farmers who do canopy management and remove foliage remove way too much leaf, way too late in the flowering stage. As a result, areas in the middle and bottom sections are shaded by leaves, leading to massive variance in the potency levels of the buds depending on where they are grown. Click here for the rest of the story!