Cannabinoids Revisited: THCV
Hey folks! Time again for another exciting and (hopefully) informative blog post from Circa 1818, your one and only local cannabis retailer. For the last little bit, we’ve been reviewing the minor cannabinoids that you’ll find in cannabis products on the market in an effort to make you more aware of what they can do to help improve your life and sense of well-being. To conclude our little round up, we’re going to be taking a look at the rootin’ tootin’ munchy reducin’ cannabinoid known as THCV.
Rootin….tootin?
What? It’s Cobourg on a Wednesday morning and I’m feeling whimsical. Anyway, THCV (or tetrahydrocannabivarin) is unique amongst cannabinoids due to its distinctive effects. Notably it spits in the face of stoner logic by allegedly counteracting the munchies through its function as an appetite suppressant and also provides what many people describe as an energy boost. If you’re a wake n’ bake type of person, this means you could start your day by putting a little extra pop in your step as opposed to dulling the roar of reality with a THC heavy blast of weed…unless dulling the roar is the point in which case, dull away buddy!
As is the case with the other cannabinoids we’ve been discussing the past few weeks, THCV is non-intoxicating at lower doses, with it in fact mitigating some of the more intense effects of regular THC. However, at high doses some people have reported a psycho-active response, which is something one should bear in mind if taking THCV and attempting to operate a motor vehicle or heavy machinery. Science is also hard at work looking at THCV as a means to help people who suffer from Type 2 Diabetes since it seems to act to reduce glucose intolerance, which according to my diabetic best friend is a good thing. In addition, there are signs that THCV could be useful for helping to treat the symptoms of a variety of issues ranging from Parkinson’s Disease to weirdly enough acne. Who knows, in the future people might be able to smoke a reefer to help make their skin healthier. Weirder things have happened.
Really quick aside that I feel is important to remember when it comes to what we know about the effects of cannabis. Very few long-term human studies have been performed featuring cannabis and as a result most of the quantifiable facts that we have to work with at this point come from tests performed in laboratories with mice and the like. As such, we need to take a lot of information about how cannabis functions in humans with a grain of salt. Anecdotally, we have plenty of user feedback and personal experience that we here at Circa 1818 pull from to help educate you, but we’re all still learning as we go and at least as far as THCV is concerned, nothing conclusive has been stated as far as its utility in long term human use.
Where can I find it?
THCV is one of the harder cannabinoids to track down in the great wide open of the Canadian cannabis industry. There is a SHRED blend of pre milled flower derived from a strain colourfully named “Get Sh*t Done” that we here at Circa carry on the regular and a few edibles by brands like Sourz that feature THCV in appreciable quantities but aside from that, it’s fairly rare. However, as is usually the case here at Circa, we’re on the constant lookout for exciting new products so expect to see more THCV products going forward!
Take a gander at our menu and find out for yourself if THCV is the cannabinoid you’ve been looking for!