5 Things I’ve Learned About Terpenes in 2021

I‘ve created over a dozen in-depth articles focused on different terpenes over the past few months. Through this process, I’ve received a huge education myself — sometimes the lesson was a new one, and sometimes I found validation for things I already knew, and more depth to the issue than I initially understood!

As the end of the year is a great time to reflect on the journey, here are five things that I learned in 2021 while I studied and wrote about terpenes.

Terpenes have been helping humans live better lives for a very long time and have more applications than just medicine.

My favorite fact about terpenes is that geosmin, the terpene that causes petrichor (the smell of the dirt after rain) is a terpene that humans can smell more accurately than sharks can smell blood in the water. The theory is that we can smell geosmin because it was an indicator of where water was — which was key to our survival. Humans have been living with and using terpenes to improve our lives since we first went searching for water — how amazing is that?

We don’t just use terpenes to find water now — we use them for thriving. Terpenes are on the cutting edge of materials science. Medical science is turning to the old wisdom of medicinal herbs and has found a wealth of potential in them.

Boiling point indicates a point at which the terpene will undergo a chemical change, it doesn’t mean you have to vaporize it at that temperature to experience it.

I include boiling points in my summaries because it’s important to note at which temperature terpenes will undergo chemical changes. This doesn’t mean that you need to boil the terpene to experience it (just smelling it tells you that you’re experiencing it!). The boiling point is the temperature at which the terpene will undergo a change and will turn to gas.

It’s interesting to note that in some studies that deal with inhalation of terpenes, they mention that the amount of terpenes added for inhalation were below the threshold for detection — so you don’t need to boil it to have it impact your vapor — you don’t even need to smell it or taste it (but boy I like to)!

I also learned that the temperatures that dry herb vaporizers report aren’t accurate. Just as with edible dosing, with dry herb vaporization experiences, try low and slow as an introduction, and then start fine-tuning your experience from there. The temperature shown is a guideline, not an absolute.

Marketers often overstate what research says. Sometimes researchers do, too. It’s because Cannabis Science is in its infancy.

I’ve seen a lot of bold overstatements of terpene effects. It’s easy to do, and it’s why I’ve started being very specific in my language around what a terpene can do. While a lot of terpenes may boast anxiolytic effects — a lot of the scientific research that backs that up is in rat models and not in humans. I’ve started to include prior medicinal uses of herbs, in addition to looking to more than one study to help determine if a terpene is effective for a particular issue or not. The other thing to be aware of is that early research is often just that — and cannabis research is in its infancy.

Terpenes are volatile, which means they require a lot of care to keep them intact for the best cannabis experience. Fanning the flower to smell it isn’t a great practice for the flower.

While I love the idea of wafting terpenes over so someone can determine if a particular flower is for them, I don’t love it for anyone who has to buy cannabis out of that jar. Terpenes are volatile substances and need to be treated with care to preserve them for the cannabis experience. Moisture packs and air-tight containers are a must, and make sure that your local retailer treats your cannabis with care so you can get the best-tasting terpenes. Many of the top growers I’ve talked to have mentioned steps they take to ensure their terpenes are as long-lasting and as fresh for their customer as possible, and have gone as far as to open their own retail locations to ensure this is done right. Someone needs to invent the scratch and sniff cannabis stickers that match the strains in the jar!

Until Cannabis is federally legalized in the United States, our ability to understand the impact of terpenes on health will be greatly hindered.

The federal, racist war on cannabis that keeps for-profit prisons full also has a grave impact on medical cannabis patients — until federal legalization happens, meaningful testing can not be reasonably performed. Until 2017, with the premiere of the Cannavan in Colorado, there was no way for the effects of off-the-shelf products to be meaningfully measured. Until cannabis is federally legalized, researchers and patients will be cut off from understanding this important plant.

BONUS LESSON:

If you find a cannabis grower that cares about their terpenes, you’ve found a cannabis grower that loves their cannabis.