WHAT SO SPECIAL ABOUT SATIVAS ?
Sativas are uplifting and cerebral, enhancing creativity and productivity. The sativas deliver more of a “mind high.” Sativa plants require longer to grow and yield less medicine (flowers) than indica varieties.
When it comes to medical conditions, sativa strains tend to be better for psychological disorders like depression, PTSD, and anxiety. So many diseases and their treatments are accompanied by side effects like depression and insomnia, a patient must consider treating both their core disease and also its daily symptoms. In the end, each patient will favor multiple strains that will likely fall within the categories of sativa, hybrid, and indica.
Sativa have a smell sweet, fruity, or spicy aroma. This difference in aroma is the result of terpenes, the molecules within the plant that are cousins to cannabinoids like THC and CBD.
A particular strain of cannabis is categorized as indica, sativa, or hybrid based on the quantity of a terpene called Myrecene. Myrcene, which the most common terpene in cannabis, is known to help patients sleep, battling conditions like anxiety and insomnia. If present in a specific strain in a volume greater than 0.5 percent, the strain is considered an indica. If the amount of myrcene is under one half of one percent, then the strain is deemed a sativa.
This dynamic is a good example of the entourage effect, a theory that cannabinoids and terpenes work together to deliver medicinal efficacy to patients.