employed for recreational usage. While THC has proven useful for some medical
purposes and has potential for others, it has become clear that CBD, which is
present in appreciable quantities in addition to THC in some marijuana plants, has
even more medicinal potential than THC.
1.6.4.1 “Marijuana”
“Marijuana”(commonly spelled marihuana in the past), the most frequently con-
sumed drug form of cannabis, usually refers to herbal preparations (unprocessed or
minimally altered plant material, not extracts or synthetics). In the past, this often
included foliage, smaller twigs, and seeds, but today is typically made only from the
female inflorescence. Some authors use the phrase“medical marijuana”to specif-
ically designate herbal material, others include extracts as well as natural and
synthetic cannabinoids. Many prefer“medical cannabis,”which does seem more
appropriate for non-herbal material, and has a less pejorative connotation.
Marijuana is frequently referred to as the“flowers”ofC. sativa. Indeed, in
pre-Second-World-War drug literature, herbal marijuana was often known by the
now largely antiquated pharmacological phrase“Cannabis Flos”(literally, Latin for
“cannabisflowers”). Femaleflowers ofC. sativaare devoid of THC except as a
contaminant (Small and Naraine2016a), so defining or characterizing marijuana as
theflowers of the plant (which in fact are invariably present in marijuana) is
technically erroneous.
Some medicinal strains ofC. sativahave been selected for very high production
of CBD coupled with very low THC. The Tikun Olam company in Israel developed
the strain Avidekel, reportedly producing a product, debatably called“highless
marijuana,”containing 15.8% CBD and only traces of THC.“Highless marijuana”
is a seemingly oxymoronic phrase since marijuana is invariably conceived to be
intoxicating, and“highless cannabis”would be preferable.
1.6.4.2 “Bracts”
Bracts are the key components of marijuana that contribute to drug potential.
Botanically, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with
flowers. The structures termed bracts inC. sativaare quite small, resembling
miniature unifoliolate leaves (i.e., leaves with just one leaflet), and they are indeed
associated with theflowers.
A “perigonal bract” covers in a cup-like fashion each female flower, and
enlarges somewhat, becoming densely covered with tiny secretory glands that
produce the bulk of the cannabinoids that C. sativa produces. (The terms
“bracteole”and“perigonium”are sometimes encountered as synonyms of“perig-
onal bract”as the phrase is applied toCannabis, but are also used in different senses
when applied to other plants.) In“sinsemilla”(literally seedless) marijuana, which
is produced by protecting the femaleflowers from being pollinated, the bracts
1 Classification ofCannabis sativaL. in Relation... 23