It is common to hear

 Although the realization of a legal framework in Mexico for THC and CBD is still in fairly primitive stages, there are already some advances.

It is common to hear, either by legislators or advocates of medical marijuana, that while Tetahydrocannabinol (THC) has the components that produce the desired psychoactivity in the consumer, Cannabidiol (CBD) is the compound from which the medical applications of the cannabis. The problem is that they cannot be spoken of as completely isolatable elements, neither for medicine nor for the common psychoactivity of the plant.

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"For the ignorant legislator, CBD is the medicinal component and THC the most aggressive component," says political scientist Jorge Tinajero. It is precisely there that the apology for the use of cannabidiol with low concentrations of THC begins. By an "unscientific" approach, he sees THC as pernicious and CBD friendly when, in reality, he always has to keep in mind that the effects are achieved from the interaction between the two.

"Currently the conversation is about the specific use of CBD with a one percent concentration of THC," says Tinajero. “Any doctor could prescribe those with less than that. In fact, it is one of the only ways to get a drug made from cannabis. " Those who have more than one percent will have the need to write a prescription or have an electronic medical prescription made by the treating doctor who, in addition, has to go through an approval process of the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS ) so that CBD-based drugs can be imported under control.

The conversation between CBD and THC, however, is a different one from the recent news about legal protections that could make personal use of marijuana jurisprudence. “They should not be confused. These protections are located within another framework, since it is independent of the medical potential. Here it is a question of the limits of the State vis-à-vis the individual and the freedom of the elderly to exercise their conscious freedom, ”says Tinajero. "What is sought with the amparos is to be able to carry out private cultivation without commercial purposes."

I spoke with Pedro Motta, specialist in the molecular composition and extracts in cannabis, to understand more about these cannabinoids, their differences, similarities and why, even talking about CBD, the approach to the subject is still quite skewed for economic and moral reasons, no scientists.

VICE: What is THC and what is CBD?

Pedro Motta: THC is the most popular cannabinoid. It was the first to be discovered, isolated or identified. For decades it was considered the main cause of the effects of cannabis. It still has a reputation for doing that, but it is already known that there are many other cannabinoids that have other contributions to psychoactive and holistic / medicinal effects. I do not distinguish between the psychoactive medicinal effect and the medicinal effect because, for me, the psychoactive effect is also medicinal. It is also the most popular because it is the most found. In a cannabis sample from here to Japan, it will have the same pattern of THC dominance: 80 or 90 percent THC. That is the profile of the herbs that are used as psychoactive substances.

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CBD was discovered some 40 years ago, but it gained fame 10 years ago. After its popularization, hybridization began to take a different approach to reaching higher levels of CBD. Nowadays, there are plants that produce a resin that instead of having a greater part of THC cannabinoids, has a greater part of CBD, although it retains other secondary cannabinoids. When they discovered CBD they also discovered that there is a holistic role in the final effect of both psychoactivity and medicinal effects that depends on the presence of other cannabinoids: especially THC and CBD because they are the most present components; CBD is the second most present with 10 or 5 percent, maybe less. I say these percentages in total terms. That is, what I am talking about is the total composition of cannabinoids, as if you were only grabbing the resin.

Does CBD have an active role in psychoactive effects?

Let's say THC flies, and CBD pulls it back down. Its psychoactivity is more "calm", less noticeable, less abrupt, less provocative than that of THC. The presence of CBD also causes more THC to pass through the blood-brain barrier and that THC binds to a greater number of receptors and remains within the brain for longer. In other words, the presence of CBD makes THC more powerful and longer lasting.

This is the synergistic effect that was coined from the entourage, which is the conjugation of all the elements together that makes the final effect a product of that interaction and not of the sum. It is a potentiation: that CBD + THC is not THC x 2, but rather THC x 100.