Cannabinoids
Cannabinoids are the family of compounds the cannabis plant produces. A California lab report lists several of them by name and percentage, and this page explains what those names are.
This is a description of what is in the plant, not a claim about what it will do for you. For anything health related, ask a doctor.
THC and CBD
THC is the compound responsible for cannabis being intoxicating. When a menu quotes a percentage or a milligram figure without saying which cannabinoid it means, it means THC.
CBD is not intoxicating. Products are often described by their ratio of CBD to THC, so a 20:1 label means twenty parts CBD to one part THC. High-CBD products sit on the same shelves and are labelled the same way.
THCA and the acid forms
In the living plant, most THC exists as THCA, an acid form that is not intoxicating until heat converts it. That conversion is what smoking, vaporising or baking does.
This is why a lab report can show a high THCA figure alongside a low THC figure for the same flower, and why the total is often printed separately.
The minor cannabinoids
CBN, CBG and Delta-8 THC turn up on labels in smaller quantities. Delta-8 is intoxicating and is a different molecule from the Delta-9 THC that a standard THC figure refers to.
If a product leads with a minor cannabinoid, the label will say so and the lab report will carry the number.
Terpenes are not cannabinoids
Terpenes are the aromatic compounds that give a strain its smell, and they are listed separately from cannabinoids on a report. Our own icon legend explains how we group them by flavour.
