Study Reveals Broad Therapeutic Impact of THC

A new study by researchers at the University of New Mexico has shown that THC may be just as medicinally valuable as CBD — and perhaps even more so, EurekAlert reports.

Public perception of the medicinal powers of cannabis has largely transferred to the second major cannabinoid in the plant, CBD. However, results from the study show a much stronger correlation of therapeutic relief with THC over CBD.

The research investigates user-reports submitted by patients with the Releaf App, the largest database of the effects of cannabis in the U.S. The analysis covered data from 20,000 user sessions and 27 symptom categories on a spectrum including symptoms such as depression and seizure activity.

“Despite the conventional wisdom, both in the popular press and much of the scientific community, that only CBD has medical benefits while THC merely makes one high, our results suggest that THC may be more important than CBD in generating therapeutic benefits. In our study, CBD appears to have little effect at all, while THC generates measurable improvements in symptom relief. These findings justify the immediate de-scheduling of all types of cannabis, in addition to hemp, so that cannabis with THC can be more widely accessible for pharmaceutical use by the general public.” — Jacob Miguel Vigil, study co-author, via EurekAlert

The study, “The Association Between Cannabis Product Characteristics and Symptom Relief,” is published in the journal Scientific Reports.