Thanks to Rooster for this:
There are well over 100 different cannabinoids (pronounced ‘canna-bin-oids’) that can be derived from the cannabis plant, and many of them produce vastly different effects on users.
These special molecules act on cannabis receptors in our brains, mimicking chemicals that are naturally produced in the body to reduce inflammation.
Some of them don’t get you high at all, like CBD, which only provides medicinal benefits.
And still others (namely THC) just get you stoned off your ass.
And now, thanks to Italian scientists, the world has two more cannabinoids to add to the ever-growing list: TCHP and CBDP.
THCP might be 33 times stronger than THC.
Tetrahydrocannabiphorol (THCP) is the name, and getting people super-stoned is the game. In preliminary tests, this molecule was extremely active in mice and was far more effective than regular THC. Suggesting that this could be the dankest dank known to man.
If those effects transfer to humans, the recreational and medicinal implications could be huge: imagine smoking a joint and getting 30 times higher off it than you normally would… imagine the pain-reducing effects being 30-times more powerful…
Since these tests have only been conducted in labs on mice, it’s still technically unknown how either THCP or CBDP might affect humans.
Using a futuristic new technique known as “mass spectrometry” the world’s scientists now have a tool to chemically explore cannabis like it’s never been explored before.
Using mass spectrometers, they can weigh the atomic mass of a molecule to identify different chemical compounds contained within it.
This technique has already proved very fruitful in discovering new cannabinoids, and will likely be an essential one moving forward, as the legalization of cannabis becomes more widespread and more research is done on it.
It may be a while before the human trials of THCP and CBDP begin, but it stands to reason that there will be no shortage of volunteer test subjects.
Original research paper
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-56785-1
