Education

The entourage effect is a name given to a biological and consumption process that allows the largest, widest range of medicinal benefits to be felt from consuming cannabis. Smoking or vaporizing raw bud allows all 113 phytocannabinoids and 455+ terpenes to be absorbed, instead of just a singular phytocannabinoid like THC or CBD that you would get from concentrates. The more phytocannabinoids and the more terpenes that are consumed, the better for you it will be.

Examples of this effect can be seen in even minor comparisons between a few chemicals found in cannabis. Mangoes are high in the terpene myrcene, which has a synergistic effect on THC that intensifies the high. Consuming a mango before consuming cannabis can make the high last longer and hit harder. Alternatively, caryophyllene has the opposite effect, and can reduce the intensity of a high by interacting directly with the THC. Linalool has been shown to augment the anti-seizure effects of CBD and other phytocannabinoids, myrcene has been shown to influence CBG’s anticancer properties and caryophyllene has been shown to interact with CBD in its CB2 receptor binding, among many other interactions. 

A possible reason for smoking cannabis, the “archaic” form of consumption, remaining so popular is thanks to the entourage effect. Cannabis and all of its phytocannabinoids, when combined with the terpenes naturally found in the bud, were found to have 330% more activity than THC alone. A combination of them is rare, if existing at all in the concentration world. Some oil making companies will reinject terpenes back into their products, but it pales in comparison to the raw bud.