The dankest dank: Newly discovered cannabinoid could be 30 times more potent than THC

Ready your space helmet, cowboy, you ain’t never been this high

Vices By Will Brendza

There are well over 100 different cannabinoids 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. Some, like THCV, might be able to help regulate obesity.

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. The former of which, could be as much 30-times more potent than the standard THC.

Yes, you read that correctly — THC X 30. 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. Quite literally. 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…

It would be a game changer.

But, scientists have been quick to steel the public’s expectations. They iterated and reiterated that we don’t know how the effects of THCP or CBDP will transfer to human beings yet. Since these tests have only been conducted in labs on mice, it’s still technically unknown how either THCP or CBDP might affect humans. They could treat certain ailments much better than their counterparts, they could have totally new, totally novel medical applications… or, they could be totally useless.

We just don’t know yet.

Still, this discovery is a hopeful one. Not just because we might have a super-cannabinoid on our hands, but also because it illustrates just how much we still have to discover about the cannabis plant. The same team of Italian researchers who made this discovery, also discovered two other previously unknown cannabinoids last year: THCB and CBDB (both of which remain largely un-researched as of yet).

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.

Yes, it seems like the closer we get to cannabis, the more cannabinoids we discover. And that is very good news, because most, if not all of these canna-molecules have medicinal applications.

While these two new molecules are still largely obscured in mystery, preliminary tests suggest that they could be very potent and therefore very useful.

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. What kind of backwards stoner wouldn’t want to try a cannabinoid that’s potentially 30-times stronger than THC?

Sign me up.