© Copyright 2016 The Essential Boomer LLC · All Rights Reserved

The Beginners Guide to the Top 10 Medical Cannabis Strains of 2016

by Jim Jensen

Host of The Medical Pot Guide

More and more people are discovering the benefits of using cannabis for treating a multitude of medical conditions, from anxiety and depression to epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and cancer.

Every year now, more and more states are joining the list of states where it is legal to use medical cannabis. There is also a growing national movement, albeit at a glacial

pace, building towards the legalization of cannabis for adult use, otherwise known as recreational use.

If you are new to world of medical cannabis and are looking for some guidance as far as what strains might be best suited to help you with your particular condition or if you have been using cannabis to treat what ails you for a while now and are interested in what the latest and greatest strains out there now are, then this is for you.

Please remember that I am in no way offering you any kind of medical advice nor am I encouraging you to break any laws. I’m just sharing this information to help you to make an informed decision as to which strain of medical cannabis may be of benefit to you.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and these products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

I highly recommend that you seek out the guidance of a doctor or medical expert familiar with treating their patients with cannabis before trying to treat yourself.

© Copyright 2016 The Essential Boomer LLC · All Rights Reserved

Here are a few tips to make sure that your initial experience is a positive one. THC and CBD

First, start off with strains that are fairly low in THC and high in CBDs. THC is the chemical, or better known as the cannabinoid, that is responsible for the psychological high and at the higher percentage levels of THC it can cause you to feel paranoid and increase your anxiety level significantly.

First, start off with strains that are low in THCs and high in CBDs. THC is the chemical, or better known as the cannabinoid, that is responsible for the psychological high and when smoking cannabis with a higher percentage of THC it can cause you to feel paranoid and to significantly increase your anxiety level.

Cannabidiols or better known as CBD’s are the cannabinoids in cannabis that provide a lot of the medicinal qualities without actually getting you high. CBDs are also a moderating factor for THC and so choosing strains with high CBDs and THC will result in less of a psychological high, than those with the same THC but lower CBDs.

CBD’s are amazing, really. CBDs are now shown to have anti-psychotic effects and has been effective in the treatment of mental illness such as schizophrenia. CBDs also contain very powerful anti-inflammation properties making it effective for treating many auto-immune diseases such as arthritis, lupus, vitiligo, inflammatory bowel disease, pernicious anemia and many more.

CBD’s also contain antioxidants that help to lower your risk of cancer, stroke, Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s. It is known to be very effective as an anti-tumor medication. Not bad for a plant that you can grow in your closet.

© Copyright 2016 The Essential Boomer LLC · All Rights Reserved

And for you that don’t want to get high at all, the good news is that there are a lot of strains that are very effective medically with very little THC and therefore have little to no psychoactive effects.

On the other hand, some of the higher THC strains can be very effective for pain relief and for relief of stress and anxiety so

they can be very beneficial.

The highs that are produced by many of the mid to high THC strains can help with focus, energy, mood and can be really quite uplifting.

Methods of Ingestion

The method with which you consume cannabis can have a huge effect on whether you have a positive experience or not.

Smoking

A lot of experienced cannabis users have smoked joints or marijuana cigarettes, pipes and bongs for their entire lives and can do so without any negative effects but if you’re a beginner, just starting out, and trying to find a comfortable way to consume it, smoking may do nothing but cause you to have an uncontrollable coughing fit at every puff. It is also much harder for some people to control their dosage when smoking it like that.

Many people, particularly beginners, find smoking it very difficult and distasteful. But smoking it is the fastest way to get the medicine into your bloodstream and help with your pain so what can you do?

Vaping

Fortunately, there is an excellent alternative to smoking it and that is vaporizing it with a vape. Vapes come in all forms from big desktop models called volcanos to small vape pens that fit easily

into your pocket. Vapes have a lot of benefits. First of all, they are very easy on your throat and lungs. You are actually smoking a vapor as opposed to smoke from burning cannabis. The vapor is created by heating the cannabis to lower temps, avoiding the burning altogether.

Vaping is a good way to ensure maximum bioavailability of the THC and CBDs because it goes straight to your

© Copyright 2016 The Essential Boomer LLC · All Rights Reserved

bloodstream via the lungs. Eating it, as discussed later, can seriously diminish the bioavailability of the cannabinoids and other medicinal components of the cannabis by up to 85%.

It also tastes better. To me it tastes like tea. It’s also a lot more discreet. If you smoke a joint, everybody within 100 yards of you will know that you’re smoking marijuana… or think that there’s a skunk nearby. And the odor that smoking leaves on your clothes for all intents and purposes turns you into a human skunk. How many times have you been in a room when somebody, who just recently smoked some cannabis, walks in and voila…a human skunk…literally. With a vape, there is no tell-tale skunkiness, making it a lot more discreet.

Also, dosing with a vaporizer is much easier. You can control your dosage and level of being high with ease. I have also found that the high with vapes are much better making it much less likely to get the negative psychological effects of being too high. No more paranoia and social awkwardness. Maybe that’s just me though.

You can get a good vape for less than $200 that does flower, wax and oil.

Sublingual Spray

Another excellent way to take cannabis, especially if you’re adverse to inhaling it is to do it sublingually using a spray or concentrate under the tongue. Doing it this way keeps the bio-availability of the cannabis as high as possible ensuring that you get a good dose of CBDs. It’s also easier to control dosage with individual sprays or drops of concentrate. There are some good sprays available at the better dispensaries or you can try to

make your own, though this is a fairly complicated process. I’ll cover this in a future podcast. Cannabis concentrates are also illegal in many states so beware of that too.

I’m not really going to cover concentrates, such as wax, oil and shatter, in this episode. I’ll leave that for a future one. Suffice it now to say that concentrates can be very effective for using cannabis to treat chronic disease such as cancer and epilepsy. It is very concentrated so the use of it should be monitored by your doctor or medical professional, who is experienced in its use as a treatment.

© Copyright 2016 The Essential Boomer LLC · All Rights Reserved

Edibles

The next method for consuming cannabis is by eating it. This can be a great way for taking cannabis and for a lot of people it’s the best option for avoiding having to inhale it at all, but there is a big word of caution with doing edibles. The effects of eating cannabis can be delayed by hours and then once felt, can last a lot longer than smoking it…It can last many hours. And the big mistake many newcomers do with eating is to eat too many too soon. So be very careful and start off with tiny doses and be patient!

It is also very important to remember, as I mentioned earlier that eating cannabis significantly decreases the bioavailability of the chemical components of the cannabis, particularly the CBDs and THCs. This is due to the whole digestive process where it’s exposed to stomach acids and then filtration through the liver and kidneys.

Topicals

Topicals can also be very soothing for localized pain and symptoms, such as for arthritis. Our skin is pretty efficient at absorbing topicals and most of them won’t get you high at all. Some patients swear by topicals…others don’t get much relief at all.

Raw Cannabis

Another delivery method that is really starting to get some traction is by eating raw cannabis. People do this by blending the whole plant leaves and all into a smoothie drink. This can be a very effective way to ingest cannabis but it can also be very expensive because it takes a lot more cannabis per dose, than the other methods. It also requires that the plant be fresh, as in, no drying at all…I mean fresh right off of the bush. This means that you have to have access to fresh cannabis at all times which means that you either have to grow your own, and I mean a lot of your own, year around, or you have to have access to fresh whole cannabis, which can be prohibitively expensive, especially from a dispensary. I’ll cover this topic in much more detail in a future podcast.

© Copyright 2016 The Essential Boomer LLC · All Rights Reserved

So those are the main delivery methods of cannabis.

Okay, so let’s now reveal my favorite top strains of medical cannabis for 2016.

© Copyright 2016 The Essential Boomer LLC · All Rights Reserved

The following strains are very High CBD Strains and low to medium in their THC content making them a great choice for beginners.

Harlequin is a very popular strain for treating pain, inflammation and anxiety. It was the very first high CBD strain in the United States. It has a whopping 5:2 ratio of CBD to Cannabis making it an excellent choice for minimizing the psychoactive effects while pumping up the medicinal qualities. The high is a very subtle and clear-headed. It has around 4-7% THC and 8-16% CBD. This is a winner.

Steep Hill Lab Strain Fingerprint:

CBN – 0.00 – 0.02%

Linalool - 0 – 0.01%

CBG – 0.2 - 0.9%

B-Myrcene – 0.2 – 0.8%

THCV – 0 – 0.5%

A-Pinene 0 – 0.2%

CBC – 0.04 – 0.4%

D-Limonene – 0 – 0.2%

CBL – 0 – 0.2%

B-Caryophyliene – 0 – 0.2%

Sour Tsunami is another strain made famous by its high CBD content. It is very effective at treating pain, inflammation, muscle spasms and stress with a very minimal high. The THC content is under 10% while the CBD test out at about 10 or 11%. This is one of the best strains exhibiting the 1:1 ratio of THC to CBDs which seems to be a sweet spot for medical cannabis. It has been effective at fighting several forms of aggressive cancers.

Steep Hill Lab Strain Fingerprint:

Not Available

© Copyright 2016 The Essential Boomer LLC · All Rights Reserved

ACDC is a remarkable strain of cannabis exhibiting a 20:1 ratio of CBDs to THC. It virtually produces no discernable psychoactive effects. It’s amazing. It has been used to treat patients with pain, anxiety, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis as well as the negative side effects of chemotherapy. It contains a paltry average of .42 – 1.2% THC and a whopping 16-24% CBD.

Steep Hill Lab Strain Fingerprint:

CBN – 0.00 – 0.2%

Linalool - 0 – 0.1%

CBG – 0.04 - 0.6%

B-Myrcene – 0.11 – 2.2 %

THCV – 0 – 0.03%

A-Pinene 0 – 0.2%

CBC – 0.01 – 0.6%

D-Limonene – 0 – 0.3%

CBL – 0 – 0.001%

B-Caryophyliene – 0 – 0.2%

Cannatonic – This interesting strain has a very low THC content of around 5% and a very high CBD content of around 6 – 17%. It produces a mild, fairly short high that is very relaxing. It is excellent when used for pain, muscle spasms, anxiety and for migraines. It has also been used to treat severe seizures and for cancer. This is a good choice for people who don’t want the full effects of a THC high.

Steep Hill Lab Strain Fingerprint:

CBN – 0.00 – 0.07%

Linalool - 0 – 0.12%

CBG – 0.00 - 1.6%

B-Myrcene – 0 – 1.68 %

THCV – 0 – 0.40%

© Copyright 2016 The Essential Boomer LLC · All Rights Reserved

A-Pinene 0 – 0.41%

CBC – 0.00 – 0.54%

D-Limonene – 0 – 0.35%

CBL – 0 – 0.00%

B-Caryophyliene – 0 – 0.26%

Charlottes Web is another well-known strain named after Charlotte Figi, a young Colorado girl whose severe seizures were successfully treated with this strain. Due to its very low THC content at less than 1% and very High CBD content topping off at around 17% this strain will not produce any psychoactive effects, but wow, it’s a medical powerhouse. It is used to treat seizures, muscle spasms, pain, headaches, and stress. It has been reported to produce dizziness in some patients.

Steep Hill Lab Strain Fingerprint:

Not Available

Harle-Tsu is a cross-breeding of two very high CBD strains, Harlequin and Sour Tsunami, both of which has earned a spot on my favorites list here. It boasts a 20:1 ratio of CBD to THC and has between 20 to 24% CBD making it one of the highest in the market today. It’s THC level is a paltry 1% or less. It has a very minimal high where you don’t feel stoned or have that feeling of paranoia.

This strain may be hard to find but is worth the search if you do find it. This is a go-to strain for many marijuana doctors for treating chronic pain, stress and inflammatory disorders. This strain is also very good for sleep and relaxation.

Steep Hill Lab Strain Fingerprint:

Not Available

© Copyright 2016 The Essential Boomer LLC · All Rights Reserved

The following strains have a medium to high THC content so they may get you VERY high. These strains should be approached cautiously by beginners though they do provide very powerful medical benefits.

Blackberry Kush is a strain that is fairly high in THC but is very effective with pain, stress, anxiety and insomnia. It produces a pronounced high due to it’s 20% THC content and can put you in sleepy land in no time. It also has a 2% CBD content.

Steep Hill Lab Strain Fingerprint:

Not Available

Sour Diesel – This very popular strain is known worldwide. It’s a very powerful strain providing an invigorating and very uplifting high. It is very effective for treating stress, depression and pain. Beware of the munchies with this one. It is about 18%-25% THC and .5% CBD. It’s not for the faint hearted so this may not be your best first pick as a beginner.

Steep Hill Lab Strain Fingerprint:

CBN – 0.00 – 0.04%

Linalool – 0.01 – 0.1%

CBG – 0.00 - 1.%

B-Myrcene – 0.06 – 0.5%

THCV – 0 – 0.2%

A-Pinene 0 – 0.4%

CBC – 0.00 – 0.5%

D-Limonene – 0 – 0.6%

CBL – 0 – 0.6%

B-Caryophyliene – 0 – 0.5%

© Copyright 2016 The Essential Boomer LLC · All Rights Reserved

Blue Widow, aka Blue Venom, Berry White and White Berry, is a medium to high THC content strain That has been used effectively to relieve pain and pain related symptoms such as cramps, sprains, migraines as well as anxiety, hypertension and stress. It is also used to relieve the nausea caused by chemotherapy. The high produced is very happy, relaxed and uplifting.

Steep Hill Lab Strain Fingerprint:

Not Available

Blue Dream – Blue Dream is a sativa leaning hybrid that is a legend among strains. It is one of the most popular strains and is usually readily available. This amazing hybrid produces a very happy, relaxed, euphoric high while easing stress and depression. It works very well with chronic pain due to injury or illness. The effects of it have been compared to a full-body massage. It is also very easy to grow and can produce enormous yields. It can have from 17% - 24% THC and from .1 to .2% CBD.

Steep Hill Lab Strain Fingerprint:

CBN – 0.00 – 0.1%

Linalool - 0 – 0. 1%

CBG – 0.2 - 0.6%

B-Myrcene – 0.3 – 1.1%

THCV – 0.01 – 0.2%

A-Pinene 0 – 0.7%

CBC – 0.01 – 0.2%

D-Limonene – 0 – 0.2%

CBL – 0 – 0.0%

B-Caryophyliene – 0 – 0.2%

HERE is a great video put out by Leafly on Blue Dream – Check it out!

© Copyright 2016 The Essential Boomer LLC · All Rights Reserved

Well, there they are. My 10 favorite medical strains for 2016. Remember that New strains are coming out all the time so if your dispensary doesn’t have the strain that you are looking for than ask the budtender for their recommendation on which available strains would be able to provide the same benefits.

Leafly has an excellent website and database where you can search through hundreds of cannabis strains & infused products. You will be able to get very detailed information on just about any strain that is available. The search engine and data presentation is what puts this site above all others when it comes to researching strains for both medical and recreational use.

Related Articles

Study Explores Health Effects of High-THC Cannabis – by Ben Adlin

6 Surprising Facts About THC – Leafscience.com

What are the Side Effects of High-THC Cannabis? – Bailey Rahn

High CBD Products for Medical Marijuana Patients – Bailey Rahn

What are the Best Cannabis Strains for Pain? – Baley Rahn

Which Cannabis Strains are High in CBD? – Bailey Rahn

What are the Best Cannabis Strains for Cancer-Related Symptoms? – Bailey Rahn

10 Best Medical Cannabis Strains You Should Be Using. – Anna Wilcox

What are High CBD Cannabis Strains and How Do They Differ from High THC Strains? – Rachel Chambers