Can Terpenes Reverse A Bad Cannabis High?
Most people use cannabis to improve how they are feeling, but sometimes plans go wrong and you are left with a bad high.
Symptoms from THC like anxiety, difficulty thinking clearly, or coach-lock can happen when you use the wrong cannabis strain for your needs, or use too high of a dose. Some products currently on the market (and some that are being developed) promise to reverse a bad high using terpenes – but can they deliver on that promise? The science suggests that some terpenes (chemicals naturally present in cannabis and other plants) can help, but the mechanisms behind this are still being researched.
High-Not, a cannabis recovery shot that includes a blend of terpenes, is one product that promises to “ease the cannabis experience,” for “a more balanced and controlled effect.”
High-Not announced the results of a consumer perception study today. The 12-week-long study conducted by the clinical trial provider Citrus Labs found positive results. In two separate tests of the product (following consumption of THC), 87.5% and 79.2% of participants reported that the product eased/reduced their THC high. 83.3% of participants reported that High-Not began to work within 1 hour of consumption, while 58.3% reported that their high was removed after only 15 minutes. Overall 75% of participants reported that they were satisfied with the test product.
Their product includes terpenes Limonene and α-Pinene - both chosen based on research suggesting that they can modulate THC’s effects in a beneficial way.
High-Not CEO Antoine Awwad shared in an interview that “It took a significant amount of research and development with a compounding pharmacist to narrow down from hundreds of terpenes to a formula that we felt would be effective and accessible to everyone.”
High-Not is not the only product seeking to reverse a bad high with terpenes. Soft Landing, a terpene infused chocolate bar, made news last year when they conducted a survey on their product, which found 80 percent rating it "effective" or "very effective." Still, none of their products are currently available on their website.
These consumer studies were limited by small sample sizes and the lack of any control group, which can lead to skewed results due to the placebo effect. But more rigorous studies also suggest that terpenes may be helpful for shifting an unpleasant high.
Research suggests α-Pinene, for example, may counteract short term memory effects of THC. And a recent study found adding the terpene d-limonene to THC significantly reduced ratings of "anxious/nervous" and "paranoid" compared with THC alone.
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What is less clear is how these terpenes create these effects. While some have proposed that terpenes compete with THC at CB1 and CB2 receptors, essentially acting as a block against THC binding, little research seems to support this claim. While one commonly cited study did find some terpenes interacted with THC at the CB1 receptor, it found these terpenes increased activation of the receptor, rather than caused any reduction that might account for a high “reversal.”
In addition, numerous studies have looked and failed to find evidence that any of the primary terpenes in cannabis (including α-Pinene and limonene) could modulate the effects of THC via CB1 or CB2. This does not mean that terpenes are not effective at modulating the effects of THC, but it does suggest that we have yet to discover the pathways they use to cause this effect.
So can terpenes reverse a bad high? The research looks promising, but much more needs to be studied to fully understand how terpenes shift THC’s effects.
