Euphoria is a pleasant and positive feeling, but every person’s experience is uniquely their own. Some people might describe it as a happy, floating sensation, others as an incredible state of supreme peace. Whatever the descriptor, the rise of legal cannabis has meant a lot more people are tapping into this joyous state of being.
Cannabis’ diverse chemical makeup of cannabinoids and terpenes is well known for encouraging a euphoric state of mind. The foundation of this sensation is typically THC, but did you know that terpenes can boost the effects?
Here is everything you need to know about cannabis and that blissed-out high, including the best terpenes for euphoria.
What Is a Euphoric High?
A feeling of euphoria is subjectively qualified by any individual’s environment and the context that exists at the time.
A euphoric high can happen from winning a race, powerful meditation, incredible sex, or enjoying a little of the devil’s lettuce (aka cannabis). Whatever the stimulus, it is a feeling of intense happiness, relaxation, and contentment.
The euphoric effects are often accompanied by a sense of relaxation, increased sociability, heightened creativity, and an overall positive mood. This is especially true when the experience stems from cannabis consumption.
A high, as associated with cannabis consumption, can come with physical sensations as well, like warmth, tingling, or a feeling of heaviness or lightness in the body. The intensity and experience of the euphoric high can vary depending on factors like the specific cannabis strain, dose, method of consumption, and the individual’s biology and tolerance.
Are There Euphoric Strains?
Euphoria isn’t strain-dependent. Instead, it is user-dependent. If you’re dabbling with cannabis and looking for a high that feels euphoric, you need a strain that delivers the types of experience you would describe as euphoric.
A strain that encourages riotous giggles and social stimulus might feel euphoric to you, while another person feels pure euphoria from a much more introspective strain. One person can find this state in Blue Dream, while another finds it in Bubba Kush.
Furthermore, euphoria is typically tied to THC content, and THC tolerance varies widely from person to person. Too much THC can lead to anxiety or paranoia, but how much that is will depend on someone’s tolerance, sex, metabolism, and other factors.
Is sativa or indica more euphoric?
While originally botanists classified cannabis into two distinct types, subspecies indica and sativa, all cannabis now in existence are hybrids. Today, it is more accurate to speak of strains as indica-dominant or sativa-dominant, but even these distinctions can fail to accurately describe strains’ effects.
It’s much more sensible to look at a specific strain’s chemical makeup, the cannabinoids and terpenes, and then decide for yourself whether the strain creates the personalized experience you want.
Best euphoric strains
People can and do fall into general groups when it comes to reactions to specific cannabis strains.
As you read through the never-ending strain reviews, you’ll see patterns in how consumers feel about certain ones. According to this unscientific polling, here are the strains that deliver what people describe as a euphoric high:
- Quantum Kush
- Kosher Kush
- Pineapple Express
- Ghost Train Haze
- Berry Haze
- Girl Scout Cookies
- Grape Ape
- Northern Lights
- Haze Berry
- Blue Dream
- Super Silver Haze
- Blue Diesel
- Pink Kush
- Headband
- Lemon Haze
- Wedding Cake
While not conclusive information about euphoric strains, this list is a great one to start with. You can experiment with these specific cannabis strains to see if one of them delivers the type of euphoric high you’re looking for.
What Creates a Euphoric Experience?
Did you know our bodies are capable of creating a euphoric high on their own? The human body has an endocannabinoid system that allows chemicals like anandamide to bind to receptors in the brain and exert an overall modulatory effect on its reward circuitry. This effect on the reward circuit can make you feel hungry, happy, or euphoric. The more anandamide you have, the more of these feelings you experience.
Many plant-based cannabinoids are close enough in chemical structure to natural endocannabinoids (like the aforementioned anandamide) that they also bind to these brain receptors, causing similar effects.
For example, THC also activates the brain’s reward system, including the regions that govern responses to healthy, pleasurable behaviors such as sex and eating. THC stimulates neurons in the reward system to release the signaling chemical dopamine at higher levels than are typically observed in response to normal behaviors.
However, there is another group of chemical compounds found in the cannabis plant that can enhance the positive effects of cannabinoids like THC on brain activity related to pain, anxiety, and depression, thanks to what is known as the entourage effect. These aromatic compounds are known as terpenes, and many of them have also been found to be independently capable of affecting mood and perceptions of your environment.
What does all of this mean? A euphoric high is a deeply personal experience that can be directed by your biological makeup plus your personal reaction to different compounds like cannabinoids and terpenes. Speaking of terpenes, here are some of the isolated botanical terpenes most often connected with euphoria.
What are the best terpenes for euphoria?
Disclaimer: Terpenes are non-polar, oil-based hydrocarbons that, in pure form, can be very potent and sometimes volatile, flammable, and even corrosive compounds. For this reason, they should strictly be used by experienced and trained manufacturers, and we advise those unfamiliar with these compounds to exercise caution.
Here at Lab Effects, we’ve been testing terpenes for a long time. Our team’s experience experimenting with terpene blends in multiple product applications that have been monitored in use over time, have allowed us to continually improve these blends. Although the therapeutic value of many isolated botanical terpenes are well established, finding the right ratios to combine them for an optimal targeted response, takes time. This includes those likely to result in an elevated mood shift and sense of euphoria. We’ve worked over many years to create blended terpenes that can be used to develop cannabis products that deliver predictable and consistent results.
But when it comes to enhancing specific effects for a more curated experience, our therapeutic terpene blends can help you toward that end. Find a blend formulated to help with rest and sleep, immunity, focus, or pain perception, all designed and tested by Lab Effects.
Maybe you are enhancing a beverage, rather than an inhalable or an edible. Our water-soluble terpenes allow us to fold any terpene profile into a water-based product. These terpenes can be used in a variety of applications from daily beverages such as sports drinks, spirits, and beer, to water-based topical creams and lotions.
Isolated Terpenes for Euphoria
Of course, blended within all the formulations above, whether it’s our water-soluble options or cannabis-derived terpene stains, are pure, isolated terpenes. The following terpenes have been evidenced to improve mood, reduce stress, and other effects that may help enhance your state of being.
Limonene
Limonene has been connected to benefits in mood, which can make you feel like you’re in an elevated, “high,” or euphoric state.
Myrcene
Myrcene has become well known for its potential to help reduce anxiety, making you feel euphoric in a relaxed and happy way.
Alpha-pinene
Alpha-pinene has an anxiety-reducing therapeutic effect, which can mean a relaxed and euphoric state that helps smooth over the jagged edges of your day.
Linalool
Linalool is known for its potential to help with both depression and anxiety and may be able to significantly boost your mood, leading to euphoria.
Humulene
Humulene has been associated with the ability to relieve mental stress, which can lead to feelings of euphoria as your worries fade away.
Beta-caryophyllene
Beta-caryophyllene is thought to be active in modulating your body’s stress response, helping the cares of the day fall from your shoulders and giving you a sense of euphoric well-being.
Alpha-bisabolol
Alpha-bisabolol can have a pain-relieving, calming effect on your body and mind, leading to feelings of euphoria as your body relaxes and your perceptions of pain are muted.
Lab Effects: Your #1 Source of High-Quality, Consistent Terpenes
Terpenes can enhance your products for a fuller-bodied, often “more euphoric” high, delivering anxiety relief, pain reduction, and depression easement and enhancing feelings of relaxation, happiness, and well-being.
- Lab Effects has 40+ true-to-flower terpene strains available.
- Our terpenes only come from natural plant sources.
- We never use solvents or harsh extraction methods.
- We develop complex terpene profiles to match your needs.
Order cannabis terpenes wholesale today from a reputable company in the U.S. cannabis industry. Lab Effects is cGMP-certified, ISO 9001-certified, HACCP-certified, FDA-registered, and ANAB-accredited.
