The biggest difference in strains is the taste (the high is about the same). The same is true, really, when it comes to Sativa versus Indica. While the plants look very different, my guess is most people would have a hard time telling the difference if they performed a blind "high" test (assuming the primary Cannabinoids are roughly the samel). While there are a lot of Cannabinoids out there, THC, CBD and CBN are going to be what effect your brain the most. CBN is probably rare in most legal weed, as it is generally a substance that occurs in aging weed and makes you sleepy (think Thai Stick) . You might be able to find it somewhere (aimed at the medical market) but my guess is most growers are going for THC and CBD. I would be very surprised if you find a couple strains that have similar THC, CBD and CBN numbers and you are able to tell the difference (in terms of getting high) even if one is Indica and the other Sativa. The taste, on the other hand, might be the difference between Chimay and Ayinger Celebrator. Both great, but hard to confuse.

I've noticed that, with the rise of all these colorfully-named strains, there has been a proportional decline in slang words for the herb itself.

I hate the word "cannabis," as it seems like the most sterile, inoffensive way to market the plant to nervous conservatives. It's the equivalent of using words like "penis" or "intercourse"- not sexy.

Gimme some ganja, some buddha, herb, gear, or good shit. Let me know if it's indica, sativa, or hybrid. Post the percentages of various cannabinoids, and no one will care what it's called.

In fact, I just learned that potency can vary quite a bit, even between plants that are the same strain, so the names truly are meaningless.

Clean your bong. Not doing so can lead to bronchitis.

You know, I always had the idea that indica had more CBD causing a different effect. When we got legal pot with labels, I learned it does not. Now I wonder how much difference you'd see between the two, blind, for a given cannabinoid profile.

I wouldn't be shocked if terpenes do cause a noticeable psychoactive difference, but I also won't be surprised if they don't, beyond flavor. The sellers need something to make interesting inventory...

Idk about you, but I've always cared about that sh** way before it was legal. Yeah it's kind of ridiculous at the level it's at- I didn't care about the name of a specific strain or 'fruity notes of blah blah", but if you've spent any amount of time smoking weed you start to get preferences for certain tastes, or especially things like dense vs fluffy, dry, sticky, etc. Or sometimes instead of preference it will be about what method you're using to smoke. Before or after legalization- when you find a connect/strain that is consistent as far as what you're looking for you always like that; and having shops with a variety of strains can make that pretty easy.

in order to make any headway in determining what differences, if any, there are between strains, you have to factor in multiple things. 1. you have to consume the exact same amount for the comparison to be fair 2. you have to keep your tolerance from getting too high (if it's higher when you consume one strain than it was when you tried a different one, that tilts the playing field) 3. you have to try each strain at least 3x, and take notes - what a strain did 1x is less convincing than if it did the same thing 3x in a row.

I'm sure people could add to this list (e.g. try the same strain from different growers), but my point is that pretty much nobody's going to approach weed this way, so if there are differences between strains, there won't be much clarity about it anytime soon.