It's really a rabbit hole into how we haven't truly figured out how the human body completely works yet. Fascinating for would be arm-chair biologists or folks that like science.
Each of us have an Endocannabinoid system that is involved in homeostasis, essentially the system that is responsible for keeping our body in balance.
So you actually produce THC-like chemicals within your body naturally even if you never smoked weed ever in your life. Anandamide is one of those cannabinoids that your body produces and means bliss in Sanskrit. That and a few other naturally occurring cannabinoids that circulate throughout your body to achieve homeostasis.
THC, CBD, and terpenes are the major components of the cannabis plant that when smoked or eaten produce the weed 'high' effect. THC and CBD are exogenous cannabinoids that bind to the receptor sites usually waiting for Anandamide and your natural cannabinoids. With THC you will get a 'high' effect and with CBD an 'anti-inflamatory' effect that doesn't give a high feeling. The two do modulate each other in terms of effect. Terpenes and flavonoids provide that smell that most associate with cannabis. THC and CBD are odorless.
Lastly there is something called the Entourage effect that has been hypothesized to account for the vary effect that different strains produce based on their cannabinoid profile.
What I'm getting at is weed science has been swimming along nicely in the research world for several years. In learning about weed, scientists discovered the Endocannabinoid system that we each have within us. Currently in medical school new doctors are just now beginning to learning about this, but any doctor over the age of 45 was not trained on this system.
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