Weed: it's the gift that keeps on giving.

Contained in the hallowed, very chill leaves of the female marijuana plant are over 100 naturally occurring compounds called cannabinoids, the most famous of which are obviously THC and CBD. These two have the largest applications for medicine and recreation, and are the reason why you woke up with a cheeseburger in your pocket this morning.

But thanks to a new study, it appears that THC and CBD only make up a small, yet dank part of of the cannabinoid picture … there are actually seven more psychoactive and/ or medically functional cannabinoids present in marijuana that previously thought. Seven! That means there are now nine, yes nine, different chemicals scientists can isolate to make you laugh at your own knees or cure your depression. The legal and physiological implications of these finds are more immense than this joint:

The discovery comes from researchers at Ole Miss, whose research-grade cannabis is finally on par with that of dispensaries … meaning they can make actual, real-world claims about marijuana composition and potency.

They found that, depending on the genetic makeup of a strain of cannabis, the resinous trichomes of female plants will produce mainly THC or CBD … but there is always a diverse slew of "minor cannabinoids" that top off the mixture. In fact, researchers have discovered 104 versions of these minor varieties and were able to synthesize them chemically, but until now, no one had ever found them naturally growing in weed. And none thus far have proven to have similar effects to THC or CBD.

But, after testing some of these minor compounds on mice, they found that most of them got the mice just as high as THC did. Others had effects more similar to CBD, and others still had their own unique effects never before thought to be related to marijuana.

Think of the impact that could have on the medical marijuana world … it could lead to more diversified, encompassing treatments that could potentially be stacked or layered on top of each other to achieve a certain therapeutic effect. Or, on a stonier playing field, if scientists are able to commodify the more THC-like cannabinoids for recreational use, you may be able to alternate between cannabinoid types once you develop tolerances for certain ones. We don't know about you, but that sounds so … *sniff* … beautiful.

Weed: it's the gift that keeps on giving.