Northern Berry (Cannabis flos S-LAB): lineage from Northern Lights #5 and Blueberry

What is Northern Berry and where does this strain come from?

Northern Berry is a cross between Northern Lights #5 and Blueberry, described consistently by three independent catalog services and seed producers. It is supplied to Polish pharmacies by one manufacturer, S-LAB. The base genetics are described inconsistently: sometimes as a hybrid, sometimes as a hybrid with an indica dominance. However, the lineage itself is established.

Each parent has its own place in this cluster. Northern Lights #5 is also behind the lineage of Jack Herer, and Blueberry itself is available in Polish pharmacies as a separate raw material, from two manufacturers at once. The berry component of the name refers to a specific parent, not to an association invented by the sales department.

The consistency of sources does not arise from the similarity of names. A common word in the name of two strains does not prove kinship in any direction; in this cluster, the lineage remains undetermined for twenty-five cultivars out of eighty-five. Northern Berry does not belong to this group, as the parents are provided independently by the breeder's catalog, a cultivation journal service, and the Polish database of pharmacy strains.

The lineage describes the line, not a specific batch from the pharmacy. The same name may be used by different breeders with slightly different starting material, and the registration designation of the raw material does not refer to it in any way. Thus, the record about the parents indicates where the strain originated as a breeding idea, not what exactly is in the package issued from the pharmacy.

Which manufacturers supply Northern Berry to Polish pharmacies?

One: S-LAB. In our list of pharmacy items, this strain has only one variant, so there is nothing to compare between manufacturers. The raw material is traded under the registration designation without a commercial component, and the term Northern Berry appears only in the descriptions of wholesalers and catalog services.

The table does not contain two things that could not be maintained in it for long. The first is current availability: permits and deliveries shift at a pace that neither side can keep up with, and at the time of data collection, one of the databases marked this item as unavailable. The second is the price comparison, conducted solely in the compilation of available strains, so it does not age in dozens of places at once.

The registration designation carries a number, and that is a separate trap. The full record includes the declared THC content and the upper limit of CBD, but both of these values are declarations from the producer with an allowed deviation, not the result of testing that batch received by the patient. Therefore, we provide the name without the numerical part and the content separately as a range. We dedicate a separate entry to the producer about S-LAB.

A separate category is hemp flower sold without a prescription, which in our store is listed in the dried flower category. These are different products than pharmacy raw materials, with a different purpose, and we do not mix them here with what a doctor prescribes.

What does Northern Berry smell and taste like?

Descriptions converge on a berry and fruity note, with an earthy background and a citrus accent. However, all come from catalog descriptions, not from measuring a specific batch. The aroma of the dried flower also shifts with the batch, the storage conditions, and the time that has passed since harvest.

The aroma is due to terpenes, and here two Polish databases differ in composition. They agree on caryophyllene, myrcene, and linalool. Further sets diverge: one database adds limonene, while the other lists farnesene, humulene, nerolidol, ocimene, pinene, and terpinolene. For the reader, this means that there is no single list of terpenes for this strain, only two lists with a common core.

For none of these names do we assign a number expressed in percentages. The reason is arithmetic: when summing the values that Polish databases assign to individual terpenes in one entry, the result falls below half, while in another it reaches four-fifths. Since the total sometimes comes out smaller and sometimes larger, each source divides by a different number, and nowhere is that divisor revealed. Such a fraction presented in the description of the drug pretends to be the result of testing.

The scent itself does not predict how the raw material will act. Caryophyllene is sometimes described as peppery, but what has been shown about it pertains to the CB2 receptor and pain models in mice, not taste sensations. We break this down separately in the entry about kariofilenie.

How long does it take for Northern Berry to take effect and how long does the effect last?

It depends not on the strain itself, but on the method of administration. No separate measurement for Northern Berry has been published, so the ranges below describe vaporization and oral administration in general. The declared THC content does not resolve anything here: it speaks to the potency of a single dose, not the duration over time.

The route of administration determines the course more than the variety itself. After vaporization, the substance passes from the lungs to the blood almost immediately, so the first sensations appear after a few minutes, the intensity increases for another ten to thirty minutes, and the whole effect lasts for two to four hours. After ingestion, the raw material first passes through the intestine and liver, so the first sensations are awaited from half an hour to two hours, and the episode can last six, sometimes eight hours. Hence the most common mistake with oral administration: anyone who thinks nothing is happening after thirty minutes and takes another dose will receive both doses at once. The above ranges describe the route of administration, not this variety; pharmacokinetic studies for a single cultivar have not been published.

The lineage does not change anything here, nor does the profile composition. Neither of the two databases describing Northern Berry provides a measurement of the duration of effects, and such measurements simply do not exist in publicly available materials.

What is known, and what is not known about the effects of this strain?

It is known what isolated caryophyllene does in two studies on mice. It is not known what this dried flower does in humans: studies are conducted for a medicinal product with a batch number, not for the strain name. The rest of the circulating descriptions are catalog material and patient reports.

The first study was published in 2008 by the Gertsch team in PNAS, and it concerned binding to the receptor. (E)-caryophyllene selectively bound to the CB2 receptor (Ki = 155 nM) and inhibited carrageenan-induced paw swelling in wild-type mice, but not in CB2 receptor knockout mice (Cnr2-/-), indicating a CB2-dependent mechanism; the study did not include any anxiety tests. The paper is listed in the database under PMID 18574142.

The second study, from 2014, appeared in European Neuropsychopharmacology and concerned pain. Oral caryophyllene reduced the late inflammatory phase of pain in the formalin test in a CB2 receptor-dependent manner, with no effect on the early phase; in a neuropathic pain model, it alleviated thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia without developing tolerance with chronic administration. This is listed under PMID 24210682.

The limitations of these results are as important as the results themselves. In neither of the two studies was caryophyllene tested on humans or in inhaled form from dried flower; both papers concern oral or systemic administration in mice in pain and inflammation models, not sleep or mood.

Separately stands what the commercial description states: relaxing and balanced effects. This is a seller's declaration, not a measurement result, and we treat it as such in this text.

What side effects have been reported for this strain?

None specifically for it. Safety monitoring in Poland is conducted from the perspective of the product with a batch number, and the trade name of the strain is not a unit of account in this system. The following paragraph therefore describes hemp dried flower as a group of raw materials, not this single cultivar. This applies to every item in the summary, not just this one.

Reports of adverse effects are collected for medicinal products with a batch number, not for the strain name, so the following pertains to hemp dried flower as a group of raw materials. The most frequently reported symptoms are dry mouth, red eyes, and increased heart rate. Dizziness upon rapid standing, daytime drowsiness, and temporary worsening of short-term memory are less frequently described, as well as anxiety that increases with dosage. A separate issue is medications taken concurrently, especially sedatives and those affecting coagulation: their assessment requires knowledge of the entire list of preparations, not just the description of the plant. We do not provide the frequency of these symptoms numerically, as public compilations for hemp dried flower in Poland do not separate them by individual products.

The lack of reports publicly described under the name Northern Berry is not a sign that this raw material is milder than others. It is a sign of how the registry was constructed.

What does temperature change during the vaporization of this strain?

Less than popular tables promise. Caryophyllene, the leading terpene in this profile, boils at a higher temperature than more volatile terpenes, but vaporization does not start only at the boiling point. The method of taking the raw material is determined by the attending physician, and the dried flower is dispensed by prescription, not chosen according to a table found online.

The numbers in the table are boiling points recorded in the public PubChem database along with the pressure at which they were measured, and only together do they mean anything. Humulene has a lower record there than any other terpene from this profile, but it comes from a measurement in nearly a vacuum, so when placed in the same column as atmospheric values, it is a falsehood, not a rounding. For Farnesene, the database does not provide a boiling point at all, and for Nerolidol and Ocimene, the pressure is missing, without which the numbers cannot be compared to anything.

Vaporization does not have a threshold for activation. The terpene evaporates even below its boiling point, and the rate depends on the vapor pressure, which increases exponentially with temperature. Additionally, the vaporizer setting describes the temperature of the heating element or the air, not the dried flower itself; this difference exists, but no one has publicly measured it. We write about this in more detail in the text about the evaporation of terpenes from dried flower.

Which strains are related to Northern Berry?

One: Jack Herer. They are connected by Northern Lights #5, a common parent of both pedigrees. Aside from this kinship, the graph of this cluster does not indicate anything, and Blueberry is not a sibling, but a second parent, and it stands in Polish pharmacies as a separate entry. Siblings are counted only by a common, named parent.

Jack Herer has three parents in our graph, and only one is common. The rest of its lineage leads to haze and shiva skunk, which Northern Berry does not share. This is also evident in the profiles: for Jack Herer, our data indicates myrcene as the leading terpene, while for Northern Berry, it is caryophyllene. A separate entry is dedicated to Jack Herer.

Blueberry is a parent in this family, not a sibling, and this distinction has practical implications: a parent may be available alongside its offspring, so both positions can be found in the same wholesale. Blueberry also has its own entry, and its pedigree leads to completely different lines than the pedigree of Northern Berry.

A short list of siblings is therefore not a lack of data, but a consequence of this rule. Broad style families, such as Haze or Afghani, do not create kinships because they are a category, not a single plant; if they were counted, half of the cluster would be siblings of the other half, and the word itself would cease to mean anything.

Frequently asked questions about Northern Berry

Is Northern Berry an indica strain?

It depends on which source you read. One describes it as a hybrid, the other as a hybrid with indica dominance. Such a label is a descriptive category, not a result of measurement, so the divergence of sources is not unusual.

How much THC does Northern Berry have?

The source provides a declared value, and the manufacturer has the right to deviation in both directions, so an honest record is a range of 19.8-24.2%. A single number on the label would suggest precision, which is not present in plant material.

Which terpene is leading in the Northern Berry profile?

Caryophyllene, but this is indicated by only one source, as it is the only one that provides the weighted order of terpenes. The second lists only the set without ranking, so Caryophyllene's precedence is based on a single description, not on two consistent measurements.

Is Northern Berry consistently available in pharmacies?

No. The list of items in wholesalers shifts along with permits and supplies, and at the time of gathering data for this text, one of the databases marked this strain as unavailable. The current status should be checked in the pharmacy, not in the strain description.

Can Northern Berry be purchased without a prescription?

No. Dried flower is a pharmaceutical raw material issued by a doctor's prescription in the Rpw category, which means that the application and method of administration are determined by the attending physician.

How does Northern Berry differ from Jack Herer?

They share one parent, Northern Lights #5, and diverge on the leading terpene: in our data for Jack Herer, it is Myrcene, while for Northern Berry, it is Caryophyllene. Additionally, Jack Herer is available in pharmacies from two manufacturers, while Northern Berry is from one.

Hemp dried flower is a pharmaceutical raw material dispensed by a doctor's prescription in the Rpw category. The material is for informational purposes only and does not replace the advice of a doctor or pharmacist. Editorial text: redakcja ubucha.pl.