US Federal Government Bought a Ton of Marijuana for Research for First Time Ever
cannabis.net
cannabis.net
The differing effects between strains you and many others experience is partly expectation, but mostly the fact that different cultivars produce those same chemicals but in different ratios.
The easiest experiment to try for one's self is to include CBD isolate with the next bowl you smoke - it will substantially alter the character of the high, reducing couch lock and making things a little less sedate.
There's no clear distinction between sativa and indica as such. Different varieties of plants created by weed farmers aren't identifiable as separate species or so on, it's a consequence of epigenetic diversity within a single species of plant.
Paying attention to the different ratios of psychoactives in your favored weed is the information you need to select new varieties. Because of the way breeding products has happened, there's a loose similarity between things marked as one or the other, but sativa and indica strain categories aren't very useful beyond that.
True? I don't know why he'd have made this up.