A scientist working at a lab in the Netherlands has sequenced the DNA from Cannabis Sativa, with the goal of helping other scientists research the 84 potentially medically useful cannabinoids found in marijuana. I have mixed feelings about this... sequencing the genome and giving away the info is obviously awesome, but I can't help to wonder what long term effects will be of pharmaceutical companies creating drugs from particular molecules and patenting them will be. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/201...me-in-search-of-therapeutic-highs?ft=1&f=1001
I'm sure there could be some downsides related to big pharma but that it is a risk worth taking when a valuable, life-improving medicine may result from this kind of research.
Pharmas have been working on drugs that they can patent to replace the various chemicals in weed for years. This won't change that process at all for them. The knowledge itself... any published research about weed is a good thing. It's the research that isn't published or talked about that you need to worry about.
Items like this are incredibly interesting and testament to man's glorious grip on highly advanced benficial technology! I just had a scan of the DNA sequencing wiki page in an effort to find the use in sequencing DNA and though I have no idea of the specific applications of sequenced DNA I was certainly very impressed with some of the present and future methods of sequencing. DNA nanoball sequencing sounds mind bending. So are we well and truly entering the nano age?
I'm glad they first chose cannabis sativa to sequence rather than cannabis indica. As any boomer (like my Dad) can tell you, the weed of the 60's, 70's and early 80's was almost exclusively sativa. Its effects were a lively music and sex oriented high rather than the "nailed-to-the-chair" immobility of indica. Some marijuana scholars have traced the end of the "love generation" to the arrival of c.indica in the mid 80's (partially a result of the Nixon administration's influence behind the spraying of Mexican marijuana crops (all sativa) with the poison paraquat). Sativa is a sparsely leaved plant compared to indica and so is not a desirable crop to growers. But sativa rules, believe me. Try some.
That is really good to know. My only smoking experience was way too intense for me to want to try again, but you have given me hope.
The Love generation ended in the 70's really, with the use of cocaine by many who could afford it, others using downers like Seconal,Quaaludes,etc..and so on. Hash was avialable in the 60's and 70's from India and The middle east and Asian areas, made from mostly all indica plants. Sativa and Indica crosses have created Skunk,and many, many,other powerful hybrid strains, not all are "couch lock" indica highs either..many strians of sativa dominate hybrids like AK-47 provide and enerjetic mental high, vs. the body stone of an Indica..Indica has been around in Mexico,South America,Africa,Asia for thousands of years like sativa has, most sativas were somewhat weaker in potentcy on average,and crossing them with an indica strain gave both an increase in THC% ,but also an increase in the harvested yields weight wise..lol..Coke killed the love generation long before the 80's, and indica was around before that time as well..lol..just depends on the source and the grower..lol..not all sativas are sparsely leaved plants like you may think uncaff, I have seen sativa plants in the past that were well over 12 feet tall, and full of buds!! Don't listen to so called marijuana scholars telling you the love generation was ended in the 80's by weed, it was basicly ended by hard drugs and so on..the spraying by Nixon was in Mexico, hardly the only or the best source for weed in the early 70's, when the spraying was done, which only went on a few years tops..Hawaii, Jamaica,Colombia,Panama,South Eastern Asian nations, growers in the US, esp. in Cali.. who were growing sinsemilla on a larger scale for the first time in the US, like that and so on..Blame the Me generation of the 70's and 80's and all the excess of coke use and ludes and so on..don't blame indica for all the shit done by other drugs and politics for ruining something that was for all purposes dead, as a widescale thing=the love generation!!
^^^ Good points fo sho. Word, point well taken. Thanks for that. I didn't realize how many things had come from that process. I didn't mean that it's all bad, but, I fear the power of big pharma outfits mounting an assault on med mj by saying "looky here, we got this shit that works just as good and it's pharmacuetical so you know you can trust it".
Considering that their stance has been, "We don't have anything that is even close to being as good as mj, but we're working on it" as a basis for making and keeping it illegal, you should already fear them.
It already exists and has very few side effects, and you can grow it yourself, THAT is the MAIN reason pharmaceutical companies are looking into synthetic replacements, $$$$$$$$$$$$ is the motivating force behind the research. Don't fool yourself into thinking it is anything else. As far as what ended the "love-generation" of the '70's, I think it is actually pretty safe to say it was two things, Reagan and AIDS.
